FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY 21 



FOREST PROBLEM IS MORE THAN ONE OF GROWING 



TIMBER 



Despite such universal uses, our per-capita consumption of wood 

 fell sharply, even in predepression years. So, in face of increased 

 population, did total consumption. The need for research, and for 

 development of new uses and markets for wood, is therefore evident. 

 But total forest drain still exceeds total forest growth. In the impor- 

 tant saw-timber sizes, current annual growth is 32.0 billion feet 

 board measure but drain was 47.8 billion feet in 1936, by way of 

 example. So there is also real need to conserve our forest resources, 

 to use them wisely, to add to them by growing forests on lands most 

 valuable for forest purposes. To do otherwise would be to continue 

 forest devastation and its consequences. It would create more ghost 

 towns and perpetuate the system of an ever-shifting, migratory labor; 

 would augment agricultural depression and increase an already 

 unstable and transitory social and economic structure. 



This latter course is manifestly contrary to the public interest. It 

 considers all forests as raw material only ; thinks of them only in terms 

 of timber; assumes that immediate manufacture and marketability 

 are the chief issues. It fails to take into consideration the fact that 

 destruction of forest cover leads to erosion and that the presence of 

 forest cover is a most effective means of erosion control. It passes up 

 such close, vital relationships as those between forests and agriculture, 

 wildlife and recreation, and it ignores the fact that these forest values, 

 expressed in dollars and cents and in terms of physical and social 

 well-being, are infinitely greater than the values of forests expressed 

 in terms of wood alone. 



The viewpoint that only such forests are needed as will supply 

 current demand for wood products is too circumscribed. Our forest 

 problem is broader, by far, than this. It includes the production of 

 timber for human use, of course. But is also embraces utilization 

 through multiple-use management of all resources of all forest lands 

 as a means to assure social advantages and stable livelihood for the 

 greatest possible number of people. To do this, it must take definite 

 cognizance of existing social obligations and opportunities; must, 

 through such self -liquidating projects as improvement of timber 

 stands, reforestation and control of insects and tree diseases, help 

 rehabilitate ghost towns and rural slums and place forest properties 

 in such shape that through them and all their resources people may 

 become, and remain, self-sustaining. 



It is in helping to solve this broad forest problem that the normal 

 activities of the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture 

 directly affect millions of people in all walks of life and play a vital 

 part in permanent, economic prosperity. 



U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1940 



For sale by the Superintendent of Documents. Washington. D. C. - - - - Price 5 cent> 



