Kitabı oku: «A Brief History of Forestry.», sayfa 31

KOREA

The latest move in forest reform in this part of the world, as a result of Japanese influence, is to be recorded from Korea. Indeed, in 1910, Japan annexed Korea, and will doubtless apply her own methods in the new province. The forest area of Korea comprises only about 2,500,000 acres, out of an area of nearly 53 million acres of very mountainous country. A concession for the exploitation of the northern forests to a Russian, which included the re-planting with “exotic” tree species, was the immediate cause of the Russo-Japanese war. In 1907, by co-operative arrangements with Japan, a conservative forest policy was to be inaugurated by laws similar to those of Japan.

Drouth, floods and erosion of soils have been common experiences. The preservation of forest cover, especially at the headquarters of the Yalu and Tumen in the northern part of the country, is aimed at.

For this purpose the government has taken all forests under its care. All private owners or lease holders must report their holdings and have their property listed, and in case of failure to do so the property is forfeited. The government may then expropriate, or else regulate the cutting, or, where protective functions of the forest cover require it, may forbid cutting altogether.

A forestry school is also part of the program.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Report upon Forestry, 1878-9, by Dr. F. B. Hough; contains references to the earlier history of forest development.

History of the Lumber Industry, by J. E. Defebaugh, 1906-7; is valuable as a reference to statistical matter.

Report upon Forestry Investigations of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1877-1898, by B. E. Fernow. House Document No. 181, 55th Congress; contains amplifications of the matter contained in this chapter.

Annual and other reports issued by the Department of Agriculture, by the various State Forest Commissions, and Forestry Associations.

For latest developments, consult Conservation (American Forestry) and Forestry Quarterly.

The great and exuberant republic of the United States, vast in extent and rich in natural resources generally, excelled and still excels in extent, importance and value of her timber resources; and, having only lately begun to inaugurate rational forest policies, promises to become of all-absorbing interest to foresters.

The marvelous growth of the nation, which from three million in 1780 had attained to a population of 76 million in 1900, and, by the last Census numbered around 92 million people, has been the wonder of the world by reason of its rapid expansion; and yet the limit is far from being reached. Annually some three-quarters of a million or more immigrants from all parts of the world arrive, and there is still room and comfortable living for at least another 100 million, if the resources are properly treated.

The large land area of nearly two billion acres (over three million square miles) is undoubtedly the richest contiguous domain of such size in the world, located most favorably with reference to trade by virtue of a coast line of over 20,000 miles, and diversified in climate so as to permit the widest range of production.

While a simple mathematical relation would make the population at present about 31 to the square mile, such a statement would give an erroneous conception of economic conditions, for the distribution of the population is most uneven, a condition which must eventually diversify the application of forestry methods in different parts of the country. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined, for instance, the density of population is 428 to the square mile, exceeding that of the similar-sized State of Würtemberg in Germany, while in the neighboring State of Maine it is not 25; the Atlantic Coast States south of South Carolina, a territory slightly larger than Germany, show about half, and the Central agricultural States about one-third the density of that densely populated country; on the other hand, some of the Western States, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico have less than three to the square mile.

Similar unevenness is found in the distribution of resources, especially of timber wealth, and, to some extent at least, the present populational distribution is explained by the uneven distribution of farm soils and timber.

Outside of the unorganized territory of Alaska and the disfranchised District of Columbia, the country is divided into 46 States and two Territories which will eventually acquire statehood. In addition, there are a number of insular possessions under the direct control of the federal government. Each State being under the Constitution sovereign in itself as far as its internal administration is concerned, it is evident that no uniformity of policies can be expected, except so far as imitativeness, in which the American citizen excels, may lead State after State to repeat the experiment attempted by one. The federal government has no direct jurisdiction in matters concerning the management of resources within the States, except so far as it still owns lands in the Western, so-called Public Land States, and a few parcels in the Eastern States over which it still retains jurisdiction.

