1588 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



resources have contributed very largely to our national development 

 and national prosperity. 



Nevertheless, we have never taken adequate steps to insure that 

 these resources will be perpetuated. Forest destruction has proceeded 

 almost without restriction. It is still going on. Our forest capital is 

 already so depleted that it seems impossible to continue production at 

 the rate of recent years. Scores of millions of acres that once pro- 

 duced good timber lie idle and nonproductive. Numerous regions, 

 although they have large areas of idle but potentially productive forest- 

 land, are dependent upon distant regions for much of the timber that 

 they use. The destruction of forest cover has caused incalculable 

 losses through erosion and silting, and has necessitated the expenditure 

 of hundreds of millions of dollars for dredging channels, constructing 

 levees, and repairing flood damages. 



If we are content to do without forests in the future, or to let them 

 degenerate into relatively worthless scrub such as already covers much 

 of the cut-over land, they will leave a void in our national economic 

 structure which it will be impossible to fill. On the other hand, by 

 restoring and maintaining these resources, we can insure that they 

 will contribute largely in the future, as in the past, to the material 

 and spiritual welfare of the Nation. 



To do this is one of the major problems before the American people. 

 There is no evidence nor any reason to suppose that it will be done 

 through individual private initiative alone. There is abundant reason 

 to believe that private initiative cannot and will not solve the problem. 

 Only coordinated effort on a national scale, with the backing and 

 leadership of Government, can adequately meet the issue. 



Such a plan is here proposed. Compared with programs that have 

 been suggested in the past, it will require large public expenditures. 

 Forest destruction has gone so far that it is too late for hit-or-miss, 

 half-way measures. Such measures would cost far more in the long 

 run, and would accomplish far less, than a broadly conceived plan 

 which coordinates all efforts and which provides for action on a scale 

 commensurate with the magnitude of the task. 



Although large expenditures will be required, it should be recog- 

 nized that a large part represents a nonrecurring capital investment, 

 which will steadily increase in value. The remainder of the costs 

 should be balanced at a relatively early date by direct money income 

 from the forests or through elimination of expenditures which would 

 be necessary if forest destruction should continue. The capital expen- 

 ditures also can eventually be liquidated through direct and indirect 

 income from the forests. Forest land, no more than farm land or a 

 factory site, cannot be kept productive without adequate investment 

 of capital. The timber capital which was already present in the virgin 

 forests has largely been liquidated or destroyed. If the American 

 people want to have the benefits of forests in the future, they will 

 have to replace a reasonable amount of this capital. 



Comparable or, in some instances, much larger public expenditures 

 have been made or are contemplated for other projects. Examples 

 are the reclamation program, the Colorado River development 

 (Hoover Dam), the Panama Canal, the St. Lawrence development, 

 Mississippi flood control, inland and coastal waterways, and subsidies 

 to shipping. Some of these are of much more limited scope and far 

 less national significance than a forestry program. The success of 



