245 million acres of forest land in the United States 

 which contains cull or second growth timber or 

 which are more or less completely stocked with young 

 trees. That is nearly double the acreage of our re- 

 maining virgin forests. A large part of it lies in our 

 thickly populated industrial States, within a stone's 

 throw of the large centers of timber consumption. 

 These 245 million acres of second growth and young 

 timber may well represent a forest asset of the United 

 States of greater value than our remaining virgin 

 forests and upon their protection rests very largely 

 our ability to bridge over the gap when virgin timber 

 ceases to be an important factor in the yearly cut of 

 forest products. The protection of these 245 million 

 acres from fire is in my judgment the most import- 

 ant single forestry problem before the United States 

 today. When you add to that the necessity of pro- 

 tecting our remaining stands of old timber and our 

 enormous areas of land logged off and now being 

 logged w r here protection alone will start young 

 growth, it is difficult to place too much emphasis 

 upon the primary importance of controlling forest 

 fire as the first specific objective we set out to ac- 

 complish. Until the fire hazard has been brought un- 

 der substantial control, regulation of cutting methods 

 at the best will be ineffective and precarious. I am 

 convinced, therefore, that the immediate form which 

 public forestry efforts should take and the authority 

 through which it acts should be such as will most ef- 

 fectively handle the forest fire problem. And this 

 brings me again to the State as the governmental 

 agency under whose authority the work must be done 



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