The Seward gateway., 1922-02-17
NATIONAL FORESTS


 Fall Plans to Do With Alaska" and "The Lock that Protects Alaska's Ma tional Timber" These articles are in defense of the conservation of national fimber in Alaska and opposes a trans ter or the administration of the Ma tional Forests in Alaska from the De. partment of Agriculture to the De partment of Interior where they would be under control of Secretary Fall who is in favor of the removal of Secre- tary Fall who is in favor of "the removal of every lock- bar, fence or wall round the remaining national do main; he wants to take the gates down and throw them away, remove even the hinges so that access to pub lie property may be free and unim- peded."
 The Sunset is very fair in acknowl edging Alaska is suffering from too much bureaucratic government and that Alaska is entitled to simplif1ca- tion of the overlapping jurisdiction of twenty Government bureaus now con- trolling Alaska, but insists that Alaska is not entitled and must not be per mitted to play the old game of grab and run with the national property in its boundaries. This is especially true with the national forests Our oil and our coal may be tied up too tight to be of use but these matters are now under the control of the Department of the Interior and we would like to see Secretary Fall loosen the strings to these natural resources.
 Forests, on the other hand, are of different nature than other natural resources and are subject to much different treatment. Scientific forestry has worked out the scheme whereby the forests can be made to yield per petually and the natural forests of the United States and Alaska are now un- der regulations necessary to assure a continual yield of trees for ages. Un- der such regulations as the Bureau of Forestry prescribe relative to cutting trees from the national forests every legitimate need for timber can now be supplied. The~forests are not lock ed up. There is easy access to all the timber needed for any industry All that is required is that when the last of the original trees is cut down, a new stand of timber is ready for the harvest on the land that was cut first. All this requires is a systematic meth cd of harvesting the forests, not slaughtering them as was done in the early days of numbering in the United States.
 The pulp projects in Alaska now have permits to cut 700,000,000 of pulp timber growing in the Alaska forests. This is only a small part of the stand
 
 beginning of the harvest. Under the regulations of Forest Service the Alas ka pulp mills will always have sup ply of timber and unlike the mills in New England, Michigan and Wiscon- sin they won't have to go to Canada for their pulp while millions of acres around them are producing neither trees nor crops.
 Secretary Fall is right when he says that big business must be permitted to enter Alaska and the laws must be changed to permit it. Alaska can only be developed by the expenditure oI capital in large amounts. But changes in regulations and laws are needed as to other resources and not as in the forests. The Department of Interior has no more business administering the forests than it has administering affairs of State.
 The regulations of the Forestry Ser wee III AldShd are 6Neu ulOIe lIUcIdl than in the states and there is no req son why the forests of Alaska should be treated in the same manner as many of the great forests of the States were before the United States took up forestry. It has taken years of study and research work to determine how the forests can be made use of and still not destroy them. To remove the forests in Alaska from the admin istration of the Bureau of Forestry would deprive them of the benefit of this knowledge and scientific treat ment. Even China has come to real ize the benefit of forestry. Should Alaska be less enlightened.