Fire and flood, wasted resources and barren lands are the penalties of forest destruction, warns this film, as it describes basic measures to preserve Canada's prime source of national wealth. Scenes of the wilderness created by stripping land of protective trees show the need to halt careless exploitation. Contrasting the slow process of re-seeding with the swift, modern methods of felling trees, the film urges planned cutting to ensure a continuing protected yearly crop and waste salvage.