The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-04-25
PROTECTION OF
FORESTS TALKED
SENATOR LEWIS ADDRESSES
CHAMBER-PICTUR EFFECTS
OF CARELESSNESS.


OF CARELESSNESS.
Forest Protection Week" was
stressed at the weekly luncheon of
the Moscow chamber of commerce,
Wednesday. Senator NJ E. Lewis
made the principal talk, taking for
his subject, " Forest Fire Prevention"
and reciting the experiences Of the
eastern states, which are practically
denuded of their forests, and offering
suggestions for tbs protection Of Ida
hos great timber resources.
Dean F. G. Miller made short talk,
outlining the purposes of Forest
Protection Week"
Perpetuating the Forests
Senator Lewis said that forests,
consisting Of trees of all ages, from
the seeding to the tree which is ready
for the saw, if properly handled, will
yield perpetual supply of wood
products, and will be a permanent
commercial asset to any community,
furnishing constant employment. He
said
"The shipping of logs is the selling
of the crudest of its raw materials.
The operating of saw mills and sell
ing of lumber will furnish more labor.
etc., will employ still more The max
ing of matches instead of selling
match blocks is another step. The
| grinding of some of its tops and limbs
| into pulp is a further step, and the
making of this pulp into paper, both
news print and sulphide, employs
more labor. The use of the coarser
and darker colored fibres in making
papier-mache articles, and in making
1ndurated fibre ware, carries the en-
plOyment of labor step farther. Let
the chemist step in with new pro-
| cesses, new chemical combinations,
and who can tell what the limit will
be, or where employment can be
halted?
This is not a fanciful sketch,
drawn largely from the imagination.
1t is simply repeating the history of
the evolution of our forests in the
eastern states, and the older coun-
tries. During the early settlements
the extent of the forests seemed
limitless, inexhaustable. People had
to live, and to live they had to raise
crops. Chop down the trees. Burn
them up They encumbered the land.
The land must be cropped to live
Who of the older people coming
from timbered states in the east does
not remember the stories told of the
waste of timber in settling up the
country, and regret this waste? Fol-
lowing this waste came a constantly
growing demand for the timber that
was wasted, and constantly in
creasing price was offered for it.
The lack of this timber resulted in
the location of mills and factor
les elsewhere, and the loss of the
population necessary to run these in
duStrieS to the communities in which
the timber waste had occurred. Had
this timber been protected properly,
managed carefully, and perpetuated, :
the whole industrial life of that COM
munity would have been changed for
the better This is the history of
many, very many, eastern communi-
ties. In others the timber was
logged, sawed, and marketed, in the
mad scramble for the dollar wrapped
up in pine boards, and instead of
handling the timber resource care
fully and trying to perpetuate the
industry, it was handled wastefully,
no thought taken for the future, no
attempt made to save the younger
growth in the forests cut, and in most
cases the cut-over area was broad
cast burned and left a barren waste.
In both these instances great
natural resource, one which might
have been perpetuated for the bene-
fit and upbuilding of the several com
munities by being handled rightly,
was wasted, hogged over, burned and
left desolate, or turned into a medi-
ocre field for the raising of crops.
These are historical facts, not fanci-
full brain pictures. They are the his
tory of all the timbered lands in the
United States from Maine to Mime
sota
History Repeating
History has habit of repeating
itself The future is only Illuminated
by the light of experience. The his
tory of the timber industry in the
eastern states is being repeated in
Idaho and the other western states
There is a difference, however, be-
tween the conditions existing today
and those existing when the eastern
states were denuded. The establish
ing of our national forests; the pro-
of the conservation policy
effecting our natural resources by
President Roosevelt the growing
scarcity of timber, and the great
change of public sentiment, especially
in the eastern part of the country,
about the wasteful methods of hand
ling our timber resources, have
the sentiment of the people
Of the west very largely regarding
the value of timbered lands and the
necessity of preserving and petpetu
ating them. This change of senti-
nent is so strong, and the attitude of
he national government is so pro-
1ounced on the subject, that the large
concerns working here are
low inclined to so conduct their log
5ing operations as to conserve and
)erpetuate the forests as much as
possible if it does not add too great
burden of cost to their logging
operations in doing so. This change