, 1926-05-05

VIZ OoaAS 1O
considerable alarm, forests are so es-
sential to the well being of the ma
ton. The situation to which the pub
lie is just now awakening was rec
ognized by the United States govern
ment so years ago, in 1876, when DR..
Franklin B. Hough was appointed as
special agent to inquire into forest
conditions.
1t was 90 years later, during the
administration of our great conserva-
tionalist president, Theodore Roose-
welt, that the Forest Service came
into being and under the able leader
ship of Clifford Pinchot began the
struggle to save the remaining forest
areas. For 81 years we have labored
necessarily to arouse the public to
a sense of their responsibility, for
without the support of the people no
great progress is possible.
Congress has recently passed the
Clarke-McNary Act, which lays the
foundation for a national forest policy
that provides for cooperation between
the states and the federal government
in solving the problems that confront
US with relation to our forest resourc-
es. Upon this we must build a policy
of national action, supported by pub
lie opinion and knowledge and made
effective by sufficient money to &C
cOmplish the needs.
In order to bring forest production
up to u national requirements we
must stop the leaks. Forest fires now
burn more timber than is used in
manufacture. Wasteful practice in
manufacture is another heavy drain,
and insects kill as much timber as
fire. How can we stop these leaks?
Eighty-seven per cent of u fires
are man caused and preventable. The
Madison laboratory of the forest SER
vice is continually developing new
uses for wood waste and the Bureau
of Entomology has a corps of experts
studying and directing the fight
against the insect enemies of the
trees. We have already made pro-
gress and rapid strides may be looked
for in the future.
Then we have our 81 million acres
of idle land, all of which should be
put to growing trees. Eighty-one
million acres unfit for growing any
other crop. Planting is slow and ex-
pensive, but not so expensive as idle
land. OF the 81 million acres in the
United States which is in need of
planting, only about two million are
within the national forests. This
does not include the entire acreage in
need of reforestation, but the balance
will come in through national repro
duction.
Our objective in planting is to make
productive every acre of land in the
National forests that ought to be
growing timber. That is a long time
objective. Congress has not accepted
it as yet as an objective on which pro-
gress in proportion to the volume of
the Job should be made. We are at
present limited in carrying out this
objective through lack of funds. In
the organization Of that work we have
set up a series of projects which we
are carrying out as well as we can
with funds available. In picking
these projects we have had certain
principles in mind. One is that we
should so far as practicable concen-
trate on land where we a get the
best returns for our money. This is
Illustrated in our work in the AXE
! states which has been built up until
we are now planting a greater acreage
in that region than in any other. 1t
is also illustrated by the extent to
which planting has been developed
in the Idaho white pine region where
we are planting species of known
value in a region of rapid growth;
and on the west coast in old Douglas
fur burns, where growth is very rapid.
The work in the mountains of east
ern Colorado, largely on municipal
water sheds, while not in u region of
rapid growth or of cheap planting,
illustrates another principle, which is
that of picking projects. We will
choose those which will have the
greatest influence on creating favor
able conditions of water flow. II is
unfortunate that we are so situated
that we cannot undertake planting
in the east on the scale on which it
should be undertaken. With our in
vestment in nurseries and the like, il
is difficult to shift work between re-
gions. We figure that we have about
two million acres in need of planting
as contrasted with the 10 or 10 thou
sand acres which we are able to plant
yearly.
As a part of the objective to supply
timber when needed by citizens, the
general policy of the Forest Service
has been and is TO cut wherever pos
sible so as to leave the basis for an
early second cut. In other words, the