Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1919 — Public Action Must Now Force Right Handling of Private Timberlands [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Public Action Must Now Force Right Handling of Private Timberlands

By HENRY S. GRAVES

U. S Fore«t«r

The time has come for constructive public action that will bring about a right handling of our private timber lands. The practice of forestry on private timber lauds is entirely possible, when coupled with a liberal policy of public co-operation and assistance. Such public help should be provided and forestry be made mandatory. Our country is progressively destroying its forests. ’Pho oonscqiiences are very“far-reaching. exhaustion of the forest is followed by the closing of industries. the steady increase of waste lands, the abandonment of farms that depend for their market on the lum-

ber communities, and the impoverishment of many regions \v beetion of the cotmtry can afford to have a large part of its land an unproductive waste, with the loss of taxable values, of industries and o population that would be supported if these lands were productive, ro section can afford to be dependent for its supplies of wood products on another section from one to three thousand miles away. The leaders of the southern pine industry say that the original supplies of pine in the South will be exhausted in ten years, and that within five to seven vears more than three thousand mills will go out of existence. Alreadv there is an acute problem of supplies for paper mills and for other industries in the East which use specialized material. Pacific coast timber is entering the eastern markets. This means that the price of homegrown timber has risen to a point making it possible to ship timber 3,000 miles in competition with it, * t - Timber land owners have not recognized an obligation to proven their properties from becoming a source of injury to the community. Even in organized fire protection the chief effort is confined to the stands of merchantable timber. The character of the forest problem is such as to require the participation and direction of the public. W e are not going to meet the situation until the public takes hold of it. There should be compulsory fire protection of cut-over lands as well as standing timber. The public should prohibit destructive methods of cutting that injure the community and the public at large. At the same time there should be recognized a public obligation not to throw the entire burden on private owners through merely restrictive measures, but liberal action to aid owners in introducing forestry should be taken. The public should provide a sane system of taxation; it should co-operate in such problems as overproduction of lumber, land classification, colonization, problems of labor, technical questions relating to methods of practice, and other economic, industrial and technical matters involved in a constructive program of forestry.