Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1920 — A Sane National Forestry Program [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Sane National Forestry Program

SHURT Dw ”' XPLAINING before tbe triIfV state forestry conference how 1110 United States is rapidly exhausting its thnggr’ber resources igd at a comparatively’ dariy date ■nay find Hdaf largely dependent upon foreign sources. Lieut Got Henry A Graves, chief of the forest service. United States department at agriculture, told the remed»o &at can beapplled, and the measures that can be adopted, particularly in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, tbe three states for which the conference was held. "Tbe solution of our forestry problenj,” said Colonel Graves, “consists tn stopping destruction by fire and other agencies, by using methods that make possible natural reproduction after logging, and by restocking the tree growth of lands that have bedh made economic wastes. The fear has been expressed by some that such an objective conflicts with the expansion of agriculture and stock raising. Exactly the contrary would be the reaoit. No sane program of forestry -would propose the use of lands for forestry that are better adapted to agriculture and settlement Forestry, agriculture and stock raising go hand In hand. "In Illinois, Indiana and Ohio our problem Is essentially one of the farm woodland. Here we have to do with small tracts and operations. In aome ways the problem is a simpler one than in the great lumber regions. Tn the first place, the fire danger is easily controlled. Then again the work can usually be brought into close correlation with other phases of farm management Of great value, also, la the fact that the owner himself is often the manager and can give per•onal direction to the work of forestry. "In such circumstances the aid of the states may be directed to* showing the farmer how to cut his woodland in order to secure natural reproduction, how to thin the young stands ao as to increase their growth and value, how to reforest the lands now waste, how beat to market his woodland products, and so on. Advice should be afforded through the state forester and the agricultural field agents. Planting stock should be offered at cost with assistance in establishing successful plantations. Co-op-erative marketing enterprises should be encouraged when this Is practical.” Discussing the function of the fedoral governmoit in meeting the forestry problem. Colonel Graves said: "The federal government has not given adequate assistance to the states. Direct aid to the states by the gov- ■ ernment, made contingent on adoption by the former of acceptable programs of forest legislation and administration, would help to secure concurrent action in different states, enable the standardisation of methods, and enable the achievement of results impossible without such aid. “The first step in Inaugurating a national policy of forestry is a federal law providing the authority to cooperate with the states in formulating and carrying out a program of forestry, and carrying an appropriation that can be used to assist such states as inaugurate and put into effect a program determined to be adequate by the secretary of agriculture. A greet deal can be accomplished pending such substantial co-operation, but -with the aid that the nation might offer, results that otherwise would be Impossible could be accomplished.” The forest situation. Colonel Graves pointed out, is of peculiar Interest to Indiana. Illinois and Ohio. All three States have a pressing problem of producing home-grown forests. They are also vitally concerned in the forest actuation in other parts of the counlay, for they are large consumers ot lumber and other wood products and the greater part Of . what they use already Is brought in from other states. -Iflinols, Indiana and Ohio,” he said, -together with the neighboring portiops of Michigan and Wisconsin, constitute the most Important center industries in the country—that is, the Industries makf Soig Vehicles, furniture, railway care.

tools, planing-mill products and the like. About one-third of the total capital Invested in the wood-manufac-turing industries of the country and about one-third of the wage earners in Ahese industries are found in this section. They use five and a half billion feet of lumber a year, or about a quarter of the aggregate used in this country for such enterprises. "Today the home product does not nearly meet the annual requirements, but, further than that, the cutting that is done far exceeds what is grown each year. It Is probable, from the best' estimates that I have been able to secure, that the annual growth of material of potential value in the three states is not over one-quarter of what is cut each year. This means that the forests are progressively losing ground with considerable rapidity. “This deficit is due only in part to the clearing of land for agriculture. It is due also to the failure,to handle the lands In a way to secure good reproduction and properly to protect the ybhdg trees that become established. With better carb and management the forest land§ of these states should yield two or three times the present growth, and. this would, L believe, be possible without checking the extension of cultivation over lands suited to that purpose. There are many convincing reasons why these states should produce as much as possible In the way of forest growth from land that is best adapted to that purpose—and in the aggregate these areas amount to a great deal.”

GET TOGETHER “The United States must decide upon a national forest policy in order to perpetuate its timber supply,” says CbartPK Lathrop Pack, president of the American Forestry association. We are far behind France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan and other nations tn this respect. The United States has only about one-fourth of its original forest and this is now’ disappearing three times faster than it is being reproduced. We must, before it is all gone, provide for a timber supply for our future needs and we can do so if foresters gbt together with the men and timberland owners and agree upon a practical, workable forest policy; The country is grateful to Col. Henrv S. Graves. United States fm> enter: for demanding a national forest, policy at this time, and the foresfere are the men whom the country «*

pects to formulate this forest policy. It is their business to do it and to do it well. The national and state governments hold only some 3 per cent of merchantable timber. Therefore, the majority of thp owners ot the timber must be in accord with any policy dictating the management, the protection, and the reforestation of their land before it can be successful. You cannot compel an owner to develop and perpetuate his timberland at a financial loss; If you wish him to reforest his land, you must make it pay him, as other countries do. One most important feature of a national forest policy on which agreement Is possible is fire protection. Forest fires have this year caused millions of dollars of damage in the northwest. The United States forest service spent more than a million dollars fighting these fires in July alone. Private agencies spent lavishly in protecting their lands but the fire protection measures In neither national, state or private forests are sufficient to properly protect them. Get together then on a national, state and private forest fire protection program. It is the need of the hour and when this has been done the first step toward a mutually satisfactory national forest policy Will have been made. Other features of thia policy are cert a in_ to follow In due course.

VALUE OF FORESTS “So important are forests in. the life of a nation that Germany will find: that France will insist upon Germany’s paying in lumber for the casualties of the French forests which were destroyed during the war," declares P. S. Ridsdale, secretary of the Forestry association, who has made a tour of the allied countries. Mr.- Ridsdale went to Europe to Investigate forest losses in France, Belgium, Italy and Great' Britain, so thht the American Forestry association might determine how America could help to replace the destroyed forests of Europe by presenting forest seed to the various governments. “In northern France many of the forests,” he says, “have been so badly smashed by shell, shrapnel and rifle fire, or so badly cut for trench timbers, fuel wood and other supplies for the contending armies that they have been virtually destroyed. They can be restored only by replanting. “The agricultural land lying between the forests in various sectors of the battle front have been so torn, to pieces by shell Are that it la no nnvvieMhle for auricnlture and. to be planted with forest tree seed so that in years to come the shell holes may be filled by gradual erosion and the humus of the soil restored. “Italy, Belgium and Great Britain win make Similar requests.”