Canadian Forestry Journal, Jul^, 1919 



301 



PUBLIC NECESSITY AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 



Canada Concerned in Principles Underlying 



American Efforts to Establish National 



Forest Policy. 



Great interest and some alarm has been created 

 in the United States by a proposal of Henry 

 S. Graves, Chief Forester, that through Federal 

 and State co-operation a national forest policy 

 should be designed sufficient to place the na- 

 tion's timber resources on a basis of sustained 

 yield. The point of maximum friction, ob- 

 viously, is that of proposed state interference 

 with the handling of privately owned wood- 

 lands. Mr. Graves' tentative plan declines to 

 allow the private owner any compensation for 

 expenses incurred in carrying out a programme 

 of constructive forestry. He allows compensa- 

 tion, however, in special cases where the timber 

 must be kept standing for watershed protection, 

 or maintained for a long period as a reserve, 

 or destroyed as a preventive of insect depreda- 

 tions. 



To all of which Mr. R. S. Kellogg, a former 

 member of the Forest Service and now secretary 

 of the Newsprint Service Bureau, makes an em- 

 phatic reply of which this is a part: 

 "Forestry Must Pay." 

 "It seems to me that the time has come 

 when the professional foresters of the United 

 States should be frank enough to acknowledge 

 what those who have had practical experience 

 saw long ago, namely, that the growing of large 

 sized timber of ordinary commercial species 

 is an operation too long in time, too hazardous 

 in risk, and too low in rate of return to attract 

 private capital, and that an attempt, national 

 or state, to force private capital by legal enact- 

 ment to engage in undertakings that are not pro- 

 fitable is doomed to failure. Forestry must be 

 economically sound or it will not succeed." 



Mr. Kellogg then suggests taking a timber 

 census and land classification, the wider pur- 

 chase of cut-over lands, the acquisition of a re- 

 serve supply of timber in the West, and better 

 fire protection. In general, however, Mr. Kel- 

 logg advises against any mandatory action re- 

 specting management of private woodlands 

 which, it is important to note, constitute four- 

 fifths of the United States timber assets. 

 The Feeling in Canada. 



Mr. Kellogg's criticism is not unlike what is 



commonly heard in Canada in respect to any 

 state interference with old-established logging 

 methods that in certain places and in certain 

 particulars may be the very antidote of con- 

 servation. In Canada, however, one finds pro- 

 gressive lumbermen and paper manufacturers 

 ooenly critical of such ill-working blanket regu- 

 lations as is involved in the diameter limit and 

 not at all unwilling to adopt improved methods 

 if only they are made mandatory and at least 

 province-wide. Local forestry, patchy conser- 

 vation, has taken no hold whatever in Canada, 

 nor can it get far anywhere. 



Many Canadians have said, after Mr. Kel- 

 logg's manner, "Forestry must be economically 

 sound to succeed. Forestry must pay." This 

 is open to a dozen interpretations. Is a cutting 

 system that makes a tidy fortune for a jobber 

 and yet so exhausts a timber tract as to close 

 down an industrial town, economically sound? 

 It is sound indeed, within the limited sense of 

 the jobber's economy. It is quite unsound, 

 and politically crazy, as a community enter- 

 prise. Whose economic soundness is to receive 

 first consideration? Apparently, the head of 

 the United States Forest Service makes the se- 

 curity of the state his starting point. No doubt 

 Mr. Kellogg also would subscribe to that. The 

 rest is a matter of method. Mr. Graves inclines 

 towards legislative compulsion, believing that 

 twenty years of educational method have not 

 affected conditions on private-owned lands and 

 t'^at while logging methods may be uncomfort- 

 ably regulated, the changed order will be uni- 

 form, and therefore acceptable. 



Agreed on Need of Survey. 



Mr. Kellogg calls for a preliminary timber 

 survey. In all probability there is no better 

 way of reaching a common ground for accur- 

 ate discussion, whether as concerns United 

 States or Canadian forest management. 



One cannot fail to appreciate the intricacies 

 of any American effort to govern the conversion 

 of timber values on lands that have been com- 

 pletely alienated from public control. Many of 

 the title deeds have been transferred again and 

 again. To impose regulations deferring the cut- 



