Forest Conservation By T. B. WALKER If the same rate of consumption of timber continues as has prevailed in the past, our supply of lumber will be prac- tically exhausted within the next thirty years, provided that no effective means and methods are entered upon for protect- ing, conserving, and reforesting. But the case is not one which is past all surgery by any means. Nor is it an incurable malady, but one that re- quires good, vigorous, sound treatment on practical lines. As expressed by the leader and head of this movement: “Tf we fail in the conservation of our natural resources, we will fail in all others.” There are policies to be devised, arranged and put in operation. These should provide for the conservation and general control of private holdings as well as the government reserves, and for their supervision and protection. It will involve radical departures from the past and prevailing methods, the development of new processes of economical logging and manufacture, as well as reforestation. Investigations should not be confined to summarizing present conditions. They should be directed largely to de- termining the causes which have been responsible for de- - tes ed 2 nuding our forests. In this way only can past errors be avoided and a comprehensive plan be worked out to protect the future. The conditions of ownership of our forests have made the problems and possibilities of succéssful treatment and economical and satisfactory handling a much more difficult and complicated matter to consider than that which pre- vailed before the title to timberland was, to so great an extent, transferred to private ownership. So far as the forestry questions relate to hardwood tim- berland, which was mostly agricultural, the conveyance of title, largely as a free gift under the Homestead Act was not only justifiable, but a necessary policy to pursue. While it resulted in the destruction and waste of a large propor- tion of the hardwood timber, it cleared the land and: laid the foundation for the great National progress and the pros- perous conditions now existing. The policy of distributing the pine timberlands as a gift or at a nominal price to the multitude of people or citizens who chose to secure a tract for the advantages of the specu- lative value, was not a wise or justifiable policy. It accom- plished the purpose of a somewhat public distribution, but it reached only to a certain class who were so situated that they could profit and benefit themselves by using time and expense in finding and taking up claims. It did not extend the benefit to the public generally, most of whom were not so situated as to be able to take advantage of the opportunity offered. But as this present timber and stone act has been preceded by yet more liberal laws, by which distribution of the timberlands was made from the earliest times and ap- plied to all the forests from the Eastern States all across to the remaining Western States, the Western people naturally consider that the same right and privilege should be con- _ tinued with them, and there is so little left unreserved or 3 not withdrawn that it makes but little difference at this late day. The timber land should not have been sold or title passed from the Government to any one. The timber should have gone direct in suitably large tracts, to those who intended to hold and use it in supplying the public demand for lumber. This would have been more appropriate and: served better purpose for the public. It was the intention that this method of disposing of the timber should be only an indirect way of furnishing the lumberman with timber from which to supply the public with the necessary commodity of lumber. This roundabout method made higher costs of stumpage and heavier carrying charges of interest and taxes, and also prohibited securing consolidated holdings and cheaper log- ging and driving. It originated more from a prejudice against a presumed monopoly which was anticipated if the timber was placed directly in the ownership of lumber manu- facturers at a minimum price and in large consolidated hold- ings. These facts have also been emphasized by the re- fusal to give to lumber a tariff approximating that given to other products, although, in this case, the foreign com- petitors had greater advantages in supplying our market at much lower prices than other manufacturers had to con- tend with. Over-supply and over-consumption have had a chronic existence excepting only in short periods. Upper grades have always been in demand at good prices. The greater the amount of upper grades cut the more the prices would be advanced, and the smaller the aggregate amount pro- duced the easier it would be to maintain prices. These facts and conditions, more fully stated in the brief presented to the Ways and Means Committee, are the essen- tial factors that have been and are still more or less responsi- ble for the continued waste of our forests. 