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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



VOL. XXVI 



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FEBRUARY 1920 



NO. 314 



EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT 



A NATIONAL FOREST POLICY 



IN the discussion of remedies let us not lose sight of 

 the disease. A multiplicity of forest programs advo- 

 cated by various agencies and from diverse stand- 

 points is a healthy sign of awakened interest and con- 

 cern. But it is important that we keep our bearings. 



The disease is forest devastation. Its effect is a slow 

 ing of national strength through the steady ex- 

 haustion of the national timber supply. The effect will 

 become fatal when, through the shortage and high cost 

 of timber, the United States is reduced to the level of 

 western Europe, when wood is priced as an imported 

 luxury, when not only manufactures and trade are han- 

 dicapped by lack of it but the comfort of our own people 

 and the efficiency of our agriculture are straitened by its 

 scarcity. 



It is unthinkable that the United States will accept 

 the necessity of curtailing largely, sooner or later, its 

 use of timber. Abundance of wood for home and farm 

 use, for varied manufactures and for export trade has 

 been a primary factor in our commercial supremacy, 

 and it is a factor which we are not going to surrender. 

 The problem must not be met by using less and less 

 wood, down to the level of civilized existence, as France 

 has been compelled to meet it. It must be met not by 

 decreased use but by increased production. It must be 

 met in the American spirit of development, of enter- 

 prise, of an organized and far-sighted handling of our 

 resources that will supply the future requirements of a 

 continued liberal use of timber in national development 

 and industries. 



Increased production is the cry of the times. In- 

 creased production from land is just as important as 

 increased production by human labor. The idleness of 

 one hundred million acres of forest land is just as serious 

 today and more lasting in its effects than the idleness of 

 thousands of skilled mechanics. It is nothing short of 

 national folly to go on, year after year, devastating 

 millions of acres of forest land and failing through bad 

 organization, through inadequate public effort, and 

 through a lack of clear definition of public and private 



responsibility to produce one of our most essential raw 

 materials. 



Return then to the nub of the question, which is to 

 stop forest devastation and to put waste land at work 

 growing tree's. Dismiss at once the use of cut-over land 

 for farm crops or other forms of production besides 

 growing timber. No one questions it when the land is 

 needed for such purposes. But until it is actually em- 

 ployed otherwise, let it be kept at work producing tim- 

 ber. Twenty per cent of the forest land is in public 

 ownership ; and it goes without saying that the State 

 and Nation should systematically replant denuded areas 

 and grow timber on all of their holdings under the best 

 standards of technical administration. Eighty per cent 

 of our forest land is in private ownership. A part of 

 this 80 per cent should be acquired by public owners, 

 Federal, State or municipal, particularly areas where 

 costly methods of reforestation are unavoidable. But it 

 is patently impossible for the public to acquire all of the 

 forest land in the United States or enough of it to pro- 

 duce the quantities of timber which we need. There are 

 too many demands upon the public treasury to make 

 such a program practical or effective. The timber 

 which we must have cannot be grown without the active 

 participation of the private owner of forest land. 



Obviously, the public has a large interest in prevent- 

 ing the devastation of privately owned land. The cor- 

 rection of certain factors which contribute to forest 

 devastation rests primarily with the public. Among these 

 are methods and practices in taxing woodland which 

 render it difficult for the owner to grow young timber; 

 the fire hazard in forest regions and its corollary, the 

 inability of owners to insure timber or young growth ; 

 the difficulty in obtaining loans for long-term forest en- 

 terprises at rates commensurate with the duration and 

 character of the enterprise; and the lack of sufficient 

 information in a form for practical use on how to treat 

 forests in order to get certain results. 



There are also specific things which must be done in 

 the woods. The first is to fire-proof cutover areas as 



