1930's and culminated in 

 Chief Lyle Watts' issuing a 

 policy statement in 1943 

 endorsing its use. 



World War II demands for 

 manpower ended the Corps 

 in 1 942. Loss of men and 

 money reduced the Forest 

 Service management 

 activities during the war to 

 the custodial management 

 typical of the 1920's. 



At the close of the war, the 

 National Forest Reservation 

 Commission (U.S. 

 Congress, Senate 1946) 

 said of the national forests: 



The war is won and the 

 country can now turn 

 its energies to peaceful 

 pursuits, among which 

 must be the 

 conservation and 

 rebuilding of its natural 

 resources which are 

 the bases of its 

 prosperity and strength, 

 In this effort the 

 extension and 

 consolidation of the 



national forests as 

 provided by the Weeks 

 Law and allied acts can 

 play a large and useful 

 part. 



The task of building the 

 national forests into 

 useful public properties 

 and effective 

 instruments for 

 conservation and 

 increased production of 

 forest resources is well 

 begun; it should be 

 promptly resumed and 

 diligently carried 

 forward. 



In the interest of the war 

 effort, the cut on some of 

 the forests had been 

 increased beyond the 

 annual allowable cut 

 budgeted for the period. 

 Yet the southern national 

 forests began the 

 post-World War II period 

 with a pine and hardwood 

 sawtimber inventory of 13.8 

 billion board feet (Behre 

 and Hutchinson 1946). 



34 



