142 FOREST OUTINGS 



sound forest practices, they may prove a continuing support for a much 

 higher standard of living than now prevails. 



North and South, East and West, national forests must demonstrate the 

 best ways to recreate a sustained source of income for all those millions of 

 our people who live by commercial woods products. Human recreation 

 has to be meshed or fitted in with this and with other forest uses. 



With about one-sixth of the commercially useful acreage, the national 

 forests contain one-third of the Nation's saw timber. The very existence of 

 many established communities depends now on the assurance of continuing 

 supplies of this Government timber, which can often be combined with 

 private timberlands for joint sustained-yield management, to provide 

 continuing supplies for permanent wood-using industries. 



In many such places the claim of the hunter or vacationist, and the claim 

 of the woods industries upon the national forests clash. Can both interests 

 be served? In large part, yes; but it takes intelligent planning, sound coor- 

 dination, and some yielding on both — and all — sides. 



Few will claim that timber operations, however judiciously conducted, 

 enhance woodland charm. The most complete sanctuary inheres in the 

 natural state. From the far corners of the world people come to see and 

 absorb the unimaginable majesty of the Pacific groves. A man would be 

 indeed lacking in sensibility who could stand in the midst of the giant tulip 

 poplars and white oaks of a virgin Appalachian cove or the towering, 

 many-centuries-old trees of a primeval Douglas fir forest in Oregon and not 

 feel it sacrilege to lay ax to a single one of them. 



Yet timber is needed; harvest must come, and must inevitably destroy 

 some of the beauty and interest of the forest. But though the larger and 

 older trees are taken, all is not lost, by any means. The young forests that 

 succeed their harvested forebears may also be beautiful. The vigor, the push 

 of the trees toward the sky, and the promise of things to come may capture 

 the imagination and enchant the eye. 



The actual result is a compromise, some sort of a reconciliation, with 

 civilization. It may be made a happy compromise. And the commercial 

 and aesthetic aspects may be in some part segregated, each from each. 



