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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Much was made by the Interior Secretary of the fact 

 that there are large areas of non-timbered lands in the 

 National Forests. This is a thread-bare species of ar- 

 gimient which has been made use of in practically every 

 attack upon the National Forests. Anyone who is fa- 

 miliar with western mountain topography knows that 

 there are treeless areas interspersed among the forests. 

 Nature did not clothe the rocky mountain tops above 

 timber line or the south slopes with timber. As to tlie 

 areas at lower elevation, Secretary Fall nr.ght have en- 

 lightened the public by explaining, for example, that 

 the Nebraska Forest, which probably contains less tim- 

 ber than any other National Forest, was established for 

 the express purpose of reforestation by planting, and 

 this the Forest Service is doing with marked success. 



He might have explained that the Forest containing 



the largest non-timbered area is the Tonto National 

 Forest in the Southwest, and that this area was added 

 a few years ago at the express request of the Department 

 of the Interior to protect the watershed of the reservoir 

 created by the Roosevelt Dam, upon which the great 

 scope of country, including Phoenix and the Salt River 

 Valley of Arizona, is dependent for its water. 



The second largest addition of treeless land. Secretary 

 Fall might have explained, was made by Congress to the 

 Modoc Forest, in California, under pressure from the 

 citizens of that state, who, exasperated by the failure of 

 the Department of the Interior to regulate grazing on 

 this land, demanded that it be placed under the jurisdic- 

 tion of the Forest Service. Secretary Fall should know- 

 that in practically every case "there's a reason" why 

 these non-timbered areas are in the National Forests. 



NEED OF A LAND POLICY FOR NORTHERN "CUTOVERS 







OECOGNITION of common interest and common 

 '* problems in utilizing the 45,000,000 acres of cut-over 

 land in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin has brought 

 into being a cooperative effort of almost unlimited possi- 

 bilities in putting this empire of idle acres to its most 

 productive use. This effort is expressed in the Tri-State 

 Development Congress, an organization sponsored on a 

 public service platform by representatives of the State 

 universities and other state agencies and by individuals 

 and organizations interested in the preservation and de- 

 velopment of the states' land resources. 



The Congress stands for more than the development 

 of cut-over land. At its meeting in Milwaukee early in 

 March it advocated a definite program of principles in 

 which it took a stand on the preservation of existing for- 

 ests, of game and fish and of the remaining recreational 

 resources of these three states. The principles relating 

 to forestry appear elsewhere in this issue of AMERICAN 

 FORESTRY. 



Anyone who sat through the deliberations of this Con- 

 gress and listened to the diversified subjects presented 

 could not fail to wonder why certain things which ob- 

 viously ought to be done in the Lake States, are not done. 

 Here, available to the markets of the world, are forty- 

 five million acres of unused and uncared-for American 

 soil, an area so large in the aggregate that the average 

 mind cannot comprehend its vastness or its potential 

 richness. Millions of acres are suitable for cultivation. 

 Millions of acres are suitable for growing forests a crop 

 which yields wood, wood products, recreation, wild life 

 and summer tourists. In addition there are several mil- 

 lion acres in their natural forested state, which are being 

 lumbered rapidly and ruthlessly, adding more loafing 

 and unsightly acres to the already staggering total. 



A few hundred thousand of these acres are being re- 

 claimed each year by settlers but not enough to offset even 

 the reduced area now cut over annually by the lumber- 

 men. The remainder of it is for the most part the i)rey 

 of fires which consume valuable young growth and burn 

 (lilt the soil fertility. Year after year this process of 



cutting the forests clean and of burning the cutover 

 areas has gone on. It is still going on and the people 

 of the Lake States are forced more and more to send to 

 Oregon and Washington for lumber which nature, with 

 a little encouragement, will grow for them almost at their 

 very doors. The wild life of the states is vanishing. Rec- 

 reational areas are becoming scarcer and that at the be- 

 ginning of an era when they can be capitalized to great 

 advantage. Stripping of timber from the shores of beau- 

 tiful inland lakes, which in years to come would draw 

 thousands of tourists and millions of dollars to the 

 states, goes on unabated. 



So one wonders why the people of these states do not 

 give nature a chance by providing adequate means for 

 keeping out fire, for seeing that the remaining forests 

 are cut under such regulations as will assure a second 

 growth on forest lands, for protecting the lake shores 

 and their natural recreation areas against devastation 

 and ruination, for establishing the value of these lands 

 for timber production, where this is their chief value or 

 where they will not be needed for agriculture before a 

 timber crop can be grown. It is to the states' permanent 

 interest to do this because nature will rapidly reclothe 

 many millions of these acres with timber if not dispos- 

 sessed by fire, confiscatory taxes and ignorance of the 

 handling of timberlands. 



There was a time when people from other parts of the 

 country turned to the Lake States for lumber. Today 

 conditions are reversed and the lesson is open for all to 

 read. These three states are now spending millions of 

 dollars in building magnificent road systems, which it is 

 expected will in part be written off by thousands of au- 

 tomobile tourists drawn north by good roads and the 

 call of the north woods. But unless the people of Michi- 

 gan, Minnesota and Wisconsin look better to the protec- 

 tion of their remaining forests and lakes and to the 

 reforestation of their forest lands, their tourist business 

 will go the way of their lumber business. And that, like 

 their unproductive timberlands, is of concern to the 

 whole middle west because these northern forests and 



