Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1944-10-20
BY LYLE F. WATTS
(Chicf u. S. Forest Service)

a section of the Society of Amer
lean Foresters at Milwaukee,
Wis, I discussed the nations
forest situation and presented
the need for reasonable public
control of the treatment of pri-
vate forest lands. In comment
ing on that paper, friend of
mine alleged that, "In normal
periods the basic American for
estry problem is not one of
scarcities but of SURPRISES, not
of timber famine but of timber
abundance" l want to explore
that philosophy because, if it is
true, there is really no occasion
for much concern about forest
conservation.
In discussing this question of scar
city versus abundance, I want to
make it clear that forestry is some
thing more than boards, ties, cord
me forestry has human side. 1t
encompasses permanent communi-
ties with prosperous industries and
stable tax base. 1t means good
schools, public health and attractive
homes. 1t means security for the
worker to invest in home and for
the butcher, the baker, and beauty
shop keeper to invest in a business.
Seventy per cent of New England
is forest land, but rs per cent of all
the wood products consumed in New
England comes from outside the re-
gion. The only evidence of surplus,
so far as know, is in small low
grade material which cannot be
marketed even under the intense de-
mand of the huge industrial popu-
lation.
The hurricane of 1898, followed by
abnormal wartime requirements for
box boards, has left only scattered
remnants of merchantable white
pine in central New England. Scar
city of stumpage forced several of
the leading operators in Massachu-
sets to move out of that state re-
Gently. Even in the wild lands of
Maine, most of which have been
gone over several times by logging
operations since colonial times, the
average cut of pulpwood, taking all
that is considered merchantable
from the ground, is estimated at
only four cords per acre. Such an
average certainly implies no
troublesome surplus of available
timber.
Not SO many generations ago
Pennsylvania was the leading source
of the nations lumber supply. In
1941 it ranked 23rd among the states
with an output of less than l per
cent of the total The original pine
forests have been largely replaced
by scrub oak and other hardwoods
as a result of fire following logging.
The forest survey for Virginia
showed sawtimber growth in 1910
some 25 per cent in excess of drain
by cutting. So perhaps we should
find a timber surplus here. But of
what significance is an excess of
growth over drain when lumber out
put is only about half of what it was
80 years earlier? The decline in Vir-
ginia'S lumber output is reflection
of sawtimber scarcity. Stands with
as much as 5000 board feet per acre
occupy less than per cent of the
total forest area. More wood was
consumed by non-lumber use than
for lumber in 1910.
The coastal plain and Pied
mont regions Of the Deep South
contain over $50 million acres of
land wonderfully adapted to tree
growth but not well suited for
other purposes. All but a small
fraction of the old-growth timber
has been cut so that any surplus
must be in second growth.
Almost three-fourths of this great
acreage is in thrifty second growth,
yet the growing stock is rated at
less than half of what it should be-
Some 10 million acres, mostly in the
longleaf pine belt of the coastal
plain, lie denuded. Only one-fourth
of the total cubic volume of pine is
sawlog material and almost three
fourths of that is in trees less
than 16 inches in diameter. In spite
of the ease of reproduction and the
exceptionally rapid growth of the
more valuable pines, hardwoods now
account for almost 60 per cent of the
cubic volume of all trees.
The timber supply is vital to the
great agricultural states of the Mid
die West. The situation became so
acute in 1912 that two large farm
cooperatives bought sawmills in dis
tant forest regions in order to be
sure of having the lumber they
needed.
Had the forests of this region been
given proper care from the begin
ming, farmers might still be able
to meet many of their needs from
local timber. Most of the older barns
in southern Ohio and Indiana, for
SAVE, GOOD TTMRER