The severest test of democratic institutions is experienced when the attempt is made to establish a policy which shall guard the interests of the future at the expense of the demands and needs of the present. Democracy produces attitudes and characteristics of the people which are inimical to stable economic arrangements looking to the future, such as are implied in a forest policy. The vast country with an unevenly distributed and heterogeneous population presents the greatest variety of natural, as well as of economic conditions; the immediate interests of one section naturally do not coincide with those of other sections; particularistic and individualistic tendencies of the true democrat are antagonistic to anything which smacks of “paternalism,” the attitude under which alone a persistent, farsighted policy can thrive. Frequent change of administration, or at least the threat of such change, impedes consistent execution of plans; fickle public opinion may subvert at any time well laid plans which take time in maturing; the true democratic doctrine of restricting State activity to police functions, and the doctrine of non-interference with private rights, as well as the idea of State rights in opposition to federal power and authority – all these characteristics of a democratic government are impediments to a concerted action and stable policy.

That, in spite of these antagonistic interests, conditions and doctrines, substantial progress toward establishing at least a federal forest policy has been made, is due to the fact that the American, in spite of his reputation as a materialistic, selfish opportunist, is really an idealist; that he responds readily to patriotic appeals; that, in spite of his rabid nationalism, he is willing to learn from the experiences of other nations; that, indeed, he is anxious to be educated. Finally, much credit is due to the men who with single purpose devoted their lives to the education of their fellow citizens in this direction.

It must, to be sure, be added that remarkable changes in the political attitude of the people have taken place in the last 30 years since the propaganda of forestry began; changes, partly perhaps induced by that propaganda, which have aided this movement, and which, if they persist, promise much for the future development of forest policies. A decidedly paternalistic, if not socialistic attitude has, lately been taken by the federal government; and by skilful construction of the Constitution as regards the right to regulate interstate relations, has led to an expansion of federal power in various directions. A similar paternalistic attitude has developed in the legislatures of several States to a noticeable degree. Even the judiciary has taken up this new spirit, and is ready to sanction interference with private property rights to a degree which, a decade ago, would have been denounced as undemocratic and tyrannical. Two courts have lately ruled that owners of timberlands may be restricted, without compensation, as regards the size of trees they may fell on their property, if the welfare of the State demands such interference.

The argument of the Roman doctrine utere tuo ne alterum noceas, which forestry propagandists have so strenuously used, seems finally to have found favor, and the inclusion of the community at large, present and future, as the possibly damaged party does not appear any more strained. The idea of the providential function of governments, as the writer has called it, seems to have taken hold of the people. The democratic doctrine of State rights, and restriction of government functions has, even among Democrats, been weakened through the long continued reign of the Republican party, the party of centralizing tendencies, to such an extent that the latest Democratic platform of a Presidential campaign (1908) outdid the Republican platform in centralizing and paternalistic propositions.

It is proper to emphasize the growth of this socialistic attitude, as it is bound to influence, and influence favorably, the further development of forest policies.

Nevertheless, it is still necessary to keep in mind that the States are autonomous, and that, while the federal government, in spite of the antagonism in the Western States, in which the public lands are situated, has been able to change its land policy from that of liberal disposal to one of reservation, it alone cannot save the situation. While a few of the States have made beginnings in working out a policy to arrest the destruction of their forest resources, which are mostly in private hands, still much water must flow down the Mississippi before adequate measures will be taken to stave off the threatening timber famine, and the energy of the various local and national Conservation associations will need to be exercised to the utmost.

1. Forest Conditions

Three extensive mountain systems, running north and south, give rise to at least eight topographic subdivisions of the country, going from east to west.

1. The narrow belt of level coast and hill country along the Atlantic shore, from 100 to 200 miles in width with elevations up to 1,000 feet, but especially low along the seacoast from Virginia south; drained by short rivers navigable only for short distances from the mouth; a farming country, with the soils varying from the richest to the poorest; some 300,000 square miles.

