THE STATE'S RESPONSIBILITY IN A FOREST PROGRAM 



BY J. W. TOUMEY 



DEAN. SCHOOL OF FORESTRY. YALE UNIVERSITY 



IT IS now nearly two years since Mr. Graves, then at 

 the head of the U. S. Forest Service, in a series of ad- 

 dresses throughout the country, initiated the discussion 

 on forest policy which has since been almost constantly 

 before the public. This discussion on natural and state 

 forest policy and the wide spread publicity which fol- 

 lowed have been of far-reaching importance to American 

 forestry. Not only foresters but the timber consuming 

 public appreciate more fully than heretofore that the 

 present situation presents a most discouraging outlook for 

 future timber supplies and for permanency in land utili- 

 zation without a radical change in our forest policy. We 

 are beginning to realize that provision for a continuous 

 and sufficient supply of timber, carrying with it the bring- 

 ing of permanent populations on nearly a third of our land 

 area is a great, far-reaching social and economic problem 

 which must be worked out. by the present generation. 

 This realization emphasized by the discussion and publici- 

 ty of the past two years has caused two bills to be in- 

 troduced in Congress, namely the Snell Bill and the Cap- 

 per Bill. Both of these bills have the same object in view. 

 The purpose of each is to provide adequate machinery 

 to insure a continuous and sufficient future supply of tim- 

 ber for the needs of the nation. Each proposes, but by 

 different methods, the management of private as well as 

 public forests so as to secure the renewal of the forest 

 crop. Both bills recognize that our future timber supply 

 is threatened and that present wasteful methods of log- 

 ging and neglect of cut over forest land must cease. 



I take it, that the underlying reasoning back of the 

 origin of both bills rests essentially in our land problem : 

 in the appreciation that a sane and healthy national life 

 rests more largely in the full and best utilization of the 

 land than in all else combined ; in the appreciation that 

 the greatest gift that present society can bestow upon 

 future generations is a land policy established in law that 

 insures a permanent supply of raw materials that grow 

 out of the soil. 



The depletion of our forest resources has come through 

 our failure, while using the reserves in our virgin for- 

 ests, in not producing more timber through growth on 

 areas that have been cut over in the past and on areas 

 where the old growth has been destroyed by fire. The 

 checking of this depletion and the building up of an ade- 

 quate forest capital for our future needs rests in stopping 

 devastation in future lumbering operations that regrowth 

 may be rapidly attained and in the .reforestation of pres- 

 ent denuded and partially stocked areas. 



To what extent will one or the other of the two bills 

 now before Congress, if enacted into law, promote re- 

 growth and reforestation ? 



The Capper Bill by giving direct power to the Secretary 

 of .Agriculture to control the methods of lumbering 

 throughout the country, irrespective of state authority. 



would if adequately executed, stop forest devastation as 

 we now know it and promote regrowth following lum- 

 bering operation. This bill, however, would be almost 

 negligible in promoting reforestation or the bringing of 

 lumber crops again on the vast areas now denuded or 

 only partially stocked with mostly inferior species but 

 which, in the future, must again produce a considerable 

 part of our timber requirements. 



In my judgment the bill is inadequate, in that it pro- 

 vides for regrowth only after future timbering. The 

 public and the states are generally opposed to national 

 regulatory laws governing private forests so long as there 

 is reasonable hope that efTective results can be attained 

 through state action. Unless, however, the states awaken 

 to their great responsibility in checking destructive lum- 

 bering within their own borders and in the reforestation 

 of the vast areas rendered idle and waste by past prac- 

 tices, the nation will be forced into legislation even 

 more sweeping than that embodied in the present Capper 

 bill. 



What we do with the remnant of existing stands, how 

 conservatively we log them, how successful we are in 

 attaining regrowth after fellings will not give us for all 

 time an annual output of wood as great as our present 

 consumption. The great importance of our 137 million 

 acres of virgin growth that remain uncut and on which 

 three- fourths of our commercial timber now stands is to 

 tide the nation over the next thirty to fifty years while 

 we are organizing, stocking and developing those vaster 

 areas that destructive lumbering and uncontrolled fires 

 have so injured and destroyed that they are now pro- 

 ducing in annual growth but a mere fraction of their 

 possible yield and that mostly of very inferior kinds and 

 quality. 



Although there is no inherent reason why we cannot 

 produce through growth as much wood annually as we 

 now consume, is can not be done without a far-reaching, 

 constructive forest program liberally supported by the 

 public. 



No nation has yet accomplished the task that we face 

 through private initiative and enterprise. No country has 

 been able to place forestry on a sound basis without laws 

 which regulate operations on private forests except in 

 those cases where there is a large public ownership of 

 forest property. With four fifths of American forests 

 privately owned some form of public control of operations 

 on private forests appears essential. 



Forest crops are long time, low interest bearing invest- 

 ments. They do not appeal to the private land owner. 

 We cannot expect that the reforestation and protection 

 of all classes of forest property now privately owned will 

 or can be assumed by the owners. Yet, if we carry 

 through a policy of reforestation and protection at all 



