NATION'S TREES IN GOOD SHAPE

For all the environmental concern these days about saving forest land, it is reassuring to note that the people who make their living in the woods are also the ones most closely attuned to preserving them. Trees are a renewable resource, vital to our life and livelihoods, and the resource is being renewed.

This is National Hardwood Day, an ersatz observance not widely known outside that industry but one that gives us cause to cite a few forest statistics. According to the U.S. Forest Service, 70 percent more hardwood trees are growing in this country now than 35 years ago. In Missouri, where forests cover 14 million acres, a recent forestry census showed that there are one million more trees in the state now than in 1972. Wood industries in Missouri account for more than 22,000 jobs.

The National Hardwood Lumber Association says that for every tree used to make a hardwood product, there are two grown to replace it. The forest products industry directly employs 1.5 million people with an annual payroll of about $31 billion.

Many hardwood companies, including a number of them in this area, are family-owned and carry forward a tradition of carefully managing the resource that is their lifeblood. We trust their stewardship of the land more than the self-proclaimed forest guardians of the environmental movement.