The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1909-06-02
THE FORESTS
OF IDAHO
How Shall They be Handled
To Get the Very Best
Possible Results?

eminent, the state and private own
ers, are unsurpassed anywhere. Vel
low pine, red fir, cedar, tamarack,
spruce, and white fir are found in
vast quantities and from numbering
standpoint are valuable in about the
order stated. Lodge pole pine while
at present not usually deemed mer-
charitable species is very widely dis
tributed and is destined to be of i'm
mense commercial value for mining
timbers, telegraph and telephone poles
and railroad ties when consumers are
brought to understand that by the
proper preservatiye treatment this
timber can be made so durable as to
be almost understandable by ordinary
decay.
That this supply of timber is an as
set of almost incalculable worth to the
people can not be questioned, neither
can there be any doubt as to the inn
portance of the method to be adopted
in the management of it, if the best
and most lasting benefits are to be
secured from its utilization. We can
not suppose for moment that such a
natural element of wealth may be
locked up and its beneficial use denied
to the people. Such policy would
be detrimental to the public good, and
economically, wholly unwarrantable.
On the other hand to permit our tim
Der resources to be wasted through
careless or injudicious use would be
equally indefensible. The alluring
immediate prospect of very extern
s!ye timber industry that for few
years would give feverish impulse to
local trade and then disappear should
not be allowed to divert us from the
broader view which comprehends the
lasting benefits that would accrue to
the whole community through the
conservative use of our timber re-
sources, which, treated as a perma-
nent investment, will produce indef-
nitely large return without impair
ment of the capital and thereby stimu-
late steady, healthy general trade
growth. The evils resulting from a
mistaken system of timber manage
ment may be seen in Wisconsin,
Michigan, and other states, where for
a time the numbering industry was pre-
dominant. Magnificent forests in
vited the timberman and the assurance
of large profits secured the establish
ment of great numbering plants that
speedily consumed the trees. With
the exhaustion of the timber supply
the plants were moved to keep in
touch with the receding forests anc
they left behind them denuded area.
unsuited to other than forest growth.
Fires swept clean what the axman haC
not cut so that the tracts which were
once very valuable to the timberlane
owner and which greatly enhanced
local valuations became practically
worthless TO the owner; the wastet
lands depressed rather than stimulate,
local industrial prosperity and FINAL,
for non-payment of taxes passed I,
the states upon whose hands they nov
rest as dead property detrimental (,
local communities and unremunera
tive to the general public. And il
this condition they will remain unit
the states, at much expense. shall b
able to renew forest growth upo
them, and, after long time, as stat
forests, make them timber producer
again.
Had those same lands from III
beginning been managed properl
they could have been made to yiel
an amount of timber products equal I
what has been taken from them an
today have their timber producin
efficiency unimpaired. The presel