Timber Supply Situation In Europe

All thinking members of the American lumber fraternity are naturally interested in the timber and lumber situation in Europe. So far, nothing tangible on that subject has been printed in this country, due to the chaos from which industrial Europe is only beginning to emerge. But from the "Timber News," published in London, we take some facts and figures that will probably be of some interest.

For instance, rve learn in a general way that the British are cutting dorvn and taking to their homeland great supplies of German timber, from the British occupied'portion of Nazi-land. We are giving no figures, but "Timber News" has this to say on that subject:

"The woodcutter's ax strikes deep into the heart of the German forest; forests of Pine, Spruce, and Beech, products of exemplary woodland management over two centuries. And the Germans have no one to blame but themselves. The knowledge that Britain is recouping her losses from the German lvoods, partly as compensation for the devastation of her own r,r'oodldnds, partly as a means of settling the larger question of reparations, makes most timbermen jubilant. It seems a matter 9f elementary fairness that the war mongers whose defeat could not be contrived without an unprecedented sacrifice of growing timber in Britain, should make good part of their loss'from their own abundant store."

Which seems to plainly state that they are slashing the remaining German forests in British occupied territory, and with a broadax. For trvo hundred years the only trees cut in Germany have been those pointed and marked for cutting by the professional forester, thus giving that nation always a sustained yield.

Elsewhere in this issue of "Timber News" is a detailed article on "Timber Supply Problems in Europei' written by Dr. Franz Heske, leading German forestry expert, who is introduced as "a German but no Nazi." He talks about prospective timber and r,r'ood and lumber supply for Europe, and is extremely pessimistic. To those who have entertained the idea that there are endless supplies of timber in Russia and that Europe might soon look to Russia for her needed lumber, this authority holds out no hope. He tells of the enormous increase in Russian internal comsumption from 1913 to 1939, and draws the conclusion that European Russia will exhaust her timber supply right there at home, in the next twenty years. He does not take into consideration the possible opening of unmeasured and partly unknown quantities of forest land in the remote regions of Siberia, rn'hich will be made possible by advanced and improved methods of transportation of such products. It is admitted that for many years Russia has been consuming'more lumber and wooden materials than she has produced, and that her forests in European Russia have been "over-worked," while those of Germany were never allowed to enter any such stage.

"Timber News" expresses the hope and belief that development of her Asiatic timber resources will help solve, not only the Russian, but help the European problem generally.

Surprisingly, this German timber authority, Dr. Heske, looks to Africa, and the development of huge forests in the "Dark Continent," as the best hope Europe has for timber supply in the near future. He says that the total forest areas in Africa amount to more than one billion acres, and that about 43 per cent of that total is "rain forest, suitable for exploipation," located in West and Central Africa. He says that this forest is capable of producing sustained annual increment of. 12.4 billion cubic feet.

These African woods are "of very heterogeneous makeup and in many cases the technical features of the wood have have not so far been disclosed." Up to now, says the report, it has been tbe custom in Africa to utilize only a few choice woods, and leave the rest. Dr. Heske states that the development of these African woods should be undertaken at once, rather than to completely destroy the remaining forests of Europe in supplying the after-war rebuilding needs. He estimates that in the next ten years Europe is going to need about two-and-one-half times as much timber as it can produce from its ou'n forests and resources.

Coniferous forests make up 54 per cent of the entire European forest area, and deciduous forests the other 46 per cent.

The following table is given showing the percentage of forest areas in Europe (Russia not included in this table)-: Northern Europe, including Denmark, Finland, Sweden, ancl Norway,4l.l per cent; Central Europe, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, 16.6 per cent; Balkan States, including Rumania, Buigaria, Albania, Yugoslavia, 12.8 per cent; Eastern Europe, including Baltic States and Poland, 8.8 per cent; Southern Europe, including Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, 11.3 per cent; Western Europe, including France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland, 9.4 per cent. These figures are based on prewar geography.