,Who Needs Wood?

Being qn address defivered by S.W. Antoville, Chqirmsn oi the Boord, llnited Stotes Plywood Corporalion, belore an audience of ofmosf 600 members of the Rotary CIub of Los Angeles, who devoted their weekly luncheon, October 13, 1961, to o tribute to Nqfionol Forest Prodvcts Week.

T AST YEAR, in recognition of the l-r growing importance of Forest Products to our economy and way of life, hy proclamation of The President the rveek of October 15th was proclaimed as the first National Forest Products Week which has again by Presidential Proclamation been so designated. I sincerely appreciate the honor of being invited to address this meeting of ILotary and feel it is particularly ap- propriate to discuss this subject of Forest Products here on the West Coast because of the importance of the Forest Products Industries to this area.

To explain the relative importance of the Forest Products Industiv to the cconomy of the West it is neceisary to quote some statistics. The eleven western states, the Province of British Columbia and the new State of Alaska have been defined as the Pacific Slope in which timber is one of its predominant natural resources. It is significant to note that in this territory in rvhich Forest Products plav so - important a part in its eionbmy, the population has increased between 1941 to 1958 from 15.1 million to 27.1 million, or 8O7o, as contrasted with the entire U.S. increase of 30/o and of Canada by a\/o.In the eleven western states personal income has increased between l94l and 1958 from 11.3 billion to 58.8 billion, or 420 per cent, as compared to all of the United States of 286 per cent. Likewise, per capita income of the 11 western states was $2317, according to U.S. Department of Commerce compared with U.S. average of $2057.

The Forest Products fndustry consists primarily of Iumber, pulp and paper and plywood and veneer. The value added by manufacture in the eleven western states in 1954, the latest year for which detailed census data are available, in all industries rvas 11 per cent of the national total. In lumber it was 50 per cent, in pulp and paper 13 per cent and in plywood and veneer 65 per cent.

Right here in California you have rnore than 17 million acres of commercial forest land. More than half of that tremendous acreage is on public land from which standing timber is sold only on a perpetual yield basis. The remainder is owned by ten thousand individuals and indujtries-not iust the handful of ownerships that some of you may have believed control our Iorests,

More than 100 thousand people are employed directly in the Forest Products industries in your state producing a payroll of over 500 million dollars a year. When you add to that figure the payrolls that add value to the raw materials-by manufacture of millworkdoorsfurniturecabinetsfixttrres, etc., the total payroll approaches the important figure of one and a half billion dollars a year.

It is hard to visualize the volume that is contained in the 17 million acres of California's commercial forest land. According to the American Forest Products Industries. Inc.. it is 360 billior-r board feet of standing timberenough to build 35 million new houses -almost enough to rebuild every dwel- ling in the United States. And this does not include trees less than 11 inches in diameter-the smaller trees are not classified as saw timber. Nor does it put a yardstick on the basic resource-the land itself and its ability to grow repeated forest crops forever.

Wood is the only natural resource known to man that is inexhaustable

To Our Reoders

The publicotion of this excellent oddress by Mr. Anfoville is but our firsl coveroge of lhe mony Notionol Forest Products Week octivities of mid-October. For q complete reporting (well, os complele qs we cqn mqke ir) of rhe successful endeovors of other clubs ond cities, see our forthcoming December I issue.-Editor.

.;vhen properly managed. None of the mineral and oil resources of the world, from which many of other building materials derive, can be replaced within any practical period of time.

I have cited some of these figures not only to prove the importance of the Forest Products Industries to the economy-but also to indicate that we are not likely to run out of raw material as was predicted rather freely and indiscriminately in the past.

As far back as almost a hundred years ago, dire predictions were being made lhat there would be practically no lurnber industry by this time. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, declared in his annual report in 1875 that "Within 2O years the timber would be so far gone as to fall considerably short of our home necessities. One of the more optimistic of the early pessimists was Henry Garret, who, in an article in the October 1900 issue of Forum, estimated that the stand would last about 50 years. And in 1m8, Gifford Pinchot, one of the first and most vocal of the conservationist-alarmists, was proclaiming, "We have in store timber enough for only 2O or 30 years. In the same year, 1908, James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, stated that in less than 30 years all the remaining virgin timber would be cut. In 1922, Mr. Pinchot hedged his earlier prophecy in the foreword to one of the standard books on forestry when he rt'rote: "Our own forest resources are being depleted. Our high grade hardwoods are almost exhausted. The last great bodies of softwoods-those on Pacific Coast-will soon be gone. Lumbermen of this and other countries are thinking seriously of getting timber from the great but little known forests of Asiatic Russia."

Please und.erstancl that in recounting these mistaken predictions, I am not engaging in ridicule. I believe that these alarmists, while failing to remember that the timber supply is augmented by the simple process of tree growth, served a useful purpose in their cries of wolf. in forcing us to more sensible forestry practices without which we certainly would have despoiled a larger amount of the growth of tl-re raw material that sustains these industries which are so important to your econom)r.

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12,OOO Dealers Use DFPA Tie-ln Aids

More than 12,000 building supply dealers are taking part in the first nationwide television selling campaign to be sponsored by a segment of the timber products industry.

Douglas Fir Plywood Association has announced that 12,701 dealers have received point of sale material designed to tie in with the DFPA-sponsored David Brinkley's Journal, a new program on the NBC network.

The association announced the avail- ability of a wide range of sales aids in a mailing to every dealer in the U.S. The response was so overwhelming that DFPA's already extensive mailing department had to add extra employees and extra overtime to get the material into dealers' hands in time for the first program, October 11. Commercials demonstrate plywood's durability and versatility in home building, in the construction of boats and in a wide range of do-it-yourself projects, as well as industrial applications. Display materials keyed to specific commercials will reach dealers before the commercials are scheduled, along with suggestions on their use.

George Fenneman, who will deliver the plywood industry's sales messages, will tell viervers they can obtain advertised products through their local lumber dealers.

"Our commercials have two purposes," according to DFPA Advertising Director John D. Ritchie.

"First, we are aiming at a better climate of acceptance for plywood by demonstrating the value of DFPA's quality control program. The marginal material reaching the market despite