FOREST FIRES A NATIONAL PROBLEM 



683 



THE EXPLOITATION OF THE FOREST 



America's vast forests, exploited with lavish indifference and left unprotected without thought of the morrow, are nearing a 



point of exhaustion which spells disaster. 



It has been repeatedly said that the kernel of the whole 

 forestry problem is fire protection. What use to talk 

 about the conservative cutting of timber, or of reforesta- 

 tion, unless we first provide adequate preventive meas- 

 ures against fires? If our idle forest lands could be put 

 to work growing trees, and fire kept out, they would pro- 

 duce all the timber that the country needs. Instead, we 

 go merrily on our way, allowing the waste lands to be 



devastated, and using what little timber we have left 

 faster than it is being replaced by new growth. In so do- 

 ing, we are not only damaging the present, but literally 

 burning up the future. 



"What of it?" You may never know the answer, but 

 your children and your children's children will some day 

 most surely pay the price for the present extravagance 

 and waste of natural resources by the American people. 



(Photographs not otherwise credited through the courtesy of the U, S. Forest Service) 



MAN! 



The tree had grown for a hundred years 



Shading the grateful soil 

 A man cut it down in half a day 



And groaned because of his toil. 



The coal slept long in the earth's dark depths 



Covered with fern and flower 

 A man dug it out with the stroke of a pick 



And burned it all in an hour. 



The oil lay hid in its deep down well 



Gift of the Pliocene past 

 A man used it up in the wink of an eye 



To run his auto fast! 



O merciless man with the gifts of the gods 



And this means you and me 

 If you stay not your hand from its careless course 



What will the harvest be ? 



DON C. SEITZ 



