STORY OF OUR NATIONAL FOREST 97 



as compared with the eastern. Nothing can equal 

 in majesty the cathedrals of the main forest belt of 

 the mountain ranges facing the Pacific. With the 

 number of species far fewer, and deciduous trees 

 subordinated, nevertheless the balance of beauty 

 and the magnificence of profusion remains with the 

 fertile East. 



The value of this vast original forest if com- 

 puted at the market prices of timber to-day would 

 run to figures of incomprehensible size. Such a cal- 

 culation would serve no purpose except to emphasize 

 the vastness of lost opportunity, the enormity of 

 what once were possibilities of national greatness and 

 wealth. It might make us better appreciate the 

 inevitable disaster always involved in dealing with a 

 national whole from the standpoint of local interest 

 and political ambition. So great has been the waste, 

 so disastrous the ignoring of destruction by fire, 

 that it is a safe statement that comparatively little 

 forest value remains in any shape to-day of the vast 

 potential wealth which the past has mishandled. 



A little of our forest heritage remains, a fifth 

 part of which is now controlled by a federal bureau 

 possessing knowledge, devotion and efficient organi- 

 zation; the balance is in private possession. The 

 people are rapidly awakening. Hundreds of their 

 organizations are working locally, and a few nation- 

 ally, to spread information and better the outlook. 

 At last enlightened Congresses, the Sixty-Eighth, 

 Sixty-Ninth, and Seventieth, enacted laws which in 



