6 A If^ATIOXAI. LUMBER AI^'D FOREST POLICY. 



Many important Yv'ood-nsmg industries are already embarrassed 

 for supplies. Especially acute is the situation faced by the manu- 

 facturers of news print paper in the Northeast, in the Lake States, 

 and elsewhere. Enormous investments have been made in permanent 

 mills, water power, and equipment. The local sources of supply of 

 pulp wood are becoming rapidly exhausted. Because of this situa- 

 tion and because of the difficulties in obtaining raw materials from 

 Canada, we have seen the new construction of mills taking place only 

 in Canada, largely vrith American capital. 



Other industries using special wood products are equally em- 

 barrassed. Some are able to secure materials from a distance ; others 

 have to close and move to new sources of supply. 



Because there is still an abimdance of tunber in the far West, the 

 East and central West can not complacently see the basis of their 

 own industrial prosperity destroyed. In short, we have in many 

 localities a very real problem of shortage of forest supplies and very 

 real consequences of forest depletion. 



FOREST RENEWAL NOT PROVIDED FOR. 



The problem of supplies does not merely concern the amount and 

 and character of timber now standing, it concerns, as vrell, the pro- 

 duction of new crops of timber by growth. I would have little 

 concern about the amount of timber used if we were growing new 

 stands in place of the old. We have enough nonagricultural land 

 to produce for all time lumber in abundance for ourselves and for 

 export. But tliis would require keeping our forests in a productive 

 state after lumbering. We are not doing that. Our forests are 

 steadily deteriorating under cutting and fire. No effort is made for 

 replacement aiTer cutting. Fire protection is confined to old timber. 

 Young growth and cut-over lands are not being protected. Acci- 

 dental stands following cutting and fire are generally poor in quality 

 and species and of low prospective yield. We are still drawing for 

 the most part on original sources of supply. Failing to replace these, 

 we are steadily losing gTOund. We are actually using up our forests, 

 just as we would use uj) a dejDOsit of coal, when we might have been 

 renewing them. 



The question of forest renewal and growth is one that can no 

 longer be ignored. It is not onl}^ of interest to the public but it is 

 of vital concern to the owners of timberiands. It may be said that 

 reserves -of timber ought to be held by the public rather than by 

 private owners. A good many assert that the growing of timber 

 is wholly a public function; that as most timberland owners have 

 bought tlieir property to exploit their timber, not to grow trees, 

 forestry and forest growth are not matters of private concern. But 

 the fact remains that the bulk of the timber of the countr}^ is pri- 



