Show sees forest conservation needs need vast areas of spent timberland attest to careless practices by LYLE F WATTS chief U S forest service recently in an address before a section of the society of american foresters at milwaukee wis I 1 discussed the nations forest situation and presented the need for reasonable public control of the treatment of private forest lands in commenting on that paper a friend of mine alleged that in normal periods the basic american forestry problem is not one of scarcities scar cities but of surpluses not of timber famine but of timber abundance I 1 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 ol of scarcity versus abundance I 1 want to make it clear that forestry Is something more than boards ties cordwood and other forest products to me forestry has a humin human side it on encompasses compasses permanent communities with prosperous industries and a stable tax base it means good schools public health and attractive homes it means security for or the worker to invest in a home and for foi the butcher the baker and beauty shop keeper to invest in a business seventy per cent ot of new england Is forest land but 75 per cent of an all the wood products consumed in new england comes from outside the region the only evidence of surplus so lar jar as I 1 know li is in small smal low grade material which cannot be marketed even under the intense demend demand of thi the huge industrial population the hurricane of 1838 1038 followed by abnormal wartime requirements for box boards has left only scattered remnants of merchantable white pine in central new england scarcity of stumpage forced several of the leading operators in massachusetts to move out of that state recently even in the wild lands of maine most ol of which have been gone over several times by logging opert operations lons since colonial times the average cut of pulpwood taking all that is considered merchantable from the ground Is estimated at only four our cords per acre such an average certainly implies no troublesome surplus of available timber not so many generations genera tiona ago pennsylvania was the leading source of the nations lumber supply in 1941 it ranked among the states with an output of less than I 1 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 or virginia showed growth in 1940 some 25 per cent in excess of drain by cutting so perhaps we should find a timber surplus here butof what significance is an excess of 0 growth over drain when lumber output is only about hall half ot of what it was 30 years earlier the decline in virginias lumber output is a reflection of scarcity stands with as much as board feet per acre occupy less than 4 per cent ol of the total forest area more wood was consumed by non lumber use than for lumber in 1940 the coastal plain and piedmont regions of the deep south contain over million acres of land wonderfully adapted to tree growth but not well suited salted for far other purposes all but a small fraction of the old growth timber has been out 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 20 million acres mostly in the longlett lon gleat pine belt of the coastal plain lie he denuded only one fourth of the total cubic volume of pine pin e is 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 tor for almost 60 per cent of the cubic volume ot of oil all trees the timber supply Is vital to the great agricultural states of the middle middie west the situation became so acute in 1942 that two large farm cooperatives boight sawmills in distant 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 beginning 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 example were built of yellow poplar yellow poplar grows almost as fast a as any of our softwoods soft woods and Is a just as a easily worked but today it Is tar far too precious to put into barns it Is no longer a significant part ol of the stock of the local lumber yards all the big pine operations ere are no now gone from the missouri ozarks output of softwood lumber in missouri in 1842 1042 was only 30 million board feet yet in 1889 1899 most of the three fourths billion board feet of lumber cut in that state was softwood throughout the hill country from fro missoura sourm eastern ohio to western Mis millions of acres of once magnificent hardwood forests have degenerated into mere brush cover many of the V C even in new england where this huge red oak tm towering vering feet up and measuring almost 20 feet in circumference was c cut U t there is u no real timber surplus hardwood industries of the ohio and mississippi valleys must now pay heavy transportation charges for raw material from other regions in order to continue operation some of them face extinction the lake states affords one of the most serious chapters of our forest history here are some 52 million acres of generally level forest land favorably located with reference to important industrial du and agricultural a sections extensive clear cutting and uncontrolled forest fire have made a large part of this area an economic liability the white pine pice ind and red pine which contributed so bountifully to 0 o the de of the middle west are tow cow little more than mc moiles al though some old growth chiefly hardwood still remains the most significant I Int aspect aspects ds Is the large proportion of inferior species notably jack pine and aspen in the second growth having looked in vain tor for timber surpluses in other Import important int forest fores regions we turn at last to the west wes t coast the umber of idaho and montana was almost untouched up to 1900 but the wave of depletion is rolling roiling through this country with startling speed in idaho the five northern counties were opened up first and were soon pretty thoroughly exploited ed output reached a peak of million board feet in 1923 in 1937 it was only million rn Ullon obviously payrolls in these northern counties declined in about the same fame ration as lumber production towns me like sand point and coeur dalene were hard hit and spokane turned its eyes from the panhandle of idaho to the grand coulee dam thi the increased output now coming corral ng from the he t five counties farther south rests on a precarious base only one tenth of the 10 million acres of forest in north idaho Is in white pine yet this tenth Is bearing the brunt of current cut white pine output Is now 2 times what the forests can sustain but even within this region the apparent surplus Is local in character the only area still largely undeveloped is a portion of southern oregon in the older districts notably around puget sound the bulk of the readily accessible has been removed sawmills have shut down and pulp mills mille have assumed greater importance the available stand is no longer as large as the growing stock needed to sustain a cut commensurate with the growth capacity of the land Is n d the lower columbia river district with large mills and 40 billion feet of is already feeling the pinch of scarcity about halt half of the private belongs to two large companies most of the other mills face difficulty in getting the timber they need tor for longtime long time operation I 1 want to close by stating my conviction that a comprehensive legislative charter Is needed to give effect to a well rounded national forest policy and to strengthen the foundation tor for timely postwar action in the forestry field |