4 The Canadian competitors, who had an advantage of an average of more than double the present duty, coming into a continually over-stocked market, made low prices for com- mon grades. Our lumbermen had high local taxes on stand- ing timber, logs, lumber mills, and all other property. These added to heavy interest bills on large investments and depre- ciation of plants, have been the motive power that has pushed the cutting of the timber as rapidly as possible, and wasted the lumber in the woods, mills and burners. These conditions have prevailed, to a large extent, from the earliest times through the territory of our white pine forests to within the past ten or fifteen years. They do now and will prevail in the future in the remaining quite extensive southern fields, and the great and principal sup- ply of the Pacific or Western States. In the old white pine States the problems of conservation are of little concern. The small stock of timber remaining and the reduced amount of the white pine in the eastern Canadian provinces, render it of much less concern as to the remainder of our white pine forests. On the Pacific Coast the conditions are as much subject to waste as those formerly prevailing in the old pine regions; and in some respects more waste has been carried on, especially in the great forest of California. We are now confronted with the conditions and prob- lems transmitted to the remaining timber supply and which have led to the consumption and the wasting of so much of our forests that there is now left only a minor fraction of the original timber supply. The temporary advanced: prices of lumber in the central and eastern part of the country, excepting as to the past year when prices have been lower, has not, to any extent, reduced the per capita use of lumber, or the general consumption which has prevailed in earlier years. In fact, for the past several years, the per capita consumption has been increasing because of the disappear- ance of the hardwood which formerly supplemented largely 5 the pine lumber, but which hardwood now has nearly all been cut and removed. The use of lumber within the past several years has reached the actual amount of nearly 600 feet per capita, although counted at only 500, as a large amount is cut that is not reported. The use of substitutes like cement, iron, steel, bricks, stone or paper for purposes where lumber was formerly used, has not apparently re- duced the demand materially. The great activity has kept the demand and supply up to the former amount. The inherited conditions pertaining to the remaining for- ests bring with them the same difficulties for the continuance of forest destruction that have caused waste in the past. The carrying charges on the standing timber in the way of local taxes and the large stumpage cost and heavy interest on investments, the competition, especially on the Coast States, with a large stock of British timber, the long haul, the high freight rates for bringing the timber from the West to the central or eastern markets, the excessive de- mand for finishing lumber or upper grades which now ex- ists, and which has, to an increasing extent, continued for many years past, combine to furnish a strong inducement for the continuous denuding of the forests to secure the best returns from the timber before it is practically consumed or confiscated by carrying charges, The Government should have retained the title to the tim- berland. A comparatively large stumpage price should have been fixed by the Government, and the timber should have been sold only as rapidly as the actual needs demanded when the lumber was used economically and without waste. The forest should have been protected against damage and destruction by fire. As fast as old forests were cut over, reforesting should have taken place by protecting smaller growth and cultivating a new one. A sufficiently protec- tive tariff, much larger than the one which now exists, should have prevailed in order to make it possible to con- 6 serve and economically produce and use the timber supply. The past history, the present conditions, and the awak- ened public interest, leading to this conservation move- ment, all indicate the necessity for changed methods in the production and distribution of the natural supplies and espe- cially in handling the forests. This will necessarily in- volve a change of attitude, policies, and methods by the Government, and a somewhat changed attitude of private owners of timber, soil, and mines. As to the forests, there will be no further, or but little, sale or transfer to private ownership. The large forest reserves, mostly in the West- ern States, will necessarily form the nucleus in the beginning of the conservation movement, so far as it is related to di- rect Government action and supervision. As the Govern- ment holds or owns but a fraction, or less than a quarter part, of the remaining western timberland, it makes the conservation and reproduction of timber on these private holdings a necessary part of the movement to secure the best results and to serve the public interest to best advantage in the handling of the forests. The same conservative meth- ods for manufacturing as well as protecting and reforesting should apply to these private holdings, as to the reserved lands still in the hands of the Government. Under present conditions, the attitude of the Government towards the tim- ber and lumber industry and the prejudices of the people, which are without just cause, must necessarily be modified, before a co-operative plan could be agreed upon consistent with the public interests and the vested rights of the own- ers. The owners of timber should bear in mind that the for- ests were created as an inheritance for all, to supply the most necessary and essential commodity for the public wel- fare next to the food supply. The transfer to private