The Forest Survey 



Effective rehabilitation and constructive management of this country's 

 forest resource require not only protection against neglect and destruction 

 but, with equal urgency, provision for permanent and wise use of that resource. 

 Wisdom in forest land use planning must rest on a long-time economy backed 

 up by reliable facts as to supply and requirements for wood and other forest 

 products, production and consumption, drain and growth, and the location, 

 area, and condition of existing and prospective forest lands. This requirement 

 for dependable and comprehensive technical information is now being trans- 

 lated into action through the provisions of the McSweeney-McNary Forest 

 Research Act of May 22, 1928, authorizing a Nation-wide forest survey. 



The Forest Survey, as constituted under that act, is obtaining essential 

 field information and, through interpretation thereof, is aiding in the formula- 

 tion of guiding principles and policies fundamental to a system of planned 

 management and land use for each forest region and for the Nation. 



The fivefold purpose of the Forest Survey is: (1) To make a field inventory 

 of the present supply of timber and other forest products; (2) to ascertain the rate 

 at which this supply is being increased through growth; (3) to determine the 

 rate at which it is being diminished through industrial and domestic uses, 

 windfall, fire, disease, and other causes; (4) to determine the present consump- 

 tion and the probable future trend in requirements for timber and other forest 

 products; and (5) to interpret and correlate these findings with existing and 

 anticipated economic conditions, as an aid in the formulation of both private 

 and public policies for the effective and rational use of land suitable for forest 

 production. 



It is planned to publish the results of this investigation as they become 

 available. These publications apply to large areas and should not be inter- 

 preted as portraying correctly the forest situation for small sections, the condi- 

 tion of which may be either better or poorer than the average for the entire unit. 

 They supply the general framework upon which to base intensive studies of 

 critical situations. 



The investigation is conducted in the various forest regions by the forest 

 experiment stations of the Forest Service and in the South by the Southern 

 Forest Experiment Station with headquarters in New Orleans, La. 



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