Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1908-01-22
FOREST PRESERVATION.
what President Roosevelt Says on
the Subject.


W. have made beginning in forest
.,.oservation. but it is only beginning
Is Is president Roosevelt. At present
,',,ner ia the fourth greatest industry in
49, Irp;,ed states, and yet so rapid has
-, ,h. rate of exhaustion OF timber in
- ,r,ited States in the past and so rap
.,,,. "a the remainder being exhausted
.tn+ the country is Internationally on the
- a, a timber famine which will be
~, !, every household in the land. There
-. a1roady been a rise in the price OF lum-
80 but there is certain to be more rapid
- hoavier rise in the future.
ri, present annual consumption OF
,,n,har is certainly three times as great as
~ annual outgrowth, and IL the con-
..,,,.ion and growth continue unchanged,
.,r,ct;cally all our lumber will be ex-
i.,s,os in another generation, while long
t,o,ora the limit to complete exhaustion
= coached the growing scarcity will make
;tse,i felt in many blighting ways upon
national welfare About 20 per cent.
- orr forested territory is now reserved
- rstional forests, but these do not in
oI,ds the most valuable timber lands, and
:, any event the proportion is too small to
.,nect that the reserves can accomplish
80 than mitigation OF the trouble
which is ahead for the nation.
Far more drastic action is needed. Dor
oats can be numbered so as to give to the
,uhlie the full use OF their mercantile
t;rber without the slightest detriment to
the forest, any more than it is detriment
,o a farm to furnish a harvest, so that
,bereis no parallel between forests and
mines. which can only be completely used
bv exhaustion. But forests, IL used as all
onr forests have been used in the past and
as most OF them are still used, will be
either wholly destroyed or so damaged
that many decades will have to pass before
effective use can be made OF them again.
All these facts are so obvious that 1t is
extraordinary that it should be necessary
TO repeat them. Every business man in
the land, every writer in the newspapers,
every man or woman OF an ordinary school
education, ought to be able to see that
immense quantities OF timber are used in
the country, that the forests which supply
this timber are rapidly being exhausted
and that, il no change takes place, ex-
hsustion will come comparatively soon
and that the effects OF IL will be felt
severely in the everyday life of our people
Surely when these facts are so obvious
there should be no delay in taking pre-
yentive measures. Yet we seem as ma
ton to be willing to proceed in this mat
ter with happy GO lucky indifference even
to the immediate future. 1t is this atti-
tude which permits the self interest OF a
very few persons to weigh for more than
the ultimate interest of all our people.
There are persons who find it to their
immense pecuniary benefit to destroy the
forests by numbering. They are to be
blamed for thus sacrificing the future Of
the nation as a whole to their own self
interest of the moment, but heavier blame
attaches to the people at large for permit
ting such action, whether in the White
mountains, in the southern Alleghanies or
in the Rockies and Sierras.
big numbering company. impatient
for immediate returns and not caring to
look far enough ahead will often aeIiber.
ately destroy all the good timber in a
region, hoping afterwards to move on to
some new country. The shiftless man OF
small means who does nos-care TO become
an actual homemaker, but would like
immediate profit, will find it to his advant-
age to take up timber land simply to turn
il over to such big company and leave il
yalueless for future settlers.
A big mine owner. anxious only IN
deyelope his mine at the moment, will