2. The Appalachian mountain country, nearly of the same width as the first section, with elevations up to 5,000 feet; the watershed of all the rivers to the Atlantic, of several rivers to the Gulf, and of the eastern affluents of the Mississippi; a mountain country, of about 360,000 square miles extent, rich in coal, iron and other minerals, except in its northern extension formed of archean rock.

3. The great river basin of the Mississippi, a Central plain of glacial and river deposit, rising gradually from the Gulf to the headwaters for more than 1200 miles, and nowhere over 1,000 feet above sea level; the richest agricultural section, 700,000 square miles, more or less, in extent.

4. The plateau, rising towards the Rocky Mountains from 1,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level, some 870,000 square miles in extent, a region of scanty rainfall, hence of prairie and plain, but mostly rich soil of undetermined depth, capable of prolific production where sufficient water supply is available.

5. The Rocky Mountain region, rising from 5,000 to near 10,000 feet (except some higher peaks), an arid to semi-arid district of rugged ranges, covered mostly with forest growth, often open and of inferior kind, with tillable soils in the narrow valleys, requiring irrigation for farm use; a mining country, rich in gold and silver, extending over 150,000 square miles.

6. The Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, including the Coast Range, rarely over 7,000 feet elevation, arid to semi-arid on the Eastern slopes; humid, and supporting magnificent forest growth on the Western slopes; some 190,000 square miles.

7. The Interior Basin, lying between the two preceding mountain ranges, some 400,000 square miles; for the most part a desert, although in parts supporting a stunted growth of pinon and juniper, and, where irrigation is possible, productive.

8. The interior valleys of the Sierra, comprising about 30,000 square miles, which, under irrigation, have become the garden spots of the Pacific.

To these topographic subdivisions correspond in part the climatic and the forest conditions, although variation of soil, and of northern and southern climate produce further differentiation in types, and in distribution of field and forest.

The first three sections were originally densely wooded – the great Atlantic forest region – but farms now occupy most of the arable portions; the fourth and seventh are forestless, if not treeless, while the fifth and sixth were more or less forested – the Pacific Coast region.

Floristically also, these topographic conditions are reflected, namely in the wide, north and south distribution of species, unimpeded by intervening mountain ranges, and in the change in composition from east to west. The two grand floristic divisions of the Atlantic and the Pacific forest, having but few species in common, are separated by the plains and prairies. The Atlantic forest is in the main composed of broadleaf trees with conifers intermixed, which latter only under the influence of soil conditions form pure stands, as in the extensive pineries of the South and North, and in the northern swamps and on southern mountain tops. The central region west of the Alleghanies exhibits little conifer growth in its composition, and is most widely turned to farm use. White Pine, hemlock and spruce are the important coniferous staples of the northern section, and a number of Yellow Pine species, with Bald Cypress and Red Cedar, are the valuable conifer species in the South. As regards valuable hardwoods, there is but little change from north to south.

The Pacific forest flora is almost entirely coniferous, but here also climatic conditions permit a distinction of two very different forest regions, the Rocky Mountain forest being mostly of rather inferior development, and the Sierra forest exhibiting the most magnificent tree growth in the world.

Nearly half the country is forestless, grassy prairie and plain, some 400 million acres being of the latter description, while open prairie and brush forest, or waste land occupies 600 million acres.

Within the forest region of the East some 250 million acres have been turned into farms, leaving still two-thirds of the area either under woods, or else wasted by fire. Although any reliable data regarding this acreage are wanting, the area of really productive woodland in this section may probably be set down as not exceeding 300 million acres, which would be nearly 40 % of the total area, varying from 13 % in the Central agricultural States to 50 % in the Southern States; Maine, New Hampshire and Arkansas being most densely wooded, with over 60 %. The Rocky Mountain and Sierra forests, each with 100 million acres, would bring the total productive woodland area to a round 500 million acres, or about 26 % of the whole. (Later estimates including brushlands of doubtful productive capacity, increase this area to 550 million acres.)

