1 66 



Canadian Forestry Journal, 



After they have reduced forest fire 

 losses to the minimum, the next stage of 

 the State foresters will be the inauguration 

 of conservation methods in the handling 

 of State timber, just as the Federal Forest 

 Service has done. This will also include re- 

 forestation, which only the state and the 

 nation alone can afford to undertake. 

 State foresters will also be called upon to 

 assist in the classification of lands suitable 

 for the growing of trees as distinguished 

 from agricultural lands. People are begin- 

 ning to realize that it is a crime to put 

 deluded settlers upon lands from which 

 they reap misery and starvation instead of 

 wealth and happiness. Hence, there will be 

 a field for the professional forester in 

 State work before there is an opening for 

 him in private undertakings. 



The Forest Taxation Problem. 



Some timber owners are beginning to 

 ask if it is not possible to put the forest 

 upon a permanently paying basis by utiliz- 

 ing its productive power. In endeavoring 

 to figure out what must be done in order 

 that timber may be handled upon scientific 

 forestry principles, lumbermen are confront- 

 ed with the fact that the present system 

 of taxation is an absolute barrier against 

 the adoption of any forestry methods what- 

 ever. And here I will make a distinction 

 between reforestation and conservative lum- 

 bering. Lumbermen believe that cut-over 

 lands and lands not suitable for agricul- 

 ture must be planted, if at all, by the 

 State and National Governments. It is a 

 work which cannot be considered by the 

 present generation of business men as a 

 profitable enterprise or investment, simply 

 because in most species of timber the re- 

 turns to be expected are inadequate and 

 wholly problematical. The length of time 

 required to plant and mature a crop of 

 trees is too great to interest Americans. 

 The State lives on, while individuals perish. 

 The State can borrow money at two per 

 cent., while the individual must pay five 

 or six per cent., and while the individual 

 must pay taxes in some form or other, the 

 State is exempt. The actual planting of 

 trees, therefore, is for the benefit of future 

 generations, and must be done by the State. 



Conservative logging, as lumbermen un- 

 derstand it, means the cutting of virgin 

 timber so that the forest may perpetuate 

 itself. This may involve the cutting of 

 trees of certain species by diameter limit, 

 the leaving of seed trees, leaving stands 

 of young trees where under certain condi- 

 tions their increase in size will be an ele- 

 ment worth reckoning, the protection of 

 watersheds, the cutting of timber for the 

 creation of fire lines, ascertaining the rate 

 of growth of different species in different 

 localities, knowledge of the exact relation 

 between the forest growth and timber con- 

 sumption, etc. All these will have to be 

 worked out by the technical forester. Tho^e 



conditions vary in every locality and with 

 every kind of timber and with the chang- 

 ing conditions of the lumber market. 



In consulting the forester about conser- 

 vative methods of logging, lumbermen find 

 that the cost will be very greatly enhanced 

 over present costs, and they are confronted 

 with the question of what kind of tax they 

 can pay and still leave a reasonable mar- 

 gin for the investment and risk. Scientific 

 forestry must present some inducement as 

 a business investment or it never will be 

 undertaken. It is useless to expect men 

 to look at it in any other light. It is evi- 

 dent that there will have to be a radical 

 change in the present methods of taxation, 

 and here again the public must be edu- 

 cated by the forester. He alone can show 

 the people that there can be no real pro- 

 gress toward conservation so long as the 

 present system of taxation remains in 

 vogue. It is the most important question 

 before the lumbermen to-day and will some 

 day be one of the most important before 

 the nation. 



While many thinking people recognize the 

 truth of this statement, it is to be re- 

 gretted that up to this time the public gen- 

 erally has opposed any change in present 

 methods of taxing timber lands. If the 

 enthusiastic conservationists expect lumber- 

 men to preserve their trees they must meet 

 them on their own ground and show more 

 of a spirit of harmonious co-operation than 

 has so far been manifested. It is plainly 

 to the interest of the foresters to show the 

 people that so long as the forests con- 

 tinue to be taxed on the basis of an 

 annual crop, holding young trees until they 

 reach maturity means financial loss to any- 

 one who attempts it. Such methods of 

 taxation are in the end ruinous to the 

 community alf-o, for they encourage devas- 

 tation and abandonment to the State of 

 lands that thereafter yield no revenue either 

 in the form of products or taxes. 



At the present time the important mat- 

 ter of the taxes to be levied against tim- 

 ber lands rests entirely in the hands of the 

 local assessors, whose only ambition seems 

 to be to get the largest amount of money 

 they can collect from the owners of tim- 

 ber in their counties. They hold that the 

 more taxes lumbermen are required to pay 

 the faster they will cut their timber, hence, 

 the larger operations they will conduct, the 

 more men they will employ, and the more 

 quickly will the country be opened for set- 

 tlement. 



Timber is now taxed under the general 

 property tax system, the same as most other 

 forms of wealth. Assessments are usually 

 made by men having no special qualifica- 

 tion for the work. In some localities ef- 

 forts are made to cruise or estimate the 

 timber, but knowledge as to the amount and 

 value of timber on certain pieces of land 

 i !j«ne:a]lv gained from second-hand evi- 

 '(>!,! o (»r bv very superficia' e' ainination of 



