The Forest Surv 



ey 



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 prod- 

 ucts, production and consumption, depletion 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 five-fold 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 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 interpreted 

 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 

 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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