It is almost idle to attempt an estimate of the timber still standing ready for the axe; not only are the data for such an estimate too scanty, but standards of what is considered merchantable change continuously and vitiate the value of such estimates. The writer’s own estimate, made some years ago, of 2,500 billion feet, which by others has been treated as authoritative and forming a basis for predicting the time of a timber famine, and which was lately sustained by an extensive official inquiry, must nevertheless be considered only as a reasonable guess, ventured for the purpose of accentuating the need of more conservative treatment of these exhaustible supplies, in comparison with the consumption which represents around 45 billion feet B.M., and altogether 23 billion cubic feet of forest-grown material, the ultimate value of all forest products reaching the stupendous sum of around 1,250 million dollars. And, as in other countries, this lavish consumption of forest growth, from five to fifteen times that of Europeans, has shown in the past a per capita increase of 30 per cent. for every decade.

The bulk of the standing timber is to be found along the Pacific Coast, in the Sierra, and in the Southern States with their extensive pineries; the Northern and Eastern sections are within measurable time of the end of their virgin supplies of saw timber. The practice of culling the most valuable species has changed the composition in the regeneration, making it inferior, and large areas have been rendered worthless by fires.

The loss by fire, the bane of American forests, as far as loss in material is concerned probably does not exceed 2 or 3 per cent. of the consumption, and may be valued at say 25 million dollars per annum. But the indirect damage to forest and soil, changing the composition, baring the soil, and exposing it to erosion and washing, turning fertile lands into wastes, and brooks and rivers into torrents, is incalculable.

There is no doubt that at the present rate of consumption the bulk of the virgin supplies will be used up in a measurable time, which will force a reduction in the use of wood materials; a more or less severe timber famine is bound to appear, – indeed, has begun to make its appearance; and all recuperative measures will not suffice to stave it off, although they may shorten the time of its duration.

2. Early Forest History

The early colonizers, settling on the Atlantic Coast soon after the discoveries of Columbus, did not, as is usually believed, find an untouched virgin forest. The aboriginal Indians had, before then, hewn out their corn fields, and had supplied themselves with fuel wood and material for their utensils; and fires, accidental, intentional, or caused by lightning, had, no doubt, also made inroads here and there. The white man, to be sure, is a more lavish wood consumer; his farms increased more rapidly, his buildings and his fireplaces consumed more forest growth, and carelessness with fire was, as it is still, his besetting sin. Moreover, a trade in timber with the Old World developed, in which only the best and largest-sized material figured. Wastefulness was bred in him by the sight of plenty, and the hard work of clearing his farm acres incited a natural enmity to the encumbering forest.

The first sawmill in the New World was erected in 1631 in the town of Berwick, Maine, and the first gang saw, of 18 saws, in 1650 in the same place,¹⁸ while, before that time, masts and spars, handmade cooperage stock, clapboards and shingles formed commonly parts of the return cargoes of ships. By 1680, nearly 50 vessels, engaged in such trade, cleared from the Piscataqua River. The ordinances on record which were issued at the same early times by the town governments of Exeter (1640), Kittery (1656), Portsmouth (1660), and Dover (1665), restricting the use of timber, remind us of the early European forest ordinances; they were probably not dictated by any threatening deficiency of this class of material, but merely intended to secure a proper and orderly use of the town property.

The appointment of a Royal Surveyor of the Woods for the New England colonies in 1699, and the penalties imposed in New Hampshire (1708) for cutting mast trees on ungranted lands ($500 for cutting 24-inch trees), and in Massachusetts (1784) for cutting White Pine upon the public lands ($100), were probably also merely police regulations, to protect property rights of the Crown or commonwealth. That this last move was in no way conceived as a needed conservatism is proved by the fact that two years later the Legislature of Maine devised a lottery scheme for the disposal of fifty townships; and 3,500,000 acres were disposed of in this way during the twelve years following the war. Altogether the States sacrificed their “wild lands” at trifling prices.

