mllllll 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



VOL. XXVI 



SEPTEMBER, 1920 



NO. 321 



fin miiiffi iiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii nsiii i i iiiiiiii inn mini mi iiiniiiimiiii iniiimiimiiii mm iiiimiiiiimim iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinini mi mini iiimin mi iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniii 



EDITORIAL 



LUMBERMEN ENDORSE NATIONAL FOREST POLICY 



T^HE National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, 

 -* through its Forestry Committee and its Board of 

 Directors, has gone squarely on record as favoring the 

 "early development of an American forest policy which 

 shall substitute for indifference or accident an intelligent, 

 practical, equitable, and concerted program for the 

 perpetuation of forest supplies." The Association's 

 judgment as to what such a program should include is 

 indicated by its suggestions for national legislation. In 

 addition to the efforts already being made by the Federal 

 Government to perpetuate the forests and to bring about 

 the establishment of a National Forest policy, the Asso- 

 ciation urges the following legislation by Congress : 



i. An appropriation of not less than $1,000,000 

 annually for co-operation by the Forest Service with 

 States and forest owners willing to bear an equal or 

 greater share in the costs of locally applicable systems 

 for protecting from fire both forests and forest lands 

 which are restocking. 



2. An appropriation adequate for prompt survey of 

 the nation's forest resources by the Forest Service, 

 utilizing the facilities of the forest producing industries, 

 the States and other sources of information, to determine 

 the quantity, location, and suitability for various com- 

 mercial uses of our remaining timber, to determine the 

 approximate area, location and condition of lands chiefly 

 valuable for timber growth, and to obtain other informa- 

 tion bearing on the future of forest supplies. 



3. Adequate provision for research by the Forest 

 Service, through necessary experiment stations and in 

 co-operation with available agencies, to determine de- 

 sirable methods of wood utilization, wood preservation, 

 forest reproduction, and the control of insects, disease, 

 and other forest enemies. 



4. Liberal provision for the selection and acquisition, 

 by purchase and by exchange, of such lands as should 

 be added to the National Forest system to assure their 

 best protection and management in the public interest. 



5. Provision for replanting such denuded areas in 

 the National Forests as are evidently not to be restocked 

 by natural processes. 



Since State legislation is regarded by the Association 

 as properly a matter of local self-determination, it offers 

 on behalf of the industry as a whole no suggestions be- 

 yond the expression of certain broad principles. The 

 most fundamental of these is that practical methods of 

 forest protection and perpetuation are questions pri- 

 marily of local interest and should therefore be the sub- 



ject of State legislation, if of any. In other words, the 

 Federal Government should be authorized to co-operate 

 financially with States and private forest owners in the 

 protection of forests from fire, but should be given no 

 power either to prescribe how such protection should be 

 effected or to require other measures necessary for the 

 perpetuation of the forest. In line with this position is 

 the Association's statement that "the Forest Service 

 should be the recognized leader of public forestry thought 

 and effort along general lines, because of its impartial 

 position and broad education facilities, but vested with 

 no regulatory control over State or private lands not 

 mutually agreed to by the owners thereof for specific 

 purposes in connection with the general policy herein 

 suggested." 



Other points of interest in connection with the general 

 statement of principles put forth by the Association in- 

 clude the declaration that the growing of future timber 

 crops must be largely, but by no means wholly, a Gov- 

 ernment and State function; and that both Government 

 and State should therefore acquire, by purchase and by 

 exchange of stumpage for land, much larger areas of 

 permanent forest land than they now possess. If private 

 owners refuse either to sell their cut-over lands or to 

 take reasonable steps themselves to keep them in timber 

 crops, the Government and States should be permitted to 

 condemn any deforested land classified as suitable chiefly 

 for forest growing and not suitable for agriculture, pay- 

 ing for it at prices comparable to those paid in voluntary 

 transactions. The reimbursement of local taxing units 

 for the loss of taxes on Government-owned land is sug- 

 gested, as is also the assistance by the Federal Govern- 

 ment in the development of a State policy in forest 

 improvement, protection, and tax reform as to make' 

 conditions favorable for State and private forest growth. 

 The development of a wise, consistent policy for the 

 marketing of publicly-owned timber, to the end of 

 permanent public good, uninfluenced by considerations of 

 temporary revenue, is urged. So far as the forest owners 

 themselves are concerned, the Association states that 

 "public-spirited lumbermen will support such steps along 

 the foregoing State and Federal lines as are practicable. 

 Equally with the public such lumbermen should be pro- 

 tected against the consequences of short-sighted policy 

 either within their own industry or elsewhere." 



Much difference of opinion will doubtless exist as to 

 the wisdom of certain specific features of the program 

 proposed by the National Lumber Manufacturers' Asso- 



