OUR FORESTS ail 
TIMBER, A VITAL NATIONAL RESOURCE 
The forest, unlike many other natural resources, can be renewed 
after the original supply has been consumed. When given a chance, 
Nature herself can take care of the renewal. Seed trees or young 
growth judiciously left after cutting will provide for the restocking 
of a lumbered area, and if fire is kept out the forest will come 
back. But when the forest is totally destroyed, the land, which in 
many cases is not suited to other crops, lies idle. There are millions 
of acres of such lands in the United States, largely the result of 
destructive logging, fire, or both. 
The amount of deforested land in the United States has been in- 
creasing every year. Since 1909 our total volume of standing saw 
timber has been reduced some forty percent. We still fail to grow 
timber as fast as we are cutting it. 
Our Nation has made notable strides in forest conservation in the 
last half century, but we have as yet failed to stop the downward 
trend in our forest wealth. Much more remains to be done if real 
forest conservation is to be achieved. 
To protect the public interest, the Department of Agriculture and 
the Forest Service have recommended a 3-point Nation-wide forest- 
conservation program : 
1. Hxpansion of public aid to private forest landowners. Every 
encouragement should be given to forest landowners to practice 
scientific forestry and manage their timberlands for maximum, con- 
tinuing returns. More trained forestry specialists should be em- 
ployed to help and advise owners on their timber-management and 
marketing problems. Research work should continue on an intensified 
scale to work out the best answers to the many problems of timber 
erowing, forest protection, and efficient utilization. Cooperative pro- 
tection against fire should be extended (only about three-fourths of 
our total area of forest land is as yet under organized protection, 
_ and much of this protection is still inadequate). Cooperative aid 
should be provided in combating destructive forest insects and 
. diseases. 
2. Public acquisition of a large acreage of forest land now in. pri- 
vate ownership. Large areas of forest land are so low in productivity 
that they offer little or no attraction for private investment in timber 
growing, or so depleted that the owners are unwilling to undertake 
the long-term job of restoration. These include lands that have been 
reduced to nonproductive condition by erosion, destructive forest 
practices, fire, and misuse; and other lands plainly submarginal for 
permanent private ownership. For such lands, many of which are 
tax delinquent, public ownership seems to be the best solution. Some 
of them might best be purchased by the Federal Government for 
addition to the national-forest system; others might best serve as 
State or community forests. For certain other areas where acute 
problems of watershed protection, or need for protection or develop- 
ment of scenic or recreational values or other public interests are 
paramount, public ownership also may be desirable. 
3. Effective public regulation of timber cutting and other forest 
practices to stop further destruction and keep forest lands reasonably 
