The Forest Survey 



EFFECTIVE rehabilitation and constructive management of this country's 

 forest resource requires not only protection against neglect and destruc- 

 tion 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 formulation 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 consumption 

 and the probable future trend in requirements for timber and other forest prod- 

 ucts; and (5) to interpret and correlate these findings with existing and antici- 

 pated 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 condition 

 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 exper- 

 iment 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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