The Forest Survey 
ECAUSE the forest problem is essentially one of land use and a part of the 
larger problem of agriculture and because forests are intimately tied into 
our whole social and economic life, an inventory of forests and an analysis of 
our needs for forest products are basic to permanent forest production and 
national welfare. It is estimated that forests grow on one-third of the land area 
of this country but neither this fact nor the condition or volume of timber of 
the land has ever been established by field investigation. To bridge this gap 
Congress authorized the Secretary of Agriculture through the McSweeney- 
McNary Forest Research Act of May 22, 1928, to conduct a comprehensive 
survey of the forest resources of the United States, now called the 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 forest-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, wind- 
fall, fire, disease, and other causes; (4) to determine the present consumption of 
timber and other forest products and the probable future trend in requirements; 
and (5) to interpret these findings and correlate them with existing and antici- 
pated economic conditions, to aid in formulating 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 avail- 
able. ‘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 Lake States by the Lake 
States Forest Experiment Station with headquarters in St. Paul, Minn. 
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