1939: Forestry

Historic Review.

The attitude of the American nation toward its forests has been slowly reaching maturity. The initial outlook of the settler was simple and practical: the forest was an unmitigated nuisance, which offered minor compensations by supplying wood for construction and for fuel. Destruction was undertaken resolutely as the only means of converting a wilderness into habitable and civilized farmland. The attitude regularly reappeared as the frontier was pushed into new forest lands, and the last to succumb to the settler's ax was the Pacific Northwest.

Steady improvement and extension of transportation systems, coupled with a rapidly growing population, revealed economic possibilities in American timber, and the economic interest quickly caught up with the motif of settlement. The conquest of our wooded frontiers witnessed in both settler and lumberman a singleness of purpose — the annihilation of the forest — which, for a time, was sufficiently admirable to foster a sturdy literature and a virile legend, through which Paul Bunyon stalked as a destroyer of timber. Greatest of the traditions established in the frontier epoch of development was the limitless supply of wood for houses, wagons, boats, boxes, railroad ties, railroad cars, mine-timber — in short, all necessities of the Age of Wood, which overlapped the modern Age of Steel. It was not until the closing decades of the nineteenth century that the disappearing woodlands caused serious alarm, and there ensued the inevitable struggle between the self-seeking lumberman and the fanatic conservationist.

For more than a generation the battle of conservation was fought on a high moral plane, with the shortsighted lumber interests playing the role of villain. The combatants went through a complete industrial revolution without a single concession: Steel with its strength replaced wood in many structural uses; but the demand for wood products scarcely slackened as the lumber industry geared itself to supply the increasing demand for newsprint and other paper products. A new villain, far more menacing than the old, crept into the forests almost unnoticed — the American public, traveling, hunting, camping, smoking. Suddenly both the commercial lumberman and the conservationist realized that the new enemy was a common one, which was destroying more good timber than the ax. And from this belated realization, hastened somewhat by the segregation of many acres of forest land in national and state forests and by the dwindling reserves of virgin timber, has come a sanity of viewpoint which is just beginning to achieve results.

Forest Service Survey.

As evidence of this maturing viewpoint is the survey which, for the past eight years, has been conducted by the United States Forest Service under authority given it by the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928. Its purpose is to take stock of the country's forest resources and potentialities; and when completed, it will involve a field examination of nearly one-third of the nation's land area. Already the survey has covered three of the important forest regions — the South, the Lake States, and the Pacific Northwest; and the preliminary report issued by Raymond D. Garver, Director of the Forest Survey, is an illuminating document on the current status of American forestry.

In the Lower South, which includes Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and the commercial pine belts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, about 95 per cent of the 213,000,000 acres of actual or potential forest land is privately owned. After a century of land use, 57 per cent (122,000,000 acres) of the acreage remains forest land, in which the survey disclosed 254,500,000 board feet of saw timber available. A little more than half the total is pine; the balance hardwoods. Although the commercial drain on the supply varies from district to district, the saw timber is overcut 1,000,000,000 feet for the region as a whole, in an annual commercial production of 14,000,000,000 board feet — a quarter of the nation's wood supply. In this entire region prospects for the future are good. As cotton acreage decreases, forest acreage is bound to rise, and it should not take long for growth to balance cutting; and the cut can be increased by utilizing lower grade timber without affecting the balance. Half the present cut leaves the South for other national or foreign markets; and the South may, by increasing its forest growth, and by further processing and refining the wood products, anticipate an expanding industry and increased employment, even without much Federal or state supervision.

In the Lake States, about half the original timbered area, or 52,000,000 acres, is now commercial forest land, but only 7,000,900 acres contain saw timber of first quality. Here the reserve is but 20 per cent of that in the South, and to keep 1,000 miles operating and 50,000 workers employed, saw timber is being overcut 30 per cent. There is little hope of keeping these mills operating indefinitely, but the future of this region is not as black as it might appear. Better fire protection, vigorous progress to effect more intelligent land use, conversion of marginal lands from farm to forest — all are treads which may make for forest restoration; but it will require a generation to restore the Lakes States timber to a significant place in the Nation's forest reserves.

In the Pacific Northwest, four-fifths of the region is forest land, about equally divided between public and private ownership. This comparatively small section of the country contains 600,000,000,000 board feet of timber, or approximately one-third the total supply in the United States. But even this region with its vast reserves is suffering depletion at a rate that exceeds growth by two to one, for it is being called on to supply 30 per cent of the nation's timber, 23 per cent of its pulpwood, and 90 per cent of its shingles. Contributing to the annihilation of the Northwest's greatest natural resource is the heavy export of Douglas fir to Japan, Germany, Italy, and even British Columbia. The timber is shipped in the raw state as peeler logs for conversion into plywood, and one of the laments of the industry is the fact that every $100 worth of raw timber can, by conversion to plywood, be given a value of $1,200. It has actually been imported and resold in the United States at this figure. A bill (S. 1108) to restrict the exportation of Douglas fir peeler logs and Port Orford cedar logs passed the Senate in July but died in the House. Such an obvious source of income and employment is likely to linger in Congressional minds, and the bill may be re-introduced during the next regular session of Congress.

