This section is from the "Source Book In Economics" book, by F. A. Fetter. Amazon: The Principles Of Economics.
260 cubic feet per capita, while Germany uses 37 and France 25 cubic feet.
We tax our forests under the general property tax, a method abandoned long ago by every other great nation. Present tax laws prevent reforestation of cut-over land and the perpetuation of existing forests by use.
Great damage is done to standing timber by injurious insects. Much of this damage can be prevented at small expense.
To protect our farms from wind and to reforest land best suited for forest growth will require tree planting on an area larger than Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia combined. Lands so far successfully planted make a total area smaller than Rhode Island; and year by year, through careless cutting and fires, we lower the capacity of existing forests to produce their like again, or else totally destroy them.
In spite of substitutes we shall always need much wood. So far our use of it has steadily increased. The condition of the world's supply of timber makes us already dependent upon what we produce. We send out of our country one and a half times as much timber as we bring in. Except for finishing woods, relatively small in amount, we must grow our own supply or go without. Until we pay for our lumber what it costs to grow it, as well as what it costs to log and saw, the price will continue to rise.
The preservation by use, under the methods of practical forestry, of all public forest lands, either in State or federal ownership, is essential to the permanent public welfare. In many forest States the acquirement of additional forest lands as State forests is necessary to the best interests of the States themselves.
The conservation of our mountain forests, as in the Appalachian system, is a national necessity. These forests are required to aid in the regulation of streams used for navigation and other purposes. The conservation of these forests is impracticable through private enterprise alone, by any State alone, or by the Federal Government alone. Effective and immediate cooperation between these three agencies is essential. Federal ownership of limited protective areas upon important watersheds, effective State fire patrol, and the cooperation of private forest owners are all required.
The true remedy for unwise tax laws lies not in laxity in their application nor in special exemptions, but in change in the method of taxation. An annual tax upon the land itself exclusive of the value of the timber, and a tax upon the timber when cut, is well adapted to actual conditions of forest investment, and is practicable and certain. It is far better that forest land should pay a moderate tax permanently than that it should pay an excessive revenue temporarily and then cease to pay at all.
Forests in private ownership can not be preserved unless they are protected from fire. We need good fire laws, well enforced. Fire control is impossible without an adequate force of men whose sole duty is fire patrol during the dangerous season.
The conservative use of the forest and of timber by American citizens will not be general until they learn how to practise forestry. Through a vigorous national campaign in education, forestry has taken root in the great body of American citizenship. The basis already exists upon which to build a structure of forest conservation which will endure. This needs the definite commitment of State governments and the Federal Government to their inherent duty of teaching the people how to care for their forests. The final responsibility, both for investigative work in forestry and for making its results known, rests upon the States and upon the nation.
By reasonable thrift, we can produce a constant timber supply beyond our present need, and with it conserve the usefulness of our streams for irrigation, water supply, navigation, and power.
Under right management our forests will yield over four times as much as now. We can reduce waste in the woods and in the mill at least one-third, with present as well as future profit. We can perpetuate the naval-stores industry. Preservative treatment will reduce by one-fifth the quantity of timber used in the water or in the ground. We can practically stop forest fires at a cost yearly of one-fifth the value of the merchantable timber burned.
We shall suffer for timber to meet our needs until our forests have had time to grow again. But if we act vigorously and at once we shall escape permanent timber scarcity.
Waters. The sole source of our fresh water is rainfall, including snow. From this source all running, standing, and ground waters are derived. The habitability of the country depends on these waters. Our mean annual rainfall is about thirty inches; the quantity about 215 trillion cubic feet per year, equivalent to ten Mississippi rivers.
Of the total rainfall, over half is evaporated; about a third flows into the sea; the remaining sixth is either consumed or absorbed. These portions are sometimes called, respectively, the fly-off, the run-off and the cut-off. They are partly interchangeable. About a third of the run-off or a tenth of the entire rainfall, passes through the Mississippi. The run-off is increasing with deforestation and cultivation.
Of the 70 trillion cubic feet annually flowing into the sea, less than 1 per cent is retained and utilized for municipal and community supply; less than 2 per cent (or some 10 per cent of that in the arid and semiarid regions) is used for irrigation; perhaps 5 per cent is used for navigation, and less than 5 per cent for power.
For municipal and community water supply there are protected catchment areas aggregating over 1,000,000 acres, and over $250,000,000 are invested in waterworks, with nearly as much more in the appurtenant catchment areas and other lands. The population so supplied approaches 10,000,000, and the annual consumption is about 37,500,000,000 cubic feet. The better managed systems protect the catchment areas by forests and grass; the water is controlled and the storm product used, but there is large waste after the water enters the mains.
For irrigation it is estimated that there are $200,000,000 in-vested in dams, ditches, reservoirs, and other works for the partial control of the waters, and that 1,500 billion cubic feet are annually diverted to irrigable lands, aggregating some 20,000 square miles. Except in some cases through forestry, few catchment areas are controlled, and few reservoirs are large enough to hold the storm waters. The waste in the public and private projects exceeds 60 per cent., while no more than 25 per cent of the water actually available for irrigation of the arid lands is restrained and diverted.
There are in continental United States 287 streams navigated for an aggregate of 26,226 miles, and as much more navigable if improved. There are also 45 canals, aggregating 2.189 miles, besides numerous abandoned canals. Except through forestry in recent years, together with a few reservoirs and canal locks and movable dams, there has been little effort to control headwaters or catchment areas in the interests of navigation, and none of our rivers are navigated to more than a small fraction even of their effective low-water capacity.
 
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