American Forkst Congress 117 



mental regulations which shall require him to clear of 

 the debris remaining therefrom the land on which he 

 conducts his logging operations; but he would insist 

 that such regulations shall be "^ "^ * applied 

 impartially to all sections, as otherwise an artificial 

 inequality would be brought about. State regulations 

 will hardly answer, for stringent enforcement of rules 

 in Wisconsin may put the operator in that state out of 

 competition with his competitor in Minnesota or Mich- 

 igan, 'i' >!= * 



*'This the Government can do : It can refuse to sell 

 or give up control of timber standing on Government 

 land. It can perhaps, even now, gain some small 

 revenue from allowing timber to be cut under proper 

 restrictions, for which a royalty shall be paid. * * * 

 It is possible that the Government might purchase 

 standing timber so located that its preservation might 

 have some marked effect on the watersheds and natural 

 reservoirs of the country, but it is doubtful if even this 

 rich nation could do much in this direction." 



What the Federal Government has accomplished 

 since that time in the establishment of forest reserves 

 and in arranging for the lumbering of the mature 

 timber from certain of them under forestry regulations 

 is a matter of history. It is to be regretted that thus 

 far no attempt has seemed feasible to compel the clean- 

 ing up of forest debris in lumbering operations upon 

 private holdings. Such a law universally enforced 

 would effect a decreased loss through forest fires which 

 would more than pay the increased cost of operation. 



Regarding the application of forestry methods to 

 lumbering I said at that time: 



"What is wanted is a commercial conservation of 

 the forests, but this involves conditions so different 

 from those now prevailing that it is difficult to see 



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