, 1909-09-30
Vast Importance of
National Forests

conservation was little more tnan
a phrase; to-day it is a vital issue
in u national development" says
Treadwell Cleveland, DR., in a Cir.
cular on the status of forestry III
this contry, which has just been
issued by the United States For
est Service. "In connection with
the general plan to Use all
natural resources, it is the most
important and far-reaching econo-
mic policy ever adopted and per-
sued by any nation.
"The forest is one of the chief
supports of the whole material
fabric of our CIVILIZATION. The for
est means not only a permanent
supply of wood and the life of all
the Industries which depend upon
it, but also the control of the
waters for human use. There is
only barrenness in the future of
the nation which has lost the use
of wood and the control of water.
"The sort of use that was made
of natural during the
pioneering stage, while right en-
ough at the time, is far too waste
full to be carried on into the new
industrial era. In order to know
how to use a thing, however, it is
necessary first to find out how
much of it there is to use, and
taking stock of our forest resour-
ces has led to startling results.
4" 1t has shown that We are still
destroying the forest as We use it;
that we are taking from it every
year three and one half times as
much wood as is added by the
new growth, 1t has shown that
less than one-third of the growing
tree felled by the lumberman is
ever used at all, 80 that two-thirds
of all the timber cut is simply
destroyed. 1t is shown that one
eleventh of all the forests are
swept by fires every year, and that
ON an average since 1870 forest
fires have yearly cost $4,000, 900
in timber and fifty lives. 1t has
shown that over ninty-nine per
cent of the forests in private
hands-which comprise three
fourths of all the forest land and
four-tifths of all the woods thus
devasted by destructive use and
the scourge of unchecked fires,
while less than one per cent is
properly handled for successive
crops or effectively protected from
fire. The forest as a resource is
rapidly being obliterated.
"But the inventory of the for
ests has had yet other ugly facts
to reveal. With the disappear
ance and deterioration of the
mountain forests the Nation is
losing control of the streams,
which are useful in our civiliza-
ton in ways and degrees unparal-
leled by any other source. Pure
water for domestic purposes is,
of course, Indispensable; disable
water at the right season is the
sole reliance of the great projects
by which the arid lands are vivi-
fed by irrigation; cheap water
transportation is a matter of dol
lars and cents to every citizen;
trustworthy power streams are the
key to the age of electricity, at
the gates of which modern indus-
try is standing. Yet the guardian
of the waters is steadily compelled
to retreat before the ak and fire.
SIN 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 capa-
city for growth. Protected and
properly managed, our forests will
produce far more wood than they
do at present. But while it is
wasteful to cripple the forests by