FIRE PROTECTION AND MORE PUBLIC FOREST LAND 



BY CHARLES LATHROP PACK 



I Extracts from an address by Charles Lathrop Pack, president of the American Forestry Association, at the annual forestry confer- 

 ence of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, New London, New Hampshire, August 24, 1920.] 



W/^vXE year ago at a forestry conference, at Bethle- 



II hem, New Hampshire, 1 had the pleasure of 

 speaking on a national forest policy. I recall 

 that 1 made a statement that we all believed a national 

 'orcst policy was absolutely necessary but that many 

 01 us differed regarding detail. I said that in my humble 

 belief one of the first essentials was an adequate fire 

 protection program and I advocated getting together 

 on the subject of fire protection and seeing what could 

 be accomplished in that direction as a first step. To 

 my surprise a good friend, one of the leading profes- 

 sional foresters of the United States, intimated afterward 

 that I was not in favor of a forest policy because 1 

 advocated only fire protection. 



"A year's discussion and sober thought has, I believe, 

 convinced foresters generally that a very large percent- 

 age of a national forest program is fire protection, and 

 it is my earnest hope that Congress will, before long, 

 pass legislation making it possible for the Government 

 to co-operate with the States in fire protective work of a 

 character and extent adequate to our practical needs. 

 When that is done the first great step toward a national 

 forest policy will have been achieved. 



"Nearly ten years have elapsed since the passage by 

 Congress of the so-called Weeks Law, providing for the 

 purchase by the Federal Government of forest lands on 

 the watersheds of navigable streams and for the financial 

 co-operation of the Federal Government with the indi- 

 vidual States in the protection from fire of such water- 

 sheds. The American Forestry Association and the 

 Society for the Protection of New Hampshire forests 

 were largely instrumental in securing the passage of 

 this legislation, which marks one of the most important 

 milestones in the progress of this country toward the 

 protection and perpetuation of its forest resources. We 

 are now on the threshold of still greater developments, 

 in which I take it for granted that all of us wish to play 

 an equally important part. 



"During the past few years the necessity for forest 

 conservation, both for our safety in time of war and 

 for our well-being in time of peace, has been more 

 forcibly impressed on the people of the country than ever 

 before. As a result the movement for the adoption of 

 a thoroughly comprehensive, nation-wide forest policy 

 has gathered such momentum that we have passed the 

 point where it is sufficient to discuss the problem in 

 flittering generalities. We have at last reached the stage 

 where it is appropriate to discuss the specific legislation 

 necessary to accomplish our purposes. In the recent 

 report made by the Forest Service on timber depletion 

 and related subjects known as the 'Capper Report,' con- 

 crete suggestions were made regarding the Federal legis- 

 lation needed in the immediate future. The two first 



m 



and most important of these deal with forest fire pro- 

 tection and the expansion of Federal forest holdings. 

 The need for legislation along these lines has been fur- 

 ther emphasized by the Chief Forester, Colonel \Y. B. 

 Greeley, in recent addresses, and I wish to invite your 

 consideration of them today for a few moments. 



"It is worth noting that both of these points are cov- 

 ered in the original Weeks Law of March 1, 1911, so 

 that in a way what we are seeking today is merely an 

 expansion of that fundamental legislation. What we 

 need now is to broaden its scope and increase the appro- 

 priations provided under it. The current appropriation 

 for the Forest Service carries $125,000 for co-operation 

 by the Federal Government with States in the protection 

 from fire of forest lands on watersheds of navigable 

 streams. This amount should be increased to an annual 

 appropriation of at least $1,000,000 and the provision 

 restricting its use to watersheds of navigable streams 

 should be eliminated. Authorization should also be grant- 

 ed for the use of the fund to work out the most effective 

 methods of handling various classes of timber land and 

 to conduct such other investigative and extension activi- 

 ties as the Forest Service might find it desirable to under- 

 take in co-operation with any of the States. With an 

 appropriation of this size and with authority to expend it 

 wherever and however it is most needed, we should be 

 able to make real progress in perpetuating the forests 

 by protecting them from their most deadly enemy fire. 



"I do not need to argue the necessity of such an appro- 

 priation before a gathering of this sort. You know as 

 well as I that our mature forests are not only being 

 wiped out by destructive conflagrations and by smaller 

 but none the less destructive fires, but that the refores- 

 tation of cut-over lands is being prevented by these 

 fires and hundreds of thousands of acres of land which 

 should be producing valuable timber are being converted 

 each year into desolate wastes. We are told by the 

 Forest Service that according to the latest information 

 available there are 81,000,000 acres of forest land, nearly 

 one-fifth of the total forest area of the country, on which 

 there is little or no forest growth of any value. This 

 enormous area of waste land is equivalent to the com- 

 bined area forests of Germany, Denmark, Holland, 

 Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal. 



"Our standing timber is being cut and destroyed by 

 fire, diseases and insects, more than four times as fast 

 as new timber is being grown. In the case of saw- 

 timber alone the destruction is more than five and one- 

 half times the growth of such material. What this 

 means to the nation in the way of higher prices for for- 

 est products and of unstable industrial development fol- 

 lowing the cutting out of first one region and then 

 another, is too obvious to require repetition. You are 



