GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE FORESTS
To supply our future wood requirements is a large under-
taking which when accomplished will entail an investment much
more than our present national debt. The magnitude of the under-
taking, the unknown character of the work, and the present uncer-
-ainty of a profit have prompted the suggestion that onlv the govern-
nent could afford to take the risks involved.
The National Forestry Policy Committee of the National
Chamber in discussing this question states:
“By many the growing of forests is consideréd to be a function of govern-
ment only. Private holdings, however, form so large a proportion of all three
classes of our timberlands that it would be financially impossible for the
Federal, State or municipal government to acquire them,—even were it de-
sirable. In our opinion, the great bulk of our forests will and should remain
in private hands,—this being in .best accord with our institutions and also
with experience here and abroad.”
The part which the government has to play in this great un-
dertaking, however, is an important one. The government must
own and manage a certain percentage of the forest area of the
United States for demonstration, education and research purposes;
for experiment with types and qualities of timber which are not
at present economically feasible for private enterprise; to protect
the headwaters of navigable streams; and to bring back into pro-
duction forest lands which have been denuded and almost hope-
lessly devasted by fires and erosion,—lands which cannot be re-
forested profitably by private effort.
The importance of action by the Federal Government was
recognized more than thirty years ago by the creation of the first
aational forest in 1891 by President Harrison. In the succeeding
administration other national forests were set aside from unappor-
tioned federally owned land. President Roosevelt, being con-
vinced of the wisdom of this course, boldly set aside further large
areas of public lands as national forests. Our national forests have
a net area of 158,395,656 acres. They represent 17 per cent of
he total area of forest land in the United States and they contain
22 per cent of our remaining standing timber.
For the most part the national forests are in the Western
mountainous regions. At the time of their establishment the more
accessible forest land had been sold to private interests by the
government. As a result much of the area of our national forests
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