ownerships was only a step taken (whether or not a wise policy) towards placing these for- 7 est materials in the way of their best and most appropriate conversion and distribution to supply the public needs. In view of this primary right of the public, the most conser- vative methods of handling that can be practically and rea- sonably used in protecting, reforesting, and manufacturing should be applied and practiced. This is a natural public right to expect, and a personal obligation on the part of the private owners. Some comprehensive system of pro- tection from fire and bark beetles, also provision for that which may be called enlargement of forests by the protec- tion and encouragement of growth before the lands are cut over, should be adopted. This would mean that the large hollow or defective butted trees should be cleared around and the hollows or cavities filled with loose dirt. The combustible material should be cleared away around the small trees where the limbs are so low that fire, when it runs, will burn them entirely, and at the same time, carry the fire into larger sized trees, and destroy them. The clearing up of the leaves, needles, brush, and tops, and filling the cavity of hollow-butted trees with dirt to prevent further damage by fire are neces- sary preliminary operations that will make a large bill of expense, but should be provided for. Burning over the forests after the protective measures have been taken as above outlined should be made by the Forestry Department at least every few years. If this is not done, the combustible materials will so accumulate that the damage will be greater and the destruction more sweeping and general. If the present idea of forest protection is carried on for too great a length of time—or until the young growth has become very dense, and the leaves, need- les, and brush very thick—it may make so great an ac- cumulation that it would carry the fire up through the tops of the large trees and become very destructive. We might at least apprehend that timber fires might occur, where the 8 accumulation continued for sufficient lengths of time, to make more general and destructive fires than have ever been known, which might consume, at one burning, an em- pire of timber with all other included property and living beings. The danger is increased in proportion to the ex- tent to which the protection against fire is successful by putting out all fires that are started. It will be expensive and involve a large amount of labor and care to first clear away the accumulations in the for- ests and then systematically burn over the timberland. This burning over should be done by public authority under the Forestry Department. Systematic burning of underbrush at frequent intervals would save the forests from disas- trous conflagrations. The land owners might reasonably be required.to do all the necessary clearing up to protect the trees, large and small, in advance of the annual or periodic burning carried on by the Government, if other co-opera- tive measures could be entered upon whereby the timber- land owners could afford to carry their lands for future or continuous supply. To accomplish any satisfactory results in the way of con- servation will require co-operation between the general gov- ernment, the States, the timber counties and the individual owners of timber lands. This will involve mutual conces- sions in the interest of a wise general policy—a policy which in the end will work out to the advantage of all concerned. The most important and greatest redeeming feature in the outlook for a continued supply of lumber is to come through new methods of manufacturing their lumber. These processes will be designed to produce more than double the amount of lumber that will be made under the old wasteful methods. This lumber can be made a substitute that will, for many purposes, fulfill the same requirements as the present form of lumber. It will be, in large part, one-quarter to one-half as thick as the boards now in use. 9 It will be more solid and stronger, in proportion to thick- ness; will not be more, if as much, inclined to warp, and from the ability to make boards of any width, and from availability in using as inside finish and in other ways will be more desirable. These varieties of lumber or lumber sub- stitutes are somewhat more fully outlined and suggested to the Conservation Committee and the Forestry Department in communication sent in reply to questions. It will consist of cutting thin veneering from steamed logs and made into either three or more ply of thin sheets cemented together, or two or more ply cemented together by cotton cloth or sheeting placed between, or by another process of using pine or other wood by steaming and grind- ing the wood in the manner in which paper stock is now made from which either with or without addition of what is known as chemical pulp, which enters into paper making to toughen it, a strong cardboard or wood board can be made that will supply demand for many uses. After the board has been manufactured, it may be saturated with a sizing or glue, it may be painted or varnished, either before or after it has been placed in buildings or structures. The cost of these substitutes will be more per square foot to manufacture than the old style of rapidly sawed lumber. But as so much greater amount of surface measure can be made from a given quantity of wood of