EDITORIAL 



YOUR NATIONAL FORESTS 



YOU, Mr. American Citizen, are a stockholder in one 

 of the greatest forest properties in the world the 

 National Forests of the United States. Your stock cer- 

 tificate is your citizenship. The National Forests are 

 owned by the public. They are administered by the For- 

 est Service, United States Department of Agriculture 

 for your benefit and for the benefit of your children and 

 your children's children. They are a God-given heri- 

 tage of the American people, created by nature working 

 through uncountable years. They have been saved from 

 private greed and despoilation by the courage of wise 

 men. Once destroyed, nature only can rebuild them. 



In view of the proposal of a few men to oust, by 

 process of political law, the National Forests from the 

 Department of Agriculture and into the Department of 

 the Interior, it is well that you, as a citizen stockholder, 

 consider what sort of a property you have and how it is 

 being developed under the stewardship of the Forest 

 Service. There are, in all, 149 National Forests, em- 

 bracing in the aggregate 156,666,045 acres, of which two 

 million acres are in the east and the remainder are in the 

 west. They are for the most part wooded and moun- 

 tainous tracts, ranging in area from a few hundred thou- 

 sand to over a million acres each. In the west they em- 

 brace the high watersheds of practically all the important 

 rivers which flow westward to the Pacific Ocean and east- 

 ward to the Mississippi River ; in the east they form por- 

 tions of the watersheds of the twenty-three important 

 rivers which drain eastward to the Atlantic Ocean or 

 westward to the Mississippi River. 



They are, first and foremost, forest lands, dedicated to 

 the continuous production of timber for the people of the 

 United States and to the protection of the nation's water 

 supply. The present market value of their timber and 

 land is over a billion dollars. Their real and potential 

 value is many times that amount because included in 

 their assets is the value of their water for agriculture, 

 navigation, water ])ower and municipal purposes ; the 

 value of their forage crop for the production of meat ; 

 the value of their rivers, forests and mountains for game 

 and recreation ; and the value of their roads, trails, cab- 

 ins and other permanent improvements, constructed In 

 the course of the business development of the properties. 

 That development, under the stewardship of the Forest 

 Service, has sought to make these National Forests of 

 greatest use and productiveness in perpetuity just as fast 

 as economic conditions permit. 



What of their timber assets? They contain 563 bil- 

 lion feet of standing timber, or (Twenty-five per cent of 

 the remaining timber in the United States. All told the 

 Natonal Forests embrace seventeen per cent of all forest 

 growing land in the United States. In addition to the 

 many millions of acres containing forests of merchantable 

 size, there are twenty million acres bearing young grow- 

 ing forests which are being protected against fire and 

 other forms of devastation so that they will produce 

 timber cro])s in the years ahead. Much of the timber on 

 the National Forests is now inaccessible, but as local de- 

 velojinient i)roceeds, the merchantable stands are made' 



available, subject to cutting regulations which will as- 

 sure continuous growth. 



An idea of the development which is taking place in 

 the timber administration of the forests is indicated by 

 the fact that during 1920, 805 million feet were cut by 

 13,272 purchasers. This is a volume increase of more 

 than 400 per cent over 1907. Investments made by pur- 

 chasers for logging and manufacturing National Forest 

 timber amount to $40,000,000, and include 1000 perma- 

 nent mills employing 30,000 wage earners. These are 

 commercial operations which turn into the treasury ot 

 the United States about two million dollars annually. 

 In addition, 25,000,000 feet are sold at cost of adminis- 

 tration to some 6,000 settlers and farmers every year and 

 over 35,000 people annually are granted free permits for 

 small amounts of timber for their own local use. The 

 present cut of timber from the National Forests, how- 

 ever, amounts to only about one-seventh of what the 

 forests are capable of supplying on a sustained yield 

 basis. As economic development makes the forests more 

 accessible and as timber on private lands becomes more 

 and more exhausted, full utilization of National Forest 

 timber will return the people of the United States even 

 at present stumpage rates a yearly revenue of $14,- 

 000,000. 



What are these Forests worth as conservators of 

 water? Their potential value is incalculable today, the ir- 

 rigated lands of the west represent an area of 13,200,000 

 acres, embracing 150,000 farms and producing annual 

 crops worth $247,000,000. Of the water used in irriga- 

 ting these lands, 85 per cent originates in the National 

 Forests. The water supply for twenty-two major irriga- 

 tion projects of the Reclamation Service comes from 

 watersheds protected by National Forests. In its sales 

 of timber the Forest Service restricts its methods of 

 cutting to those which will not injure the protective 

 value of the forest cover. Apart from the water used for 

 agriculture, 732 western cities, representing an aggregate 

 population of 2,265,000 people, depend upon National 

 Forest watersheds for their municipal water supply. So 

 important is this service of the Forests that many of the 

 municipalities have entered into cooperative agreements 

 with the Forest Service for protection of their water- 

 sheds from fire and pollution. 



Added to the foregoing, is the value of the waterpower 

 on the National Forests. Thirty-one per cent of all 

 waterpower in this country is on sites within these For- 

 ests, while a large part of the remaining power, althougli 

 on sites outside the National Forests, is dependent upon 

 water arising in them. The western mountains contain 

 72 per cent of our total potential water power and of 

 this, 42 per cent is in the western Forests. This power 

 is being rapidly developed. The Forest Service has In 

 force 174 power transmission lines and 197 power pro- 

 jects, with mininnmi discharge capacity of 899,000 horse- 

 power. During 1921 the Federal Power Commission, 

 under the Water Power Act of 1920, received applica- 

 tion for 124 sites within or partly within National For- 

 est boundaries and aggregating the development of over 





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