Timber Depletion, Lumber Prices, Lumber Exports, and Concentration of Timber Ownership

Excerpt: Whereas it has been reported that the forest resources of the United States are being rapidly depleted, and that the situation is already serious and will soon become critical; and whereas these alleged facts are either largely unknown to the public or are in dispute: therefore be it resolved, that the Secretary of Agriculture be, and he is hereby, directed to report to the Senate on or before June 1, 1920, on the following matters, using what information the Forest Service now has available, or what may be obtained readily with its existing organization: 1. The facts as to the depletion of timber, pulp wood, and other forest resources in the United States, 2. whether, and to what extent, this affects the present high cost of materials, 3. whether the export of lumber, especially of hardwoods, jeopardizes our domestic industries, 4. whether this reported depletion tends to increase the concentration of ownership in timberlands and the manufacture of lumber, and to what extent; and if such concentration exists, how it affects or may affect the public welfare.