LETTERS OF TRANSMITTAL. 



June 1, 1^20. 

 The President of the United States Senate. 



Sib: I have the honor to submit herewith a report on forest depletion in the United States, prepared by the Forest Service in tipa 

 department pursuant to Senate resolution 311. 

 This resolution requests information on: 



1. The depletion of timber in the United States. 



2. The effects of timber depletion upon the high cost of materials. 



3. The effects of lumber exports upon domestic industries. 



4. The effects of depletion upon the concentration of timber ownership and manufacture and the relation of such concentration to 

 the public welfare. 



The outstanding facts reported by the Forest Service are: 

 ' (1) That three-fifths of the original timber of the United States is gone and that we are using timber four times as fast as we are growing 

 it. The forests remaining are so localized as greatly to reduce their national utility. The bulk of the population and manufacturing indus- 

 tries of the United States are dependent upon distant supplies of timber as the result of the depletion of the principal forest areas east 

 of the Great Plains. 



(2) That the depletion of timber is not the sole cause of the recent high prices of forest products, but is an important contributing cause 

 whose effects will increase steadily as depletion continues. 



(3) That the fundamental problem is to increase the production of timber by stopping forest devastation. 



The virgin forests of the United States covered 822 million acres. They are now shrunk to one-sixth of that area. All classes of forest 

 land, including culled, burned, and cut-over areas, now aggregate 463 million acres, or a little more than one^half of our origihal forests. 

 Of the forest land remaining and not utilized for farming or any other purpose, approximately 81 million acres have been so severely cut 

 and burned as to become an unproductive waste. This area is equivalent to the combined forests of Germany, Denmark, Holland, Bel- 

 gium, France, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal. Upon an enormous additional area the growth of timber is so small in amount or of such 

 inferior character that its economic value is negligible. 



The merchantable new timber remaining in the United States is estimated roughly at 2,215 billion board feet, something less than 

 three-fourths of which is virgin stumpage. The rest is second growth of relatively inferior quality. About one-half of the timber left 

 is in the three Pacific Coast States, and over 61 per cent is west of the Great Plains. A little over one-fifth of the timber left in the country, 

 or 460 billion board feet, is hardwoods. 



There is now consumed or destroyed annually in the United States 56 billion board feet of material of saw timber size. The total 

 yearly consumption of all classes of timber is about 26 billion cubic feet. Our depleted forests are growing less than one-fourth of this 

 amount. The United States is not only cutting heavily into its remaining virgin forests every year, but is also using up the smaller ma- 

 terial upon which our future supply of saw timber depends much more rapidly than it is being replaced. 



The two striking effects of timber depletion already apparent are: 



(1) The injury to large groups of wood users and to many communities resulting from the exhaustion of the nearby forest regions from 

 which they were formerly supplied; and 



(2) The shortage of timber products of high quality. 



Less than 5 per cent of the virgin forests of New England remain, and the total stand of saw timber in these States is not more than 

 one-eighth of the original stand. New York, once the leading State in lumber production, now manufactures only 30 board feet per capita 

 yearly, although the requirements of its own population are close to 300 board feet per capita. The present cut of lumber in Pennsylvania 

 is less than the amount consumed in the Pittsburgh district alone. The original pine forests of the Lake States, estimated at 350 billion 

 feet, are now reduced to less than 8 billion feet, and their yearly cut of timber is less than one-eighth of what it used to be. These four 

 densely populated regions, containing themselves very large areas of forest land, are now largely dependent upon timber grown and manu- 

 factured elsewhere and are becoming increasingly dependent upon timber which must be shipped the width of the continent. 



The bulk of the building lumber and structural timbers used in the Eastern and Central States during the last 15 years was grown 

 in the pine forests of the South. The virgin pine forests of the South Atlantic and Gulf States have been reduced from about 650 billion 

 board feet to about 139 billion feet. The production of yellow-pine lumber is now falling oft and within ten years will probably not exceed 

 the requirements of the Southern States themselves. 



The United States at one time contained the most extensive temperate zone hardwood forests in the world. One region after another 

 has been cut ou:t. The production of hardwood products on the past scale can not be long continued. The scarcity of high-grade oak, 

 poplar, ash, hickory, walnut, and other standard woods is now placing many American industries in a critical condition. 



The depletion of forest resources is not confined to saw timber. Since 1909, the country has ceased being self-supporting in newsprint 

 paper and now imports two-thirds of the pulp, pulp wood, or newsprint which we require. This condition is due in part to timber deple- 

 tion, in part to failure of the paper industry to expand in our western forest regions as the lumber industry has expanded. In 1919 the 

 production of turpentine and rosin had fallen off 50 per cent. Within ten years the United States will lose its commanding position in the 

 world's market for these products and may in time be unable to supply its domestic requirements. 



The termination of the war found the lumber industry with depleted stocks. Production during the war had been much less than 

 normal on account of shortages of labor and equipment and embargoes on transportation. A large part of the lumber produced had been 

 taken by the Government for war purposes. During the same time, the normal construction of dwellings and industrial structures and 

 the use of lumber in many manufacturing industries had been g^-eatly curtailed. Following the war, these pent-up demands were released. 

 They caught the lumber industry not only with its stocks short and broken from war conditions but unable, on account of labor difficulties, 



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