The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1915-12-23
annual REPORT
FOREST SERVICE

The annual report of the Forester of
the Department of Agriculture made
public today comments ON the govern
ment ownership of water-power sites
and timber as exemplified by the Ma
tional Forest system. The financial
burdens resting on private owners of
uncut timber are held to have forced
the manufacture of lumber without re-
gard TO market demands, and with con-
sequent decentralization of the lumber
industry and wasteful use of timber re-
sources; while facts and figures regard
ing the water power situation are
given to prove that more rapid devel-
opment of water power in the West
is mainly prevented by the lack of
consumers, rather than by the absence
CT suitable legislation.
Water power permits taken out for
National Forest projects, says the re.
port, involve a total of 1,261 $50 horse
power. Free permits cover 70,628 horse
power and the plants actually con-
structed or operating June 80 had an
output capacity of 341, ,276 horsepower,
the rentals paying $4,000 during the
year. The report comments ON the
water power situation as follows:
''New legislation permitting the
government to grant a more secure
tenure for the lands used, through the
issuance of 50-year leases, would, with
out doubt, make the financing of power
developments on the public lands both
easier and cheaper, and is very desir
able; but the main obstacle to more
rapid development than that which Is
how taking place is not lack of new
law but lack of broader market for
power. 1t is at least doubtful if either
an amended law or private ownership
of the public power sites would result
In any general or material increase in
power development in the Western
States in the immediate future. With
rare and minor exceptions, existing
power developments in these States are
far in excess of market demands. The
Forest Service is being constantly i'm
portuned to extend periods of construc
tion on power permits on the plea that
there would be no market available
for the power if the project were de-
veloped. The per capita use of water
power in electrical development in the
three Pacific and the eight Mountain
states is far in excess of that in any
other section of the United States, and
more than FIVE times the average for
the United States as a whole. The de-
velopment of the Pacific states is about
$50 horsepower per thousand of popu-
lation, and in the Mounain states 120
horsepower, with balanced average
of 100 horsepower. New England,
which is next in order, has less than
10 horsepower per thousand of popula-
tion, and the whole United States
about 30 horsepower"
"The drop of thirty per cent in the
demands for National Forest stump
age,o the report goes on to say, Gas
indicated by the falling off in new
sales, is a significant index of the un-
stable market for lumber and the se-
rious conditions now obtaining in the
fcrest-using industries. These con-
ditions which are now the subject of
a special study conducted by the De-
partment of Agriculture in co-opera-
tion with the Federal Trade commits
sion and the Bureau of Foreign and
Domestic Commerce, "are related pri-
marily to the carrying of enormous
quantities of raw material, exploitable
only during a long period of time, in
private ownership. This load of uncut
timber, with its far-reaching financial
burdens, hampers or prevents the pri-
vate operator from adapting his busi-
ness to the changing conditions of his
market and to the competitive factors
of more or less recent development.
Hence a tendency toward lumber out
put governed not by the requirements
of the country, but by the financial
necessities of the owners of stumpage,
with its resultant market demoraliza-
tion and wasteful use of timber re-
sources. Had the National Forests
never been created, the conditions Of
trade depression and wasteful exploit
alton, detrimental alike to the inter
ests of the lumber industry and the
public, would have been markedly ac-