562 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1406. 



mains as it is to-day, namely, at 463 million 

 acres, and that we exercise no more foresight 

 in harvesting the remainder of our virgin 

 forest than we have in the past, what can we 

 expect in annual growth when our virgin 

 timber is gone, to supply this great nation 

 with wood? The United States Forest Serv- 

 ice estimates the present annual growth on 

 our 326 million acres of burned and exploited 

 forest at approximately 6 billion cubic feet. 

 Assuming that the annual growth on ex- 

 ploited forest land will remain as it is at the 

 present, after we have exploited the remain- 

 der of our virgin forests, the total 463 mil- 

 lion acres of forest property in the United 

 States will produce an annual growth of ap- 

 proximately 7 1/2 billion cubic feet. This 

 is all that will be produced by growth each 

 year unless we radically change our present 

 forest policy and conscientiously plan for re- 

 growth on a vast scale. 



It is a very serious economic situation that 

 we are now using up our forest capital more 

 than four times as fast as we are producing 

 it. In other words the annual growth in our 

 forests is now approximately 6 billion cubic 

 feet while the annual removal of wood from 

 our forests by lumbering, fire and other 

 causes, is over 26 billion cubic feet. We are 

 cutting into our forest capital — the reserve 

 supply, largely in our virgin forests — more 

 than four times as fast as we are growing 

 wood. 



It must be evident to all that we can not 

 go on using each year four times as much 

 wood as we grow in a year and do this in- 

 definitely. It must also be evident that our 

 future supply of timber will not be assured 

 until the annual growth of wood on our 463 

 million acres of forest land is at least as 

 much as what we annually consume. 



Without forest management and without 

 serious attention given to regrowth, we grow 

 each year less than one fourth as much wood 

 as we use, but were all our 463 million acres 

 of forest land fully stocked and in different 

 age classes, there is ample evidence to show 

 that the annual growth would be raised to 

 approximately 28 billion cubic feet. In other 



words, it is possible to produce, through in- 

 creased growth on our present area of forest 

 property, more than four times as much wood 

 as is now grown. An annual growth of 28 

 billion cubic feet of wood in the forests of the 

 United States is a goal toward which we 

 should push. It will take a century to place 

 all our forest property under management 

 and to fully stock all our 463 million acres 

 of forest laud with acceptable species. An 

 annual growth of 28 billion cubic feet, how- 

 ever, can not be attained until this is done. 



Were all our forest land under manage- 

 ment and fully stocked, would we be able to 

 use advantageously the amount of timber 

 each year represented in the possible annual 

 growth of 28 billion cubic feet? We are now 

 using and destroying annually approximately 

 26 billion cubic feet of wood; only a little 

 less than can be grown on our entire area of 

 463 million acres were it all under a system 

 of management as excellent as that of Central 

 Europe. 



Although there appears to be no inherent 

 reason why this nation can not grow yearly 

 as much wood as we now consume, it will 

 not be done and moreover it can not be done 

 without public approval and public support 

 The raising of the present annual growth in 

 eur forests from 6 billion cubic feet to a pos- 

 sible annual growth of 28 billion cubic feet 

 is necessary if we are to be adequately sup- 

 plied with wood fifty years hence. 



As conditions are at present we Americans 

 are faced with the essential fact that we are 

 not only destroying our forest supplies more 

 than four times as fast as we are growing 

 them, but what is of more far-reaching im- 

 portance we are, through lack of forest organ- 

 ization and management, rapidly using up 

 the productive capacity of our forest lands. 

 Not only is there less and less wood grown 

 each year but more and more forest soil is 

 destroyed each year beyond the power of im- 

 mediate recovery for the production of wood 

 crops. The investigations of the United 

 States Forest Service show that already 81 

 million acres, out of our 463 million acres 

 of forest property have been so completely 



