IS FORESTRY PRACTICABLE IN THE 

 NORTHWEST? 



BY 



VICTOR H. BECKMAN 



Editor Pacific Lumber Trade Journal 



npHE Committee on Arrangements honored me 

 by assigning me the question of "Is Forestry 

 Practicable in the Northwest?" This is a pretty diffi- 

 cult subject, from the purely commercial standpoint, 

 but one that admits, nevertheless, of much thought and 

 study by the constituency I represent. 



Lumbering is the chief industry of the Pacific 

 Northwest, comprising the States of Washington, 

 Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, and the province of 

 British Columbia. In this vast section, bounded on 

 the north by Alaska, on the south by California, on 

 the west by the boundless Pacific Ocean, and on the 

 east by the Rocky Mountains, are upward of 165,000 

 men employed in the destruction of the ''last and best 

 stand of timber," for commercial uses, to whom are 

 paid annually in wages approximately $75,000,000, 

 and upon whose labor depends the bread and butter 

 of nearly 400,000 people. The annual output in this 

 territory is about 5,000,000,000 feet of lumber and 

 6,000,000,000 shingles. 



The amount of accessible timber in the Pacific 

 Northwest is about 400,000,000,000 feet. Forest fires, 

 owing to lax methods and laws, have destroyed as 

 much timber as has been cut by the lumbermen, and 

 the result of the depletion by man and the elements 

 is apparent in the fact that the best timber contiguous 

 to water and railroad has in many instances been cut 