any size or length that does not contain large knots, the extra expense may be more than balanced by the increased product, and the en- largement of the supply of available material. As finishing lumber, it will probably at first bring as high or higher prices. But as these grades get still higher, it will operate on the one side to develop these processes of manufacture and on the other to introduce the new kinds to bring them into use for the purposes to which each may be fitted. The final or general outcome of these thin composition boards, when coupled in manufacture, more or less, with 10 sawed lumber of usual thickness, or sawed as thin as more economical use will allow, will, in all reasonable expecta- tion, when added to the careful conservation of the stand- ing and growing timber, supply the market with three times as great an amount of surface measures of lumber that will fill the same requirements as would come from the same timber if handled by past methods. The Government reserves may be conservatively handled and successfully reforested if sufficiently large areas or grants are laid off that will take so long a term of years to cut it over that, by proper regulations as to the methods of cutting and as to the trees to be left and by the complete protection and cultivation of all the new growth, an equal amount of lumber in quantity and a much larger number of trees will, in the course of fifty or seventy-five years, be ready for a new cutting, beginning at the same original point and following the same order as that followed in the first cutting. This will apply to the greater part of the Govern- ment reserves if they can be handled in the above manner to produce the best results and serve the public interests in the long run. But to accomplish this it will be necessary to overcome or neutralize the public prejudice against large operators or so-called monopolies. Expensive milling plants with the roads, railroads, plan- ing mills, box factories and other equipments cannot be made a reasonable or satisfactory enterprise to enter upon without a long continued supply of timber to warrant the large expenditure. Numerous small cheaper mills and equipments and limited capital to operate with can not suc- cessfully and economically handle the timber and supply the demands for lumber. To secure a perpetual supply it is ab- solutely essential that the first cutting of the timber should occupy so long a time in going over it that the new growth would equal the original stand and should be made to supply as much or more on the second cutting. 11 The larger private holdings that are sufficiently compact or accessible to one plant may be a perpetual and con- tinuous source of supply if a co-operative programme could be arranged that would make it practicable to meet the carrying charges and do the forestry work of protecting and reforesting. Without such provision, the more rapid cutting of the timber will be an actual necessity to cover the return of capital invested in timber and plant and to cover profit or compensation for conducting the enterprise. The smaller holdings, ranging from fifty or seventy-five thou- sand acres down to quarter sections, and which comprises a large fractional part of all the standing timber, cannot be conservatively handled and reforested. Some measures might be devised or developed through which such smaller holdings might by consolidated into sufficiently large tracts | to make conservation and reforesting practicable. The solution of the conservation problems in a way that will supply the demand for wood product continuously and perpetually must be entered upon in a practical, vigorous way that will so lengthen out the present supply that it will lap over to the reforested growth without leaving an open gap, and be sufficiently comprehensive to supply the enor- mously large amount of lumber and wood products de- manded by the public interest, even when reduced per capita to the actual necessities of the public. The success of this movement will mean the conserva- tion of all the forests held by the Government and, in largest part, the private holdings in the Western or Pacific States. The area of the reservations is about 168 million acres. This could not be counted for more than seventy- five million acres of well-timbered land. If to this could be added eupmkyuiemm seventy-five million acres of the private holdings of heavy or good timber, this amount, when supplemented by the State and other individual hold- ings, may provide a supply of fifty billions per year continu- 12 ally if conservatively manufactured. The Western forests are generally or mostly on land not required for agricul- tural purposes and which is more valuable for timber and timber culture than for agricultural purposes. The devis- ing and placing in operation a comprehensive and efficient policy for conservation and reforesting that will accom- plish the purpose of providing for the great needs of the future may meet with so much opposition and discourage- ment as to delay or prevent the working out of these problems to such an extent that the movement will be to only a very limited extent successful. If so, the future will show such a necessity for practical, efficient methods that all minor objections will be laid aside and effectual meas- ures will be entered upon, though success will be more diffi- cult than if done without delay.