WHAT'S HAPPENING TO OUR NATURAL RESOURCES?
Netboy, Anthony
What's Happening To Our Natural Resources? CONSERVATION IN THE UNITED STATES, by A. F. Gustafson, C. H. Guise, W. J. Hamilton, Jr., and H. Ries. Comstock Publishing Company, Ithaca, N. Y....
...Despite this fact, the lumber industry is consumed with righteous indignation when it is suggested that Federal legislation be enacted to regulate cutting on privately owned land...
...Eighty per cent of the virgin forest is gone—mainly victims of fire and of the greedy lumber barons whose motto was "Cut out and get out...
...Our agricultural resources are dwindling away...
...Now, almost 80 per cent of the virgin range forage is in some state of depletion...
...Most of the great civilizations of the past decayed when their natural resources and those of tributary countries could no longer support the population at the level to which it has been accustomed...
...Over 100,000,000 acres are extremely depleted, 270,-000,000 acres severely depleted, and 240,000,000 acres moderately or materially depleted...
...Over 60 per cent of our land, exclusive of large cities and water, is in some stage of erosion...
...The great herds of buffalo no longer blacken the plains...
...Pollution and foolish locations of dams and reservoirs have further depleted the supply...
...Comstock Publishing Company, Ithaca, N. Y. $4, Reviewed by Anthony Netboy THE high standard of living enjoyed by Americans is due basically to the vast amount and variety of natural resources with which our land is endowed...
...It is pertinent therefore to inquire at the present time just how fast are we using up our resources, and what will be left after indulging for several years in a war in which our minerals are being mined, our forests cut down, and our soil worn out at a far more rapid pace than ever before in our history...
...Our forest resources are in an equally deplorable state...
...Elk have long disappeared from the East, and are largely restricted to the Western mountains...
...and on 660,000,000 acres from one-fourth to three-fourths of the topsoil is lost...
...It is worthwhile glancing at some of the facts they have unearthed...
...The former millions are now reduced to a few thousand...
...The great empire of Western range land alone is said to have produced through the pasturing of livestock five times the wealth of all the gold mined in this country...
...The story of our fish and wildlife resources is perhaps even more appalling...
...On almost 200,000,-000 acres more than three-fourths of the topsoil and some of the subsoil is lost...
...Such common fur animals as muskrat, mink, raccoon, and skunk, have declined...
...Our grazing lands, which support the great livestock industry, are going the way of our forests because of overgrazing and neglect of future crops...
...Since then we have had a conservation movement, backed up by federal agencies, but that the surface has only been scratched is amply evident in every chapter of this book...
...The western ranges of grass and other forage originally covered about 850,000,000 acres...
...Until the beginning of this century almost no thought was taken of the incredible disappearence of our natural resources...
...The Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture estimates that the drain on our forests, including timber cut for use, insect and fire damage, etc., is twice as great as new growth...
...Our economic and military power stems largely from this fact...
...Beavers have disappeared with the cutting of the forests...
...Reckless hunting and trapping have doomed many species valuable for food, fur, or hides...
...The four members of the Cornell University faculty who wrote Conservation in the United States suggest an answer...
...The wolverine is almost gone from our forests...
...The wonderful and impressive spectacle of immense flocks of passenger pigeons is but a memory...
...What remains today, after only a century and a half of intensive exploitation...
...Although fish is one of our basic sources of food, the inland streams and lakes as well as the oceans have been recklessly overfished...
...Marten, fisher, and otter are now scarce...
...When Columbus discovered America virgin forests covered an estimated 820,000,000 acres, or about 43 per cent of the land area of the present continental United States...
...Hence, many desirable species no longer reach the market, and others are far less abundant than they used to be...
...Our lumber and forest products industries are operating for the most part on second-growth, and this too is rapidly diminishing...
...Moose are so rare in the East that their occurrence brings about newspaper comment...
...Must this fate be ours at some distant date...
...After the war, conservation will be a leading problem, and the way this nation goes about solving it will to a large extent shape the peace era, because if we continue to squander our natural heritage all the fine talk about our great power and influence in the world will be of no avail...
...The antelope millions have been reduced until they number thousands...
...We simply won't have the resources to remain a major power, with the highest standard of living on earth...
Vol. 8 • July 1944 • No. 31
