ing a greater timber cut than heretofore visualized 
—and on a sustained basis. Indeed, it means full 
use of all basic resources, and concerted policies and 
action to conserve and keep them in good supply. 
America, in its bid for strength and prosperity, 
should face this issue squarely. Already we are a 
“have-not” nation with respect to certain minerals 
and are forced to compete increasingly for critical 
materials in the world market. We are using up 
our soils. We have made heavy inroads on the tim- 
ber. Yet forests, which lie all around us and occupy 
one-third of our land area, are a renewable re- 
source. ‘Though depleted, they can be built up to 
supply fully the needs of a strong, growing nation. 
Beyond the domestic situation, this country needs 
productive forests to meet new international obliga- 
tions and to help establish the peace. 
world requires a closer harmonizing of world sup- 
plies and needs of basic materials. The world is 
short of softwood timber and the forests of North 
America are of key importance in world supply. It 
is in the national interest to build up America’s 
forests so as to contribute in the long run to world 
timber trade just as it is to supply food and other 
necessities for rehabilitation now. 
One fact stands out clearly: this country needs to 
produce and to use in full measure the products 
and services of its forests as a part of the larger 
obligation to gain a stable, prosperous economy and 
hence a better hope for world security. This, in 
brief, is the broad economic and social setting in 
which American forestry finds itself today. 
Highlights of the Forest Situation 
1. The Nation has plenty of forest land. Ex- 
cluding Alaska, there is 624 million acres—one-third 
of the total land and about two-thirds of the origi- 
nal forest area. About 461 million acres is com- 
mercial, suitable and available for growing merch- 
antable timber. The potential productivity of this 
vast domain is great—enough eventually to fill do- 
mestic needs generously, provide for national emer- 
gencies, and export to a world undersupplied with 
timber, as it is with food. 
2. The supply of all-important saw timber is 
steadily shrinking... Originally there must have been 
8,000 billion board feet or more. In 1945 there 
was about 1,601 billion. The difference plus what 
additional wood has grown in the meantime was 
used up or destroyed. ‘The quantity of saw timber 
is still declining. In the 15 timber States for which 
A smaller . 
comparable Forest Survey data are available, con- 
taining 60 percent of the Nation’s saw timber and 
accounting for almost three-fourths of the annual 
drain, the saw-timber stand declined 156 billion 
board feet (14 percent) in a period averaging 11 
years prior to 1945. 
3. Our forests are operating in the red. More 
timber is cut or destroyed each year than is replaced 
by growth. Saw timber is growing at an annual 
rate of about 35 billion board feet. But the 54- 
billion-board-foot annual drain by cutting and by 
natural losses in 1944—though well below the 60 
billion board feet of the peak war years, 1941-43, 
and below that of 1946 and 1947—exceeded saw- 
timber growth by about 50 percent: 
1944 
Growth drain Drain 
(billion (billion ratio 
bd. ft.) bd. ft.) (percent) 
Section + 
North se ee ee ee 84 9.0 108 
Souths: ei eee ah eee eee 19.9 24.9 125 
WSU aah eae a rapes 7.0 20.0 285 
United States 35.3 53.9 153 
1 For boundaries of sections referred to, see fig. 2, p. 14. 
True, for all timber including that less than saw- 
timber size, there was a near balance between drain 
(13.7 billion cubic feet) and growth (13.4 billion). 
But there is little satisfaction in this because 80 
percent of the drain is in saw timber, particularly 
the better softwoods, whereas much of the growth 
is in small low-grade trees and inferior hardwoods. 
Because of the backlog of virgin timber, the over- 
cut is not dangerous in the West, but continuation 
of the present rate and character of cutting in the 
East would sacrifice future productivity. Actually 
it is unlikely that the present drain in the East will 
continue, for obtaining suitable stumpage is in- 
creasingly difficult. But projecting 1944 drain 20 
years ahead in all regions! (assuming no change in 
cutting practices) indicates a 27-percent reduction 
in our saw-timber stand by 1965. For the two lead- 
ing timber-products regions—the Southeast and the 
Pacific Northwest—the decline would be 60 and 39 
percent, respectively. 
4. Forest industries are feeling the pinch of tim- 
ber shortages and declining quality. Even in the 
West local timber shortages are already making 
themselves felt; in western Washington less than 
half the primary forest industries have enough pri- 
vate timber in sight to keep going more than a few 
years. In the South a horde of little sawmills are 
1For boundaries of regions referred to, see fig. 2, p. 14. 
2 Miscellaneous Publication 668, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
