Forest Reserves— Their Object 



By Q1PFORD PINCHOT, Ualted State* Per*«tcr 



THE need and use of the National forest reserves are best understood 

 in the light of our country's rapid industrial growth. 

 Economy is the characteristic virtue of maturer age; extrava- 

 gance the most familiar of the faults of youth. The same is true of life 

 of countries; a youthful land takes but scant thought of the morrow, 

 and spends its riches freely in its careless confidence and strong 

 hope. It was not the conservative caution of the colonists that so rapidly 

 made possible independence of the mother country, but it was their 

 sturdy self-reliance and unsparing energy, which placed every natural re- 

 source under tribute and created riches. The symbols of their work and 

 mission were the rifle and the woodsman's ax; the one to assert mastery 

 over living creatures, the other to conquer the forest. The rifle protected 

 the home; the ax built it of hewed trees and made about it a clearing 

 on which to raise the crops. 



In the early struggles of the colonists the forest was an enemy to be 

 fought. A little later it took on the shape of a barrier to westward expan- 

 sion. Generations were necessary before it could become what it now 

 is, a commercial resource whose products rival in value those of the farm 

 and of the mine. But the forest resources of our country were not limit- 

 less. Their measure, long so vague and apparently still so vast, may 

 yet be taken. The striking rise in stumpage prices, now generally familiar, 

 and the steady, though less conspicuous, rise in the prices of wood products, 

 are sure signs that the forest is being overtaxed, utilized beyond its yield. 

 The time has come when the unrestrained and wasteful use of the forest, 

 if pushed much farther, must make certain the dangerous depletion of our 

 forest wealth. 



The purpose of the National forest reserves is three-fold, embracing 

 the needful control of stream-flow, grazing and timber supply. The rela- 

 tive importance of these considerations varies with the economic role which 

 the reserve plays in the region in which it lies. 



One of these objects is to insure, by timely economy in the adminis- 

 tration of the forested public lands, a perpetual supply of timber for home 

 industries. While it is fully understood that by far the greater part of our 

 forest land is now and will remain in private hands, it is of the utmost 

 importance to preserve by wise use those public forests which still remain 

 in the hands of the Government. 



Not a little misconception on the part of the public followed the in- 

 auguration of the Federal forest-reserve policy. When the first reserves 

 were proclaimed, the idea very widely prevailed that they were to be, as 

 it were, locked up; that a reserve forest was not for use, and that the 

 growth of communities near them would be hampered by lack of wood for 

 their needs. The West, particularly, was alarmed, believing that its de- 

 velopment was threatened. It is true that this opposing sentiment was not 

 always disinterested or sincere. The Federal laws for the encouragement 

 of settlement offered loopholes through which many claims were success- 

 fully made in violation of their spirit. By those who had selfishly taken ad- 

 vantage of these too lax provisions, or who hoped to take advantage of 

 them, all measures in favor of the common good were naturally fought. 

 But there did exist a good deal of honest misapprehension, which only time 

 and a better knowledge of the true reserve policy could remove. 



A second object of the reserves is the preservation of the forest cover 

 where it is needed to regulate the flow of streams. Many of the reserves 

 lie about the headwaters of streams which supply large areas with the 

 water needed for irrigation. This is true, for instance, in marked degree of 

 California. Fortunately, but little argument is necessary, where irrigation 

 is the condition of prosperity, to prove the need, the priceless value, of the 



