4 STATUS OF FORESTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



by destructive use and the scourge of unchecked fires, while less than 

 1 per cent is properly handled for successive crops or effectively pro- 

 tected from fire. The forest as a resource is rapidly being obliterated. 



But the inventory of the forests has had yet other ugly facts to 

 reveal. With the disappearance and deterioration of the mountain 

 forests the Nation is losing control of the streams, which are useful in 

 our civilization in ways and degrees unparalleled by any other resource. 

 Pure water for domestic purposes is, of course, indispensable; usable 

 water at the right seasons is the sole reliance of the great projects by 

 which the arid lands are vivified by irrigation; cheap water transpor- 

 tation is a matter of dollars and cents to every citizen ; trustworthy 

 power streams are the key to the age of electricity, at the gates of 

 which modern industry is standing. Yet the guardian of the waters 

 is steadily compelled to retreat before the ax and fire. 



It is not use which destroys the forests, but waste. Not use as 

 such, but destructive use, combined with inexcusable neglect, is caus- 

 ing the forests to dwindle under our progressive demands upon them. 

 The problem, therefore, is not to be solved by disuse, but by wise use 

 and protection. These together will so stimulate forest growth that 

 the needed wood may be harvested without depleting the stock 

 on hand, and will keep intact the protective cover at the stream 

 sources. 



In waste alone we reject more than two-thirds of the lumber that 

 might be taken from the standing trees. At least half of this waste is 

 unnecessary. In the first place, we waste the forest by refusing to 

 take advantage of its full capacity for growth. Protected and prop- 

 erly managed, our forests will produce far more wood than they do 

 at present. But while it is wasteful to cripple the forest by a 

 violent lumbering which destroys young growth — the promise of the 

 future forest — it is doubly wasteful to lock up the forest and let the 

 ripe timber die and decay, for in the former case the forest at least 

 contributes a temporary supply of wood, whereas in the latter case it 

 contributes no wood at all. 



What is being done to cope with the situation thus disclosed, and 

 what remains to do? What is the work of the National Govern- 

 ment? What are the States doing to conserve their forests? What 

 advance has been made in the practice of forestry by private owners 

 of timberlands and woodlots? These questions will be briefly an- 

 swered in order. ^ 



a Forest Service publications dealing with the forest situation are: Circular 35: 

 Forest Preservation and National Prosperity; Circular 140: What Forestry Has Done; 

 Circular 157: A Primer of Conservation; Circular 166: The Timber Supply of the 

 United States. 

 [Cir. 167] 



