Our National Forests. Richard H. D. Boerker
are the lessons that some of the world's greatest nations have learned, in some cases through sad experience. The French people, after neglecting their forests, following the French Revolution, paid the penalty. France, through her reckless cutting in the mountain forests, has suffered and is still suffering from devastating floods on the Seine and other streams. Over one million acres were cut over in the mountains, and the slash and young growth that was left was destroyed by fire. As a result of this forest destruction the fertility of over 8,000,000 acres of tillable land was destroyed and the population of eighteen departments was impoverished or driven out. Now, although over $40,000,000 has been expended, only a very small part of the damage has been repaired.
Our own country has learned from its own experiences and from the experiences of nations like France. On a small scale we have endured the same devastating floods. Forest fires in the United States have caused an average annual loss of seventy human lives and from $25,000,000 to $50,000,000 worth of timber. The indirect losses run close to a half a billion a year. Like other nations, we have come to the conclusion that forest conservation can be assured only through the public ownership of forest resources. Other nations have bought or otherwise acquired national, state, and municipal forests, to assure the people a never-failing supply of timber. For this reason, mainly, our own National Forests have been created and maintained.
The ever-increasing importance of the forestry movement in this country, which brings with it an ever-increasing desire for information along forestry lines, has led me to prepare this volume dealing with our National Forests. To a large extent I write from my own experience, having come in contact with the federal forestry movement for more than ten years. My connection with the United States Forest Service in various parts of the West has given me ample opportunity to study every phase of the problem. I am attempting to chronicle a wonderful accomplishment by a wonderful organization of altruistic Americans—an accomplishment of which every American has reason to feel proud.
Few people realize that the bringing under administration and protection of these vast forests is one of the greatest achievements in the history of forest conservation. To place 155,000,000 acres of inaccessible, mountainous, forest land, scattered through our great western mountain ranges and in eighteen Western States, under administration, to manage these forests according to scientific forestry principles, to make them yield a revenue of almost $3,500,000 annually, and to protect them from the ravages of forest fires and reducing the huge annual loss to but a small fraction of what it was before—these are some of the things that have been accomplished by the United States Forest Service within the last twenty years.
Not only is this a great achievement in itself, but few people realize what the solution of the National Forest problem has meant to the millions of people who live near them; what it has meant to bring civilization to the great forested empire of Uncle Sam; what it has meant to change from a condition of unrestricted, unregulated misuse with respect to the public domain, to a policy of wise, regulated use, based upon the principle of the greatest good to the greatest number in the long run. In the early days before the Forest Service organization became established, the people were said to have "shot-gun titles" to timber or grazing lands on the public domain, and "might made right" in the truest sense of the word. This crude condition of affairs gave way to wise, conservative use under government control. Just as the farmer each year sets aside a certain amount of his seed for next year's planting, just so the stockman saves his calves and cows and lambs for greater growth and each year sees a part of his herd maturing for market, and just so the forester, under the new system, cuts only the mature trees and allows the young timber to remain for greater growth and greater value in the future, or, in the absence of young trees, plants small trees to replace those removed.
The people of the West are convinced that a great work has been done well and wisely. The people of the Eastern States will soon realize that a similar forest policy, already inaugurated in the Appalachian and White Mountains, will mean every bit as much to them.
If I succeed only in a small degree to make my reader appreciate the great significance of the National Forest movement to our national economy, I will feel amply repaid for the time spent in preparing this brief statement. I am indebted to the Forest Service for many valuable illustrations used with the text, and for data and other valuable assistance. To all those who have aided in the preparation of this volume, by reading the manuscript or otherwise, I extend my sincere thanks. I am especially grateful to Mr. Herbert A. Smith and others of the Washington office of the Forest Service for having critically read the manuscript and for having offered valuable suggestions.
Richard H. Douai Boerker.
New York, N. Y.,
July 7, 1918.
INTRODUCTION
FORESTRY AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM
The forest problem is, both locally and nationally, of vital internal importance. Not only is wood—the chief product of the forest—indispensable to our daily life, but the forest plays an important rôle in regulating stream flow, thereby reducing the severity of floods and preventing erosion. For these reasons the preservation of forests ceases to be a problem of private or individual concern, but forthwith becomes a governmental problem, or, at best, an enterprise which should be jointly controlled by the National Government and the individual States.
Our Consumption of Wood. It is often said that wood enters into our daily life from the time we are born until we die—from the cradle to the coffin. It is difficult to imagine a civilization without wood. In our country in a single year we use 90,000,000 cords of firewood, nearly 40,000,000,000 feet of lumber, 150,000,000 railroad ties, nearly 1,700,000,000 barrel staves, 445,000,000 board feet of veneer, over 135,000,000 sets of barrel headings, over 350,000,000 barrel hoops, over 3,300,000 cords of native pulp wood, 170,000,000 cubic feet of round mine timbers, nearly 1,500,000 cords of wood for distillation, over 140,000 cords for excelsior, and nearly 3,500,000 telephone and telegraph poles. In short, we take from our forests yearly, including waste in logging and manufacture, more than twenty-two billion cubic feet of wood valued at about $1,375,000,000. This is enough lumber to construct seven board walks twenty-five feet wide from the earth to the moon, a distance of about 240,000 miles, or a board walk one-third of a mile wide completely around the earth at the equator. These figures give a little idea of the enormous annual drainage upon the forests of the United States and immediately suggest an important reason that led to the establishment of our National Forests.
The Lumber Industry. Measured by the number of persons employed, lumbering is the country's largest manufacturing industry. In its 48,000 saw mills it employs more than 600,000 men. Its investment in these plants is over $1,000,000,000, and the investment in standing timber is $1,500,000,000 more. This industry furnishes the railroads a traffic income of over $200,000,000 annually. If we include in these statistics also the derived wood products, we find that over 1,000,000 wage earners are employed, and that the products and derived products are valued at over $2,000,000,000 annually. Most certainly we are dealing with a very large business enterprise.
Our Future Lumber Supply. You may ask, "What effect have the great annual consumption of wood and these large business interests upon the future supply of wood?" The most reliable statistics show that out of 5,200 billion feet of merchantable timber which we once possessed, only 2,900 billion feet are left. In other words, almost half of our original supply of timber has been used. Besides, the present rate of cutting for all purposes exceeds the annual growth of the forests. Even the annual growth is considered by many experts of unknown quantity and quality, to some extent offset by decay in virgin forests. The only logical conclusion to draw from this condition of affairs, if the present rate of consumption continues, is a timber shortage in so far as our most valuable woods are concerned. In view of this it is fortunate that the National Government began to control the lumber and forest situation by the creation of National