Evening star., 1922-10-06
POINTS OUT PER|[S
OF TIMBER KILLING
Speaker at 0ptimist Club
Sees Forests Laid Waste
Unless U. S. Acts. !

There are only 100000, 900, 900
board feet of timber in today's stand
ing forests of the United States and
100000, 100000 feet Of this every year
goes into material for building and
industrial use. In the face of this
killing off of timber. America will be
without resources In timber in few
generations unless the remedy Of gov
ernmental reforestation is resorted to
as quickly as possible.
These were points summarized by
Lee L. Herrell, lumberman. at Wednes-
days meeting of the Optimist Club at
the Arlington Hotel.
Reviews Lumber Industry.
Mr.. Herrell reviewed. in twenty
minutes. the entire lumber industry
of the United States.
This industry is second only to
agriculture in it's extent he said
There are twelve billion dollars in
vested capital and a million employees
working in the industry and its al
lied branches.
when the pilgrims landed on
Plymouth Rock the New England
state, Pennsylvania and New York
were covered with virgin forests
These forests have gone now. Indus
try ate them up, and moved to the
great lakes for the next operation
After the forests of the great lakes
Tegion had been considerably de-
pleted the lumber industry moved
south and such was the demand for
timber in that section that now only
enough timber is standing there to
last about fifteen or twenty years
with the present demand. In 1909 the
timber cut in the south Atlantic
states began to recede and has speed
lily declined since.
Now on Pacific Coast.
The industry now is centered in the
Rocky mountain section and on the
Pacific coast. At the latter place
Douglas FIR and spruce forests are
feeling the drain of the timber cut
ters.
The standing timber today totals
2.2oO,000,0 100000 board feet. One.
fifth of this. or bit more than 40O..
900, ,O00, 900 board feet is in hardwood
All the hardwood now standing is
in the lower Mississippi valley, anc
on the Appala chian mountain range
The king timber of today is Dougla:
fir. of which there is standing ir
Pacific coast northern states abou
wood forests of the west today con
tain S3,O0O.000o00 board feet Of
timber.
Urges Fire Control.
"a considerable saving in timber
can be effected by the better contro
of forest fires. These fires destroy
650.OO0,OO0 feet of timber each year
THE annual output of the lumber
industry is something like 10000
100000 board feet. OF this amount
the building industry takes from q
to so per cent, and the railroads take
about 40 per cent of the remainder tc
make their annual 100, 100000 to 1885,
10000 ties.
The only hope of this country is
governmental reforestation. This Is
the only way that 1 can think of in
which the timber of America can be
saved. The average per capita utili-
zation of lumber in the United States
amounts to 300 feet. This means 30C
feet of timber each year for each per-
son in the United States. So you can
see where we stand on timber"
President DR. Wade H. Atkinson
was in the chair. First prize was
awarded to G. E. S. Williams
secretary of the club. being presented
by Walter S. Ward, and the second
prize of flowers presented by George
II. Shaffer was won by Optimis,
Thomas Sergeon.