The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-12-06
FORESTRY REPORT
SHOWS SITUATION

The needs for stable relationship
of the forest industries to the forest
land and for solution Of the problem
of economic and productive land use
are keynotes in the annual report Of
the Forest Service, U. s. Department
of Agriculture, for the fiscal year,
made public Wednesday.
Reviewing the current situation in
forestry in the United States, Major
R. Y. Stuart, Chief of the Forest Ser
vice, pointed out especially the factors
which in the Pacific Northwest are
forcing private forest owners to iq-
uidate as rapidly as possible, and the
necessity for readjustment Of the en-
tire industry to timber growing basis.
Inevitably" the Foresters report
says, "a stable relationship of the
forest industries to the forest land
will be worked out in time. But the
process of readjustment TO a forest
economy based on timber growing
should, If possible, be facilitated by a
constructive public policy. Its formu-
lation is not task for foreSters alone
It will call for the participation of
financiers, economists, and leaders in
the field of governmental and bus
mess relationships. For it is a QueS-
ton of deviSing some plan of action
that will substitute orderly marketing
for the present pressure to iquidate
without creating monopolistic con-
troll of lumber prices by private in
terests or tranScending the limits OF
sound public policy"
Although the country's virgin tim
Der is largely gone, the report says
economic conditions have reached the
point at which the remaining stands
are being sufficiently husbanded, with
due regard to their unique quality
and to future requirements. Beyond
this, the pressure to iquidate holdings
of virgin timber is operating as pow
erfu deterrent to the reorganization
of our fore.t economy on the basis
of timber growing in place of forest
exploitation, and to more rapid pro-
gress in establishing right methods OF
land use.
What will eventually have to be
worked out is not only greater in
dustrial efficiency but the making over
of the industry from one unrelated
to and unconcerned with forest pro-
duction to one correlated with and
based upon the use of land for sus-
tanned, permanent supplies of what
ever quantities and kinds of raw mat
erial the industry can profitably turn
into marketable manufactured pro-
ducts; from a migratory and trans
itory into a fixed and permanent in.
dustry. And this is more than ar
internal problem of the lumber in
dustry. 1t is also a public end-tht
attainment of a sound forest econ
omy"
The Forester's report strongly en-
phaSizes the danger of increased
areas of nonproducing land and thu
destruction Of land values for per
manent productive use. Extensive Ia,
it is stated, are bringing a definite
desire for extension of public foresi
ownership to bring cut-over and de-
plered lands under public admins
tration as a means of preserving theil
productivity. The exploitation of tim
Der and the disappearance of the for.
est industries IN some regions havl
already brought economic retrogres-
sion, railroad abandonment, mount
ing tax burdens, depopulation, and
in some cases county bankruptcy
The Lake States furnish at presen
the most notable examples, but sim
iliar situations seem inevitable II
parts of the South and West
Agriculture and forestry togethe
must supply the answer" says TN