UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION No. 162 
“ Issued July 1933 
Washington, D. C. Revised July 1940 
OUR FORESTS: WHAT THEY ARE 
AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO US 
By MAri£ Foote HEISLey, assistant in education, Division of Information and 
ail Education, Forest Service 
CCNTENTS 
Page Page 
imiyOG UChIOnN™ Ser = sain a here Pe eke ee 1 | How our forests serve us—Continued 
What the forest is: Forests and water supply__________________- 21 
Rhetorest COMMUNITY. ene 2 Other uses of the foresi 2 22 
FLOWFa ECC HVGS a4 oe ore a ees 2 | Enemies of the forest: 
LOW SET CCICKOWSs2- 8 nn ee 3 Fire—the arch destroyer__.-...___-__-___-_-- 23 
Relatronsnips Of rees 225 ss ee ee. r Insects... =3<_ .... Saas Ee ad 28 4: 25 
FROTES ESO Lite eee a E es TAs Kunpus diseases... ae eee 25 
Animals of the forest community___________ ) Other:enemics . 2-5 Tee eee eee ee 26 
Forest regions of the United States: Forestry in the United States: 
INortherniforest region: 22) 10 What forestry is_. | ae eee 26 
Central hardwood forest region_____________ 11 Federal forestry: ..2 4 See ee 28 
Southerniiorestrerione se 12 State forestry... 2. ee 32 
eRFODICRIUTOTESE VOPION = s—- 252) toa Te 14 Harm: forestry... eee eee ee 33 
Rocky Mountain forest region_____________- 14 Commercial forestry = ee 35 
Pacific coast forest region__________________- 16 | Timber, a vital national resource_______________ 36 
How our forests serve us: 
ROTESt DLOGUCLS: eens re = es 18 
INTRODUCTION 
The history of the United States is staged against a forest back- 
ground. From earliest colonial times the forest has played a most 
important part in the life of the country. Although the early set- 
tlers had to wrest from it the land upon which to grow their crops, 
it furnished the timber vitally needed in building their homes and 
industries. Some of the first colonial exports were forest products, 
such as planks and staves, pitch and tar. The tall pines of New 
England furnished masts and spars for many a ship, and by the time 
of the Revolution were carrying canvas on all the Seven Seas. 
As the country expanded the forest provided most of the sinews 
of development and trade. The prairie schooners and canal boats of 
the pioneers were made of wood, and the early railroads which fol- 
lowed them, like those of today, were laid on wooden ties. Number- 
less communities sprang up, subsisting mainly upon the bounty of 
the forest. Each decade saw more and more forests cut away with 
the extravagance born of the idea that America’s forests were inex- 
haustible. More and more forest land was laid bare, to be developed 
into towns and farms or to be left lying idle and unproductive. The 
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