But, when William Penn, the founder and first legislator of the State which represented his grant, stipulated, in 1682, that for every five acres cleared one acre was to be reserved for forest growth by those who took title from him, that may properly be considered an attempt to inaugurate a conservative policy, dictated by wise forethought, – an attempt, which, however, bore little or no fruit.

Thoughtful men probably at all times looked with pity and apprehension upon the wasteful use of the timber as they do now, yet squander went on, just as it still does; but the apparently inexhaustible supplies in those early times called for no restriction in its use.

At the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, a fuel-wood famine must have appeared in some parts of the country, just as in Germany at that time and for the same reasons, the wood having been cut along the rivers, which were the only means of transportation, and hence, the distance to which wood had to be hauled increasing the cost.

This was probably the reason why the Society of Agriculture, Arts and Manufactures of New York, after an inquiry by circular letter, issued in 1791, published, in 1795, a report on the “best mode of preserving and increasing the growth of timber.” This condition probably also led the wise Governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, of Erie Canal fame, in a message in 1822, to forecast an evil day, because “no system of economy” for the reproduction of forest supplies was being adopted; and he added: “Probably none will be, until severe privations are experienced.”

Like Great Britain at that time, the federal government became concerned as regards supplies for naval construction, and, by act approved in 1799, appropriated $200,000 for the purchase of timber fit for the Navy, and for its preservation for future use. Small purchases were made on the Georgia coast, but nothing of importance was done until, in 1817, another act renewed the proposition of the first, and directed the reservation of public lands bearing live-oak or cedar timber suitable for the Navy, as might be selected by the President. Under this act, a reservation of 19,000 acres was made, in 1828, on Commissioners, Cypress and Six Islands, in Louisiana. Another appropriation of $10,000 was made in 1828, and some lands were purchased on Santa Rosa Sound, where, during a few years, even an attempt at cultivation was made, including sowing, transplanting, pruning, etc. This was done under a more general act of 1827, by which the President was authorized to take proper measures to preserve the live oak timber growing on the federal lands. Under these acts, altogether some 244,000 acres of forest land were reserved in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

But, although another act, of 1831, provided for the punishment of persons cutting or destroying any Live Oak, Red Cedar, or other trees growing on any lands of the United States, no general conception of the need of a broad forest policy, or even of a special value attaching to the public timberlands dictated these acts, except so far as the securing of certain material, then believed necessary for naval construction, was concerned. Indeed, the act of 1831 remained for 60 years the only expression of interest in this part of the federal domain.

In those early times, the extent of our forest domain was entirely unknown, and the concern of occasional early voices in public prints regarding a threatened exhaustion of timber supplies can only be explained by the fact that, in the absence of railroads, the supplies near centers of civilization, or near drivable and navigable rivers, were alone of any account.

That the earlier propagandists of forest culture received scant attention was due to the fact that conditions soon changed; and with these changes the evil day seemed indefinitely postponed, and the necessity for forest culture apparently vanished. These changes were mainly wrought by the opening up of the west, by extending means of transportation through canals and railroads, and by distributing population, whereby the need for near-by home supplies was overcome; a continental supply of apparently inexhaustible amount was brought into sight and within reach.

Meanwhile the population began to grow, immigrants began to pour in by the hundred thousand, and the westward stream opened up new country and new timber supplies, and a lumber industry of marvellous size began to develop. The small country mill, run in the manner of, and often in connection with, the grist mill, doing a petty business by sawing as occasion demanded, to order for home customers or export, gave way to the large mill establishment as we know it now; and with the development of railroad transportation and the settlement of the western country, especially the forestless prairies, the industry grew at an astonishing rate.

It is worth while to briefly trace the history of this industry, for the sake of which the need of conservative forest policies is essential.

