RECLAMATION WORK A VITAL FORESTRY PROBLEM 



R. S. MADDOX 



FORESTER, STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, TENNESSEE 



ALL foresters and lumbermen, as well as many other 

 citizens, recognize the increasing scarcity of lum- 

 ber. This scarcity is evidenced in many ways. In 

 the first place lumber prices are soaring everywhere. 

 Even prior to 191 4 the man on the street had begun 

 to comment on the high cost of lumber compared to 20 

 years ago. Furthermore, a class of timber found in 

 logging yards today and commanding a good market 

 would have been considered too inferior for use at any 



latest record) was approximately one-half of what it was 

 in 1909. It is generally known that the centers of pro- 

 duction in this country have narrowed down to states on 

 the Gulf and Pacific Coasts. In other words, the greater 

 part of the United States today is harvesting second- 

 growth timber. It must be recognized that this situation 

 has been greatly augmented by the methods employed in 

 handling our once forested lands. It is the old question, 

 lack of proper conservation. This is a big subject with 



GULLIED LAND IN EASTERN TENNESSEE 

 This gullied mountain land is too steep for cultivation, and is of the type which should never have been cleared of its timber. 



price a few years ago. The destruction and use of lum- 

 ber in the world war added tremendously to the scarcity 

 bf timber, its immediate demand, and therefore, to its 

 higher price. Since the war we are faced with almost 

 prohibitive prices, and yet the end of these high levels 

 is not in sight. This condition must be attributed not 

 merely to increased demand and post-war readjustments 

 but primarily to a scarcity of timber. Records of the 

 annual output of lumber in many states show a distinct 

 and in some cases a heavy falling off in the past ten 

 years. For instance, Tennessee's output in 1917 (the 

 74- 



many phases, one of the most important being the recla- 

 mation of waste lands. 



The rate at which land has been virtually wasted is 

 prodigious, and the lack of general serious concern about 

 it is only too manifest from the amount of such lands 

 and their apparently total neglect. In the sum total of 

 these abused areas forest fires can be charged with a 

 good round per cent of damage, but there is another form 

 of waste which comes from wrongful clearing of land 

 or improper management after clearing and which might 

 be classed under three heads, viz: first, the clearing of 



