A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 965 



GROWING-STOCK CONDITIONS 



No detailed stand tables are at hand for any of the stands in 

 this region. The general condition of the growing stock can be 

 inferred from what has already been stated in describing the history 

 of cutting operations. The areas formerly occupied by coniferous 

 forests now have very poor stands of aspen and other inferior species. 

 The growing stock in the remaining northern hardwood forests 

 possesses considerable similarity to the growing stock in hardwood 

 forests in the Middle Atlantic and New England States (see fig. 

 18), except that in the latter regions more or less cutting has been 

 going on in most stands. In the Lake States the hardwood forests 

 are in general being cut over for the first time, except that on some 

 areas white pine intermingled with other species was removed long 

 ago. Most observers agree that for this reason larger tree sizes 

 are to be found and the product is perhaps somewhat higher in 

 quality than that taken from the forests of the same species in the 

 northeastern region. 



FUTURE PROSPECTS FOR PRIVATE FORESTRY 



Mr. Raphael Zon, who has given a great deal of thought to present 

 and future forest conditions in the Lake States, predicts (30) that 

 about 6 million acres in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota will 

 eventually be put under rather intensive private forestry manage- 

 ment. Mr. Zon estimates that only 14,200,000 acres of additional 

 forest will be placed under intensive management in Federal, State, 

 and county ownership within the near future. This will leave 

 39,600,000 acres in all classes of ownership under nonin tensive 

 management. According to this estimate, prospects for the re- 

 establishment of large forest production in the region in the im- 

 mediate future are not particularly good. It appears that the region, 

 having a large resident population and being close to other great 

 centers of population, will for some time constitute a large market 

 for the forest products of other regions. 



Most of the forest area in this region represents, from the forest- 

 productive standpoint, an example of conditions discussed earlier in 

 this section, wherein practically all the capital required for forest 

 production has been removed. On huge areas not more than 1 to 5 

 percent of the necessary capital (inclusive of the value of the land) 

 is present. To restore production on these areas will require not only 

 heavy money investments but a considerable period of time. The 

 region is confronted with a forest-reclamation project of great mag- 

 nitude. 



The forests of aspen and other inferior species are an example of 

 impoverished resources such as Americans have not yet had to deal 

 with on many areas. Where a resource has been brought into such 

 a condition but a population remains to live from it, both labor and 

 capital must operate on a reduced scale of income if at all until the 

 resource is restored. On the other hand, owing to the near exhaustion 

 of the forests in the Lake States, local forest industries are relieved of 

 competition to the approximate extent of freight rates from the 

 Pacific Northwest or to the South. It is essential both to the eco- 

 nomic and to the social well-being of the region that large forest areas 



