Conservation (Purpose of the movement)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the purpose of the movement for the conservation of the natural resources of the United States is to protect from wasteful use and from private monopoly the minerals, waters, for the entire mechanical needs of the land, and forests. The conservation movement was really started by Gifford Pinchot, head of the Forestry Department under President Roosevelt. Observing the waste of natural resources that was daily taking place in the United States, he urged upon the President the necessity of action. President Roosevelt issued a call for the governors of all the States to meet with him at the White House on May 15, 1908, to devise measures to deal with the situation. The result of the conference was a declaration to the nation of the need of co-operation between the States and the National Government to preserve for posterity the great natural wealth of the United States. Conservation commissions were a appointed soon afterward by nearly all the States to make an inventory of their natural wealth and to suggest means for preserving the same. On June 8, 1908, President Roosevelt appointed the National Conservation Commission, naming Pinchot as chairman for the purpose of drawing up an inventory of the natural resources of the nation. This report was made the following year and contains some startling facts. The commission discovered that the waste in the extraction of minerals in the United States amounted to over three hundred millions of dollars a year, and that if present rate of use of the high grade iron ores was continued the supply would be exhausted within the century. Similarly the end of the supply of petroleum was within sight, unless unexpected sources should be discovered. The waste in natural gas was found to be appalling, enough being wasted to supply nearly half the people of the United States with fuel. Of the five tons of coal used per capita three tons per capita were wasted. While it was found that conservation of forests was being practiced on most of the land owned by the public, fourfifths of the standing timber in the United States was privately owned and was being frightfully used up. Not counting fires which destroy $50,000,000 worth of timber every year, the United States was taking from the forests every year nearly four times their natural growth. If this be continued, the commission estimated that long before the century was over the United States would be in want of timber. The waste in water power was found to be even more pronounced, less than 3 per cent. of it being used for municipal supplies and for irrigation, whereas if used to the fullest extent available the power generated would be sufficient nation. Following this analysis of the condition and use of our natural resources steps followed which were designed to deal adequately with it. The National Forests which contain about one-fifth of the timber lands of the United States have been so administered in the past ten years as to put great quantities of timber to good use, while protecting the new growth and the headwaters of all the important Western rivers. The net area of the National Forests was greatly increased until in 1920 it had reached 156,032,053 acres (81,200,000 acres of which is timber land) yielding an annual income of about $5,000,000. Despite the good care taken of our National Forests lately, the demands are greater than the available timber supply. This is largely because 79 per cent of the forests are in private hands and therefore difficult to regulate. Steps were being taken in 1919 and 1920 to educate the owners in the proper use of their forests and to encourage reafforestation. The airplane has been used by the Forest Service since 1919 to guard the forests and to locate forest fires; it is hoped that this will lessen the enormous loss incurred by these conflagrations. The conservation movement has likewise operated to induce caution in the sale of mineral lands without proper compensation to the Government and strict regulations to insure their being efficiently exploited. President Roosevelt by his own authority withdrew from settlement many thousands of acres of public land until Congress should pass appropriate laws for their protection. During the following administration this was done. The attempt by Presi dent Taft, through his Secretary of In terior Ballinger, to open up the vast mineral deposits of Alaska for use, was unsuccessful largely because Gifford Pinchot, United States Forester, was not satisfied that the interests of the public were being protected. While Secretary of the Interior in the Wilson administration Franklin K. Lane saw the completion of a railroad in Alaska and also by direction of Congress insured that the great mineral resources of that country should be developed in consonance with sane conservation principles. Perhaps in no field covered by the conservation movement was waste more apparent than in the use of water power. Not only was waste in evidence, but what use was being made of water power was centered in private monopoly. Due largely to the conservation movement, this tendency to center a large amount of the available water power in a few hands has been checked. During the Wilson administration Congress passed laws for the development of the water powers of the national forests and of the public domain which gave fair terms to the interests desiring to exploit them and also protected the public interests. The National Conservation Commission discovered that agriculture in the United States had decreased the fertility of the soil instead of increasing it as had been the case in most European countries. To meet this evil, experimental stations were opened by the Department of Agriculture, and an extensive campaign of education of the farmers in better methods of tilling the soil was undertaken. At the same time the Department of Interior took up the task of irrigating and reclaiming for use vast desert areas of the West. From 1902 until June, 1919, the Reclamation Service had spent nearly $150,000,000 on projects designed to reclaim land for use. When all the projects under construction are completed 3,200,000 acres of formerly waste land will be irrigated. 1,120,000 acres were already being irrigated in 1919.