Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-06-12
NO DANGER Of
EXHAUST|NC MA.
T|ONAL TIMBER

WASHINGTON, June 4.-That the
forest timber will not dangerously de
plete the country's wood supply is
the declaration of Chief Forester,
Henry S. Graves in a statement made
public today.
There is no danger of cutting off
the national forests too rapidly, .
said Mr.. Graves, nor viii our sales
strengthen the control of the lumber
ing industry by a few powerful COM
panies. In every individual sac
specific provisions are made to safe
guard the public interest in both
these particulars.
Not long ago the policy of conser-
walton, as applied to the national for
ests, was supposed to mean that the
| Government S timber resour ces were
indefinitely tied up. Now the fear
is expressed that we are cutting too
much timber-the other extreme. Be
cause the Forest Service is adverGs-
ing widely by commercial methods
it's more extensive sales and securing
| the utmost posi- Bile competition, some
people have apparently jumped to tn
conclusion that the Forest Service
aims to cut off all the National For
est timber within a few years. Or it
is assumed that We are making sales
chiefly to the larger lumber companie
and thereby playing into the hands
of big lumber interests
The function of the Forest Servic.
is primarily to avoid just those dam
gers; the evils of unset entific lumber
ing and the fostering of monopoly
How these evils are guarded against
is illustrated in our recent sales.
'The Forest Service recently ad
vertised about 245 million feet of tim
Der on the Kaniksu National Forest
in the northwest corner of Idaho
the first large sales in this locality
The Kaniksu Forest contains, as q
matter of fact, nearly 2,73O 100000
feet of merchantable stumpage Ter
years will be required to cut the
amount advertised, which is only ont
tenth of the total stand on the Forest
In other words, about lone per cent O
the timber on this Forest will be cu1
Off annually, no more than is being
produced every year by growth. Tht
| RI Cd, boc a. 7
two relatively small lumber compan
les, which have no affiliations with
large timber corporations and owl
but very small quantities of timber
themselves.
ga number of recent sales have
been made on the Whitman Nationa
Forest in the Blue Mountains of nortl
eastern Oregon. Within the las
three years nearly 100000 900 fee
have been contracted for on this Fol-
est. From seven to ten years will b
required to cut this timber, which il
less than 711a per cent Of the amoun
on the whole Forest. The Whitman
timber which has been sold is spill
up into four separate contracts, O
from Sc million to 75 million fee
each to four separate and independel
local companies. This can hardl.
be called promoting a monopoly
ga number of smaller sales hav4
been made in the same general re
gion to different local lumber compa1
les. For example, we have made on
sale of Sc million feet on the LolC
National Forest in western Monta ana
out of a total stand of over billion
feet. Another sale of IS million fee
has been made Gil the Columbia Ma
tional Forest in Washington, where
We have altogether nearly Z billion
feet of merchantable timber.