That the petty method of doing business lasted until the middle of the century is evidenced by the census of 1840, which reported 31,560 lumber mills, with a total product valued as $12,943,507, or a little over $400 per mill. By 1876, the product per mill had become $6,500; by 1890, with only 21,000 mills, it was $19,000; in 1900, nearly the same number of mills as were recorded in 1840 (33,035) furnished a product of 566 million dollars, and in 1907, the banner year of production, the cut of 28,850 mills was reported at over 40 billion feet, and the gross product per mill had grown to $23,000, or a value for all of $666,641,367.

In 1909, 48,112 mills cut 44,509,761,000 feet valued at $684,479,859. Nearly half this product came from the Southern States.

In the fifty years from 1850 to 1900, the value of all forest products harvested increased from $59 million to $567 million, and in 1907 the value had risen to $1,280 million, representing a consumption of over 20 million cubic feet of forest-grown material.

Especially after the Civil War, the settlements of the West grew as if by magic; the railroad mileage more than doubled in the decade from 1865 to 1875, and with it, the lumber industry developed by rapid strides into its modern methods and volume. How rapidly the changes took place may be judged from the fact that, in 1865, the State of New York still furnished more lumber than any other State; now it supplies only insignificant amounts, a little over two per cent. of the total lumber cut.

In 1868, the golden age of lumbering had arrived in Michigan; in 1871, rafts filled the Wisconsin; in 1875, Eau Claire had 30, Marathon 30, and Fond du Lac 20 sawmills, now all gone; and mills at La Crosse, which were cutting millions of feet annually, are now closed. By 1882, the Saginaw Valley had reached the climax of its production, and the lumber industry of the great Northwest, with a cut of 8 billion feet of White Pine alone, was in full blast. The White Pine production reached its maximum in 1890, with 8.5 billion feet, then to decrease gradually but steadily to less than half that cut in 1908. Southern development began to assume large proportions much later; at the present time, the lumber product of the Southern States has grown to amounts nearly double that of all the Northern States combined.

But not only the unparalleled and ever increasing wood consumption, which now has reached 260 cubic feet per capita, five times that of Germany and ten times that of France, threatened the exhaustion of the natural supplies. Reckless conflagrations almost invariably followed the lumberman and destroyed generally the remaining stand, and surely the young growth. So common did these conflagrations become, that they were considered unavoidable, and though laws intended to protect forest property against fires were found on the statute books of every State, no attempt to enforce them was made.

No wonder that those observing this rapid decimation of our forest supplies and the incredible wastefulness and additional destruction by fire with no attention to the aftergrowth, began again to sound the note of alarm. Besides the writings in the daily press and other non-official publications, we find the reports of the Department of Agriculture more and more frequently calling attention to the subject.

In a report issued by the Patent Office as early as 1849, we find the following significant language in a discussion on the rapid destruction of forests and their influence on water flow:

“The waste of valuable timber in the United States, to say nothing of firewood, will hardly begin to be appreciated until our population reaches 50,000,000. Then the folly and shortsightedness of this age will meet with a degree of censure and reproach not pleasant to contemplate.”

In 1865, the Rev. Frederic Starr discussed fully and forcibly the American forests, their destruction and preservation, in a lengthy article in which, with truly prophetic vision, he says:

“It is feared it will be long, perhaps a full century, before the results at which we ought to aim as a nation will be realized by our whole country, to wit, that we should raise an adequate supply of wood and timber for all our wants. The evils which are anticipated will probably increase upon us for thirty years to come with tenfold the rapidity with which restoring or ameliorating measures shall be adopted.”

And again:

“Like a cloud no bigger than a man’s hand just rising from the sea, an awakening interest begins to come in sight on this subject, which as a question of political economy will place the interests of cotton, wool, coal, iron, meat, and even grain, beneath its feet. Some of these, according to the demand, can be produced in a few days, others in a few months or a few years, but timber in not less than one generation. The nation has slept because the gnawing of want has not awakened her. She has had plenty and to spare, but within thirty years she will be conscious that not only individual want is present, but that it comes to each from permanent national famine of wood.”

The article is full of interesting detail, and may be said to be the starting basis of the campaign for better methods which followed.