A NATIONAL FOREST POLICY WHY AND HOW 



1051 



4. Certain questions relating to the public forests. 



As to the first of these over-production he says that 

 "the elements which caused the unstable condition of 

 the lumber industry prior to the war still remain, and 

 constitute a danger for the future." Speculative charac- 

 ter of timberland ownership, pressure to liquidate, diffi- 

 culties of financing stumpage, excess mill capacity, the 

 unorganized character of the industry, these were 

 among the factors, he declares, that led to premature 

 cutting and over-production, with its depression, losses, 

 failures, interrupted operation, intermittent employment 

 and other ills. "I do not see," says Col. Graves, "how 

 there can be a permanent basis of conservatism, stability 

 and individual strength so long as this condition exists." 



"The public is concerned because of the injury and 

 loss that accompanies demoralized industrial conditions, 

 and because under such conditions there is increased 

 waste in lumbering, protection from fire is less efficient, 

 and the difficulties in the way of forest replacement are 

 intensified. Failures that occur at such times often re- 

 sult in a transfer of lands, thereby increasing the ten- 

 dency to centralization that may operate disadvantage- 

 ous^ to the public in the long run." 



Taking up then the labor problem, this is the sum- 

 mary of the opinion: "Temporary adjustments will 

 doubtless be found, but a final solution will come, I be- 

 lieve, only with the placing of the lumber industry on a 

 basis of stability and permanence." 



Concerning waning timber supplies, the Chief For- 

 ester asserts : "We have been lulled into a feeling of se- 

 curity in recent years because we have an estimated to- 

 tal quantity of standing timber in excess of twenty-five 

 hundred billion feet. The very situation to which I 

 have referred of industrial instability due to the pressure 

 of large quantities of stumpage for production adds to 

 the impression that we have so much timber in reserve 

 that we do not need to concern ourselves about supplies 

 of forest materials." 



"Not only the public, but many economists, have 

 been misled by statistics showing the aggregate of tim- 

 ber still standing in the country. Forest depletion is 

 injurious long before the last tree is cut and long before 

 all but the last center of production is exhausted. 

 When local resources are so depleted that industries 

 close, the question of vanishing supplies takes on a new 

 significance. And this is exactly what is happening 

 in hundreds of communities. The forest supplies are 

 used up ; the chief industry, a sawmill, a box factory, or 

 a wood-working establishment closes. Subsidiary in- 

 dustries dependent on the primary undertaking have 

 to close also. And what is more, the land formerly pro- 

 ducing the timber, if non-agricultural, is left in an un- 

 productive condition and a burden for many years on 

 the community." 



Col. Graves referred to "many important wood-using 

 industries." As "already embarrassed for supplies," 

 especially acute being the situation faced by the man- 

 ufacturers of news print paper in the northeast, in 

 the Lake States and elsewhere, who had enormous 



investments in mills, water power and equipment. 



But it is not so much the amount and character of 

 timber now standing which concerns him as the produc- 

 tion of new crops. "I would have little concern about the 

 amount of timber used if we were growing new stands 

 in place of the old. We have enough non-agricultural 

 land to produce for all time timber in abundance for 

 ourselves and for export. But this would require keep- 

 ing our forests in a productive state after lumbering. 



"We are not doing that," he continues. "Our forests 

 are steadily deteriorating under cutting and fire. No ef- 

 fort is made for replacement after cutting. We are still 

 drawing for the most part on original sources of supply. 

 Failing to replace these, we are steadily losing ground. 



"The question of forest renewal and growth is one 

 that can no longer be ignored. It is not only of in- 

 terest to the public but it is of vital concern to the own- 

 ers of timberlands." 



After expressing the opinion that "the transfer of 

 great bodies of timber from public to private hands 

 was a grave mistake of public policy," although "the 

 action was taken and we can not undo it," Col. Graves 

 asserts that the problems resulting from this policy can- 

 not be ignored "and whether they like it or not the 

 private owers have the problem of the right handling 

 of a large part of our forests actually on their hands." 



"On the other hand the public has a very essential 

 interest in the question of keeping the lands in a produc- 

 ing condition so as to render a maximum of service, in 

 supporting industries and local communities, and in 

 serving to support through tax levies public enterprises 

 of various kinds. Even though the public has sur- 

 rendered its direct ownership of the timberlands, it can- 

 not afford to permit them to be handled in a way injur- 

 ious to the welfare of the community." 



The existing public forests are not extensive enough 

 or widely enough distributed to meet more than a part 

 of the public needs, the Chief Forester points out ; and 

 so "we must continue to rely in considerable part on 

 private lands, both for present supplies and for growing 

 timber for the future." 



This private ownership combined with a public re- 

 sponsibility which "has never been fully sensed or ac- 

 cepted," results in a "perplexing dilemma." "It appears 

 to me that the situation is an impossible one that cannot 

 long continue. 



"As I see it," he declares, "either private owners must 

 assume the full responsibility of properly caring for 

 their timberlands, including protection and forest re- 

 newal ; or the public must take over the responsibility 

 that it once had and surrendered; or the public must 

 share with the owners both the responsibility and the 

 burden of securing the objectives that are essential to 

 safeguard the public welfare. My own view is that the 

 last is the only fair and practical method from the stand- 

 point concerned." 



In speaking of the public forests and their needs, the 

 head of the Forest Service says that although they are be- 

 ing protected from fire, the timber being used as called 



