Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-05-25
Georgia Loss and Peril
From, Great Forest Fires

SHARP challenge to Georgia's pride
n and prudence alike rings from the
publication Of government statistics
showing that within the last half decade
100000 acres of her forest lands have been
swept by fire. There is not business, not
a household, not citizen in all the common
wealth. to whom this fact ID not Of large
significance. For when destruction threat
ems the base of those industries which, with
the one exception of food-raising, are of
chief concern to the general veal, no one
dare be indifferent. Without forests the
major portion of our productive interests, ag-
riculture included, would shrivel and perish.
1t is of the utmost Importance, therefore,
that the State protect it's timber resources
against fire-not against fire alone, for there
are other we dangers and wastes, but
certainly against the one which simple watch
fitness can contrr' This is more urgent be-
cause of the rapid diminution Of once teem-
ing forest treasures. The virgin timber area
in Georgia has been reduced to llttle more
than 100000 acres, about one-tWentleth OF
it's original expanse In the last ten years, the
records shows, the lumber cut has decreased
a third; and within the last twenty-three
years naval stores production, once source
of vast enrichment to the commonwealth, mas
declined three-fourths.
If Georgia alone we're in jeopardy OF tim
Der exhaustion, while other regions were
plentifully supplied for decades ana cen
turtles to come, we might regard the situation
with less anxiety in so far as it concerns In
dustries, darkly serious though 1t would re-
main in its bearing upon agriculture. But
the South as a whole and the country as
whole is fac. with imperative problems OF
forest depict l. With sixty per cent OF the
primal supply exhausted, this nations tim
her is being consumed four times faster
than it is being grown, at which rate there
will be none left within quarter OF CEN
tury or so unless adequate measures Oh pro-
lection and replenishment are adopted De-
times The pine forests of the South At
lantic and Gulf states have been reduced
from some six hundred and fifty billion board
feet to about one hundred and thirty-n
billion. For fifteen years or more the
South has furnished building and struc-
tural timbers for the Eastern and Central
states; but ten years hence, authorities
predict, those regions will have to begin I'M
porting from the Pacific coast, while the
South will be producing less than her own
needs require.
Evidently. then, Georgia must conserve her
own forests if she is to be in any wise secure
against future want To safeguard them
against fire is particularly important form
of conservation because it is fundamental to
others. Forester Greeley, Of the United
States Government, we'll observes in letter
to Mr. B. H. Stone, chairman Of the Georgia
~
grown, and the public cannot expect 1t to
be grown, unless the growing Of 1t is feas-
ible undertaking for the owner of the land
This means, first of all, public assistance in
keeping out fires. The private owner, in
most cases, cannot individually give his land
adequate protection, even though he wishes
to do so, if he is exposed to losses from the
careessness of Others A protective system
maintained by the tate and generally and ef-
ficiently applied is therefore essential. Moth
ing else can take it's place, and nothing else
can do so much toward hating the process
of forest destruction now going on with con-
sequences so detrimental"
Merest prudence demands that Georgia
take due steps, by way Of cooperation with
the national government, in guarding her
ever more valuable forests against fire. The
example has been set by number OF South
ern states, notably Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas, all of whom
receive allotments of government funds sup
Elementary to appropriations of their own for
this important purpose. Georgia took good
stride forward in creating, last year, State
board of forestry, whose primary business Is
to investigate and to recommend needfui
measures. It is greatly to be hoped that the
advice of the boil and Of the forestry COM
mittee as touching fire peril and prevention
will meet with proper legislative response.