USE OF FORESTS

e [Music] [Applause] [Music] ought to find something in here how about this no too flimsy how about this one yes this will do bill has found a ready answer to his problem of getting a new fishing pole it probably hasn't occurred to Bill that he is harvesting a forest product but that's exactly what he's doing bill doesn't think of the pole as a tree exactly or of the willow Thicket as a forest but there are many different kinds of forests and we use them in many different ways not far away Bill's father is using a part of a larger forest and in a different way he has the owner's permission to take some of these logs home and cut them up for firewood and this is Bill's home made from Lumber but did you ever really stop to think of the many things we use every day that have their Beginnings in the forest the dress Bill's mother is wearing is rayon and that came from wood even that newspaper is made from wood pulp because we use forests in such a variety of ways it is fortunate that we have so many of them in America this map shows the most important the southern Forest the central hardwood forest the northern hardwood forest the Western forest and the Great West coast forest which extends from California up through the states of Oregon and Washington and far into Canada in the cool moist climate of the Pacific coast mountains grow the great Evergreens do you know the name of these trees they are the famous redwoods of California and Southern Oregon oldest and largest living things on earth here on the West Coast grow many other Evergreens too this is red cedar Sitka Spruce West Coast Hemlock Western yellow pine Western Sugar Pine and America's most important Timber Douglas fur to the loggers and lumbermen Who harvest the trees forests have a special importance for that is where they earn their living but to most of us forests are important for the use we make of them did you know that more than half of all our houses are made of wood yes wood has always been one of our most important building materials for houses furniture and many other things some building materials such as Lumber and shingles are sawed directly out of logs but we use wood in other ways too these wide panels are plywood which is made of thin sheets peeled from logs these sheets are glued together to form wide smooth panels even the sawas can be a useful Forest product in the lumbering towns of the West Coast it is often used as a fuel instead of coal or oil orthos saas can be pressed into convenient logs in a machine like this so if we look around us we see wood being used in many forms however many products made from wood don't look like wood at all do you know what this is it is wood pulp made by grinding up wood and mixing it it with chemicals did you ever hear of cellulose cellulose is found in all wood fiber and is used for many purposes here the cellulose from wood pulp is squeezed between rollers and comes out as paper which we use in many ways every day sometimes cellulose turns up as cellulose rayon it is formed into artificial fibers which are made into cloth cellulose also goes into the making of some film this is cellulose acetate film sometimes called safety film cellulose is used to make cellophane and many other transparent wrappings for many kinds of products how else do we use the wood from our forests Plastics many types of plastics start from lignan in the wood waterproof glue is only one of the many uses for resin which comes from wood turentine made from the sap of pine trees is important to paint and other products maple syrup from the sap of the sugar maple is only one of many foods and medicines which come from the forest we have seen some of the useful things which are made from our forest the forests themselves serve us in a number of other ways one is Recreation and our friend bill is making use of a nearby Forest stream in this way when he tries out his new fishing pole many thousands of Acres of forest have been set aside by governments as playgrounds for fishing camping and picnicking these same public forests are homes to all sorts of wild creatures who find food shelter and protection from their enemies in the shadows of the friendly trees did you ever wonder about Mountain Streams why are these so clear and sparkling All Summer Long well the forests act as huge sponges soaking up water during the rainy season and giving it off slowly during the rest of the year and so the water is clear this is another way that forests serve us in areas without trees where the hills are bare many streams become raging torrents whenever it rains and often become dry waterless gullies when the weather is dry forests are one of our great natural resources and their protection and proper use is important to all of us from these forested slopes comes water in a steady stream that may help in developing year round hydroelectric energy to help in conserving our forests many colleges and universities have schools of Forestry where students learn to care for and make better use of forests there's a great deal to learn if you plan on spending your life working in forests you might plan to become a forest ranger working for the government or some logging company your main job would be to protect the forest from its greatest enemy fire or you might work up to have charge of a sawmill or Logging Company helping to harvest the forest in such a way that none of it is wasted so we will always have Lumber and other Forest Products your job might be to pick out the trees which are ready for harvesting and mark them for the loggers in this Forest the only trees that are cut are the ones which are ready for Harvest sometimes the trees are marked with an axxe other times a spray paint gun is used to mark them the others are carefully protected and left to grow until they are ready even in forests where all the trees are large enough to harvest some of them may be left so that the seeds from their cones can be scattered and start new trees if the little trees from these cones are protected from fire they will someday grow to be a new Forest if you went to a school of forest hisory you would learn about planting new trees in places where they cannot be planted by Nature it's all part of the job of making better use of our forests but even though you may never make your living by working in the forest or even Harvest a fishing pole as our friend Bill did the forest and its products are important to us all we can all help to preserve this great natural resource by following the rules of the forest being careful to put out campfires and do nothing that might destroy trees or Mar the beauty of our forest land if we all do our part we can continue to enjoy these natural playgrounds and use their products in our daily lives [Music]