The Garver Forest Survey is only half finished. Field work and office analyses must still be done in California, the Southern Rocky Mountains, Montana, the Ohio Valley, and the entire Northeast. But even at this stage the survey should dispel the myth of an impending timber famine as surely as it should focus the nation's attention on the need for better protection of forest lands from fire, insects, and disease; for improved practices in woods and mills; for more intelligent and effective marketing; for further substitutions for wood in industry; and for a more comprehensive planting and reforestation program. The survey breaks with the sentimental conservationist by regarding our forests as a renewable natural resource, in which there is not merely the basis of vast and profitable commercial utilization but also the means of conserving soils from destruction and of saving lands from floods. Although it supplies no background for complacency and optimism, it demonstrates that we still possess timber and can still preserve it as a vital resource.

Causes of Forest Fires.

If United States forests are to be farmed as a commercial crop, the delicate balance between growth and cutting must not be impaired by such destruction as fire, insects, and disease wreck upon them. Of these three scourges fire is probably the worst; and because of the potentialities for control, it is receiving the earnest attention of foresters. A review of the fire hazard by Roy Headley, Chief of the Division of Fire Control in the Forest Service, reveals the astounding fact that there are 172,000 forest fires a year. And of this staggering total, 156,000 are caused by man. It is an occasion for alarm to realize that 42,000 fires are deliberately set, and that incendiarism accounts for 13,000,000, out of the 36,000,000 acres burned annually in fires.

Although man is the big offender in the national forests, nature plays more than four times as large a rôle in starting fires than she plays in private and public forest lands combined. And the relatively small number of fires in public forests as compared with privately owned forests is out of all proportion to the respective acreages involved. In terms of acreage, the area of national forest burned annually is now less than 0.2 per cent; the area of private and state forests protected by cooperative state and federal supervision is 1.0 per cent; whereas, the area of unprotected woodland burned annually reaches 16.4 per cent. True, the striking record achieved in the national forests has been bought at a price, for more than $6,000,000 a year is expended for the prevention and suppression of fires; but even so, measured merely in terms of the value of the timber, $6,000,000 is a low insurance premium to pay for protection. And such an evaluation ignores completely the other practical services which the forests perform.

Forest Fires of 1939.

Fires struck hard in several localities during 1939. More than 1,000,000 acres burned in the Florida Everglades late in March. Five lives were lost in the Toiyabe National Forest in central Nevada, where lightning started a fire late in July. On August 1, fire again struck the Tillamook district in northwestern Oregon, and after it raged 24 days, little that was left from the 1933 holocaust remained.

The year's danger spot was New England, for the hurricane of Sept. 21, 1938, left in its path through Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire hundreds of thousands of felled trees. Inflammable pine boughs constituted a fire hazard such as no section of the country had ever faced before, and the menace was dealt with effectively. Thanks to a winter of relatively light snow, the woods were accessible, and emergency timber crews cleared the more inflammable brush, especially in localities where human occupation increased the fire hazard. An exceptionally dry spring caused several anxious weeks in which small fires were numerous, but all were rapidly brought under control. The herculean task of cleaning has continued through the summer and fall, and winter comes again with the menace materially reduced, though by no means eliminated.

Timber Salvage in the Northeast.

A still greater problem faced New England as an aftermath of the hurricane — that of salvaging the timber felled by the wind. The problem was especially serious, for salvaging was a grim race with the insects which went into action in the spring. Speedy organization of the Northeast Timber Salvage Administration was followed by the posting of prices which the Federal Government would pay for logs delivered at designated points. Lakes and rivers were utilized for storage, and deliveries began before the winter was far advanced. Prices ranged from $12 to $18 per 1,000 board feet, with 80 per cent of the payment made upon delivery, and 20 per cent following sale of the logs. Although inadequate to enable land owners to make a profit, Government payments stimulated salvage work and cleaning, and they at least enabled New England farmers to realize something on what would otherwise have been total loss. The Northeast has taken stock of seriously depleted timber reserves with a growing appreciation of the need of reforestation, and it is probably more than wishful thinking to believe that this section of the country may emerge from the 1938 disaster with a more progressive forestry program than any yet adopted in other parts of the country.

Privately Owned Forest Lands.

But the nation as a whole is ripe for a progressive plan, as is demonstrated by a bill introduced into Congress (H.R. 7271 and S. 2927) during the last days of the session. In brief, the bill provides for Federal-state management and administration of privately owned forest lands on the basis of voluntary leases or agreements with the Secretary of Agriculture. The owner retains title to the land but must repay the Government for all advances to cover taxes and expenditures involved in the Government management. With power to foreclose vested in the Secretary of Agriculture, who may act if the terms of the voluntary agreement are not met, the bill will virtually give the Federal Forest Service absolute control over private forestry in the United States. Private owners, the states, and the public in general may well ask whether this is the price that must be paid for the restoration of the nation's forests to the position of a primary natural resource. Whether conservation will win in a struggle against states' rights and rugged individualism is a highly speculative question. See also CONSERVATION.