FORESTRY AND THE WAR 



From An Address By President Charles Lathrop Pack, of The American Forestry Association, 



At the Lake Placid Forestry Meeting, September 6, 1917 



T is an unusual pleasure to be the guest of the 

 New York Forestry Association and other rep- 

 resentative institutions here today in beautiful 

 Lake Placid. I bring you all the greetings of 

 the directors of the American Forestry Association — 

 an Association of constructive interest in fundamental 

 and progressive forestry with members in every state 

 and territory of the Union, an Association whose mem- 

 bership has doubled even in wartime. 



We stand for all that is best in forestry. We wish 

 the New York State Forestry Association and the 

 others here represented God-speed in the splendid 

 work you have in hand. We foresters and lumbermen 

 have an important work to do in war time. The for- 

 ests of America are increasing in direct and potential 

 economic value and importance on account of war. 

 Now that we are building hundreds of wooden ships, 

 everyone thinks of the larger part lumber is to play 

 in winning the war. There are many other war uses 

 for wood. Take the matter of so-called "naval stores" 

 — tar, pitch, resin and turpentine. These products are 

 essential to every navy and are particularly needful 

 to a wooden merchant fleet. More than two-thirds of 

 the world's supply of these things come from our 

 southern pine forests. We have been wont to refer 

 to turpentine and resin as "naval stores," but now 

 resin is employed in great quantities in filling the 

 space between the bullets in shrapnel shells, so that 

 when shells explode the missiles will be evenly dis- 

 tributed in every direction. 



We have sent many portable sawmills and their 

 equipment and crews of trained men to our Allies to 

 aid in overcoming the great shortage of lumber for 

 nearly every war use. The peculiar style of warfare 

 which the great war has brought forth necessitates 

 the use of enormous quantities of timber for trench 

 walls, for trench floors, for braces, shoring, and stays. 

 Millions and millions of feet are required for building 

 behind the fighting lines, for temporary hospitals, for 

 housing non-combatants, for temporary storehouses, 

 for railroad building. Enormous quantities of forest 

 products go into mine props, bridges and for other 

 military preparations. In all this, I have not men- 

 tioned what is in all your minds; the great amount of 

 lumber used in building the cantonments and camps 

 and storehouses used in connection with the army 

 training in this country. 



As some of you know, sometime since the War 

 Department announced the organization of a regiment 

 of forest engineers composed largely of forestry offi- 

 cers and hardy men accustomed to the ways of lum- 

 bering. Now we are told that there will be six of 

 these regiments instead of only one. Some of the 

 leaders of this great force are already in France, prom- 

 inent among whom are Major Henry S. Graves, Chief 

 of the United States Forest Service, and Major Wil- 

 liam B. Greeley, also of the Forest Service. We are 

 told that other experts will also be commissioned to 

 go forward with these new commands to France. 

 Their work will be largely in the forests of France, 

 providing all sorts of lumber and wood for the activi- 



ties of our army at the front. While organized on mil- 

 itary lines, the work of these regiments will be more 

 largely industrial than combatant. 



For one thing it has been announced that the 

 American engineer forces with the army in France 

 will have to construct a railroad from Bordeaux all 

 the way to the fighting front to better facilitate the 

 transportation of our troops and to better keep them 

 supplied with all the necessities of war. The building 

 of such a railroad in so short a time would even a few 

 years ago have been considered a great engineering 

 feat. Today it passes as only an incident of a colossal 

 war. 



A Committee of the Council of National Defense 

 sometime since estimated that two billion feet of lum- 

 ber from our forests would be used for purposes di- 

 rectly connected with the war during the year begin- 

 ning June 1st last. This amount, it is evident, will be 

 exceeded because of the new war necessities for the 

 use of wood. It is now announced for one thine that 

 a large amount of spruce, largely from the western 

 coast, will be used in the construction of a great aero- 

 plane fleet, the greatest fleet of the kind that has ever 

 been constructed in so short a time. It is now thought 

 that the war consumption of American lumber is likely 

 to reach two billion, two hundred and fifty million feet 

 for the twelve months. These new uses and the in- 

 creased old uses for the products of the forests increase 

 the economic value of the forests and add to the im- 

 portance of all the questions you are here to consider. 



I have an announcement that I want to make 

 which will have, I hope, not only the approval of your 

 minds but of your hearts also. The American For- 

 estry Association, in view of the fact that the majority 

 of those in the forestry regiments going to Europe are 

 trained foresters, lumbermen and woodsmen, has de- 

 cided to establish the American Forestry Tobacco 

 Fund to provide them and the men of the sawmill con- 

 tingents with such comforts in the way of tobacco and 

 other things as they may require. My friends, the fact 

 is we are going to do our duty in this hour of trial. 

 This is as much our war as it is the war of England 

 and France and Italy and we all want to do our part. 

 I hope you will join with us in promoting the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Tobacco Fund that we may give some 

 little satisfaction and comfort to those who are par- 

 ticularly fighting for us in France. We will all be glad 

 of an opportunity to help look out for our own. Con- 

 tributions should be sent to the American Forestry 

 Tobacco Fund, Washington, D. C. 



That we are going to win this war none of us 

 doubts. To do this we must bend our every effort and 

 utilize our every resource. Our timber is essential but 

 our food is just as important. Every individual can 

 help in fighting with food as well as with men and 

 munitions. The production and conservation of food 

 is within the reach of all of us. Former Ambassador 

 Gerard has told us that we cannot starve Germany. 

 Our common sense tells us that we must not starve 

 our army or our allies. We are fighting for national 

 existence and the perpetuation of Democracy. 



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