FACTS ABOUT DEPLETION OF OUR FORESTS 



THAT the high cost of lumber and newsprint is due 

 in no small measure to the using up of the forests 

 east of the Great Plains was stated by the Secretary 

 of Agriculture in forwarding to the Senate a report by 

 the Forest Service on timber depletion, called for by 

 resolution of Senator Capper. 



This resolution requested information on: the deple- 

 tion of timber in the United States ; the effect of timber 

 depletion upon the high cost of materials; the effects of 

 lumber exports upon domestic industries, and the effects 

 of depletion upon the concentration of "timber ownership 

 and manufacture and the relation of such concentration 

 to the public welfare. 



The outstanding facts 

 reported by the Forest 

 Service are: 



That three-fifths of the 

 original timber of the 

 United States is gone and 

 that we are using timber 

 four times as fast as we 

 are growing it. The for- 

 ests remaining are so local- 

 ized as greatly to reduce 

 their national utility. The 

 bulk of the population and 

 manufacturing industries 

 of the United States are 

 dependent upon distant 

 supplies of timber as the 

 result of the depletion of 

 the principal forest areas 

 east of the Great Plains. 



That the depletion of 

 timber is not the sole cause 

 of the recent high prices of 

 forest products but is an 

 important c o n t r i b uting 

 cause whose effects will increase steadily as depletion 

 continues. 



That the fundamental problem is to increase the pro- 

 duction of timber by stopping forest devastation. 



The virgin forests of the United States covered 822 

 million acres. They are now shrunk to one-sixth of 

 that area. All classes of forest land, including culled, 

 burned, and cut-over areas, now aggregate 463 million 

 acres, or a little more than one-half of our original 

 forests. Of the forest land remaining and not utilized 

 for farming or any other purpose, approximately 81 

 million acres have been so severely cut and burned as 

 to become an unproductive waste. This area is equiva- 

 lent to the combined forests of Germany, Denmark, 

 Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain and Portu- 

 gal. Upon an enormous additional area the growth of 

 timber is so small in amount or of such inferior character 

 that its economic value is negligible. 



Secretary Meredith most earnestly requests con- 

 sideration of the practical measures proposed for 

 putting a stop to forest devastation and restoring 

 our idle land to timber production, and emphasizes 

 especially the immediate urgency of legislation (1) 

 which will permit effective co-operation between the 

 Federal Government and the several states in pre- 

 venting forest fires and growing timber on cut-over 

 lands, and (2) which will greatly extend the Na- 

 tional Forests. Enlargement of the National For- 

 ests offers immediate relief. On these publicly ad- 

 ministered areas, high quality timber can be grown 

 and utilized to the maximum advantage; regrowth 

 will follow cutting; and, under the regulations of 

 the Forest Service, the disposal of timber will foster 

 competitive conditions in the lumber industry. 

 These steps are the foundation of an effective na- 

 tional policy for insuring a permanent and ade- 

 quate supply of timber. 



Concurrently with these measures, a compre- 

 hensive survey of the forest resources of the United 

 States should be made. 



The merchantable saw timber remaining in the United 

 States is estimated roughly at 2,215 billion board feet, 

 something less than three-fourths of which is virgin 

 stumpage. The rest is second growth of relatively in- 

 ferior quality. About one-half of the timber left is in 

 the three Pacific Coast States and over 61 per cent is 

 west of the Great Plains. A little over one-fifth of the 

 timber left in the country, 460 billion board feet, is 

 hardwood. 



There is now consumed or destroyed annually in the 

 United States 56 billion board feet of material of saw 

 timber size. The total yearly consumption of all classes 



of timber is about 26 billion 

 cubic feet. Our depleted 

 forests are growing less 

 than one-fourth of this 

 amount. The United States 

 is not only cutting heavily 

 into its remaining virgin 

 forests every year, but is 

 also using up the smaller 

 material upon which our 

 future supply of saw tim- 

 ber depends much more 

 rapidly than it is being re- 

 placed. 



The two striking effects 

 of timber depletion already 

 apparent are: 



The injury to large 

 groups of wood users and 

 to many communities re- 

 sulting from the exhaus- 

 tion of the nearby forest 

 regions from which they 

 were formerly supplied ; 

 and, the shortage of timber 

 products of high quality. 

 Less than five per cent of the virgin forests of New 

 England remain and the total stand of saw timber in 

 these States is not more than one-eighth of the original 

 stand. New York, once the leading State in lumber pro- 

 duction, now manufactures only 30 board feet per capita 

 yearly, although the requirements of its own population 

 are close to 300 board feet per capita. The present cut 

 of lumber in Pennsylvania is less than the amount con- 

 sumed in the Pittsburgh district alone. The original 

 pine forests of the Lake States, estimated at 350 billion 

 feet, are now reduced to less than 8 billion feet, and 

 their yearly cut of timber is less than one-eighth of what 

 it used to be. These four densely populated regions, 

 containing themselves very large areas of forest land, are 

 now largely dependent upon timber grown and manu- 

 factured elsewhere and are becoming increasingly 

 dependent upon timber which must be shipped the width 

 of the continent. The bulk of the building lumber and 



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