Along with water and air, soil is the most fundamental of resources. This unconsolidated skin of the earth is the source from which many other resources and our most valued commodities flow. And along with clean water and air, healthy and productive soil is vital to a healthy and productive society. On a human time scale, soil is nonrenewable. Thus, in the fullest sense, soil is a heritage to be protected and, where necessary, to be repaired or improved as we pass it from one generation to the next.
Clear though this principle may be to some of us, it seems opaque to most of modern society to whom soil-derived resources simply are products of grocery stores, furniture shops, retail lumber yards and news stands. That soil is as common as air makes is just as invisible.
Irrespective of general apathy or ignorance, sustaining the long-term productivity of our forested lands should be an
ethical and economic aim of enlightened forest management. For the USDA Forest Service, there is a legal reason, too. Among the World's nations, the United States and the Netherlands stand alone in their legal mandates for good land stewardship. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Soil Protection Act of 1987 requires that soil must not be treated in a way that degrades its capacity for such multiple functions as grazing, ground water recharge, or crop production . In the United States, the Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act of 1960, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974, and the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA) all bind the USDA Forest Service with managing renewable resources without permanently impairing the productivity of the land.