FORESTRY PURSUITS FOR DISABLED MEN 



THE Federal Board for Vocational Education, which 

 has been charged by Congress with the re-educa- 

 tion and rehabilitation of war disabled men, has made 

 an investigation of the subject of forestry and forestry 

 pursuits as offering opportunities for these disabled 

 men to train for. 



A surprising amount of interest is being displayed in 

 the subject and it bids fair to become one of the popular 

 courses placed at the disposal of the disabled rnen. 



This education is given at approved universities, land 

 grant colleges and other institutions. The disabled man, 

 if single, is given a support and allowance, or "training 

 fund" of $65 per month, and all his expenses of tuition, 

 material, library and laboratory fees, are paid by the 

 Federal Board. If he is married and lives with his wife 

 during his period of study, he is allowed $75 per month 

 and $l0 per month for each child up to three. 



When he has completed his course, the Employment 

 Placement Division of the Federal Board will help him 

 in securing a position. 



There is no time limit set upon the course. The aim 

 is solely to make a competent, thoroughly trained man 

 out of the student. 



The following extracts from the "Opportunity Mono- 

 graph" on Forestry Pursuits, issued by the Federal 

 Board, will be found of general interest. 

 What Forestry Is: 



"Forestry is the business, or the art, or the science, depending 

 on the point of view from which you look at it, of handling 

 forests for timber production or stream-flow protection. It 

 does not, as is often mistakenly thought, have anything to do 

 with fruit trees, or even with street and park trees. The care 

 of these comes under horticulture and arboriculture. Forestry 

 is distinct from either in that it has to do primarily with entire 

 stands of trees, or forests, rather than with individuals. For- 

 ests are really nothing more nor less than tree societies, or 

 communities, comparable in many ways with human communi- 

 ties, every member of which has an influence upon and in turn 

 is influenced by its neighbors ; and it is this fact that gives to 

 forestry its distinctive character. 



"Forestry should also not be confused with lumbering. Lum- 

 bering has to do merely with harvesting the trees on any given 

 area, with cutting them, transporting them to the mill, and con- 

 verting them into lumber or other products. While the chief 

 task of the forester is to manage forest lands, he has to do with 

 the production of trees as well as with their utilization. For- 

 estry is concerned fully as much with the future as with the 

 present. Like agriculture it looks forward to keeping the land 

 continuously productive by the growth of successive crops. 

 Only in the case of forestry the crops instead of being wheat, 

 or rye, or corn, are trees, which in turn can be converted into 

 fuel, fence posts, telephone poles, railroad ties, wood pulp, 

 lumber and a host of other wood products. How much the 

 forests mean to the economic development of a community 

 through the crops which they produce and the employment 

 which they offer is evidenced only too plainly by the desola- 

 tion which has followed destructive lumbering in many a once 

 prosperous forest region. 



"In addition to yielding crops which have a commercial value. 

 forests in mountainous regions perform another important func- 

 tion which is none the less valuable because its benefits are 

 difficult to measure in dollars and cents. By decreasing erosion 

 and regulating stream-flow the mountain forests conserve water 

 for domestic supplies, irrigation, power and navigation, and at 

 the same time help to lessen the damage caused by destructive 

 floods. So far-reaching is this influence and so great is the 

 population affected by it, that the treatment which such for- 

 ests receive becomes a matter of vital interest to the general 

 public. One of the primary concerns of forestry is to see that 

 forests are handled in such a way as to afford the maximum 

 amount of protection, even if this involves, as it not infre- 

 quently does, the restriction or entire prevention of lumbering 

 operations. 



What Foresters Do. 



"In order to handle to the best advantage the area under his 

 charge there is a wide range of work which a forester may be 



called upon to do. He must be able to identify different kinds 

 of trees and must know the uses to which each can be put and 

 the sites to which they are best adapted. He must be able to 

 map the area and to determine the amount and value of the 

 timber upon it. He must be able to draw up a complete plan 

 for protecting the forest from fire and to carry out the details 

 involved in its execution. He must know how to control the 

 attacks of destructive insects and fungous diseases. He must 

 be able to handle the many details connected with the collec- 

 tion of seed and the production of young trees in forest-tree 

 nurseries. He must know where and how to plant these, or how 

 to sow the seed on areas where this is preferable. He must 

 know whether any given stand is too dense, and if so, what and 

 how many trees should be taken out to stimulate the growth of 

 those that are left. He must be able to determine the rate at 

 which trees are growing and the age at which they should be 

 cut and to make plans for harvesting them in such a way as to 

 secure natural reproduction. And finally, he must be able to 

 draw up a "working plan" providing in detail for the handling 

 of the entire forest in such a way as to keep it continually 

 productive. 



"All of this obviously involves a good deal of office work in 

 the formulation of plans, the maintenance of records, and the 

 miscellaneous administrative work connected with any business 

 enterprise. It also involves a good deal of practical out-of- 

 door work. The average forester must take long walks and 

 horseback rides. He must often camp out in a tent or with no 

 shelter whatever. He must take his part in fighting forest 

 fires, which means the liberal and energetic use of the ax, the 

 mattock and the shovel. He must run compass and transit lines 

 and make topographic maps. He must estimate the size and 

 contents of standing trees by the use of calipers and height- 

 measures, and must scale the fallen timber. He must mark, 

 or blaze, the trees to be removed in lumbering and must see 

 that the operations are carried out in accordance with the 

 approved plans. He must collect tree cones, extract the seeds 

 from these, sow them in the nursery, care for the young seed- 

 lings and later set them out in the forest. 



"He must also do a hundred and one other things which are 

 not strictly forestry but which are so closely connected with 

 it that they must be handled by the forester along with his 

 other work. Grazing is a good example of this, since most of 

 the forest regions in the United States produce forage as well 

 as trees. In order to utilize this to best advantage the forester 

 must know how many stock the range will support and how 

 they should be handled. In regions where mineral deposits 

 occur he must be familiar with the mining laws and must have 

 at least enough knowledge regarding mining to enable him to 

 deal intelligently with prospectors and others. Since most of 

 the forests occur in undeveloped regions he must know how to 

 open these up by building ranger and lookout stations and by 

 constructing such other permanent improvements as roads, 

 bridges, trails and telephone lines. In short, the average for- 

 ester, particularly in pioneer regions, must be a veritable jack- 

 of-all trades. 



Where Foresters Work. 



"Forestry is primarily an out-of-door occupation. Some 

 indoor work in the formulation of plans, writing of reports, 

 handling of correspondence, and other office routine, is of course 

 necessary, particularly in the case of those charged with the 

 administration of large areas. But the average forester must 

 spend the bulk of his time in the open, in the forests for which 

 he is caring. Sometimes his headquarters may be in a small 

 town or sometimes in a more or less isolated situation in the 

 woods themselves. In either case his daily work will ordi- 

 narily take him into the open in sunshine and in rain. Occasion- 

 ally he may be absent from home for several weeks at a time 

 carrying his bed and provisions on his back, or, if he is fortu- 

 nate, on a pack animal. 



"So far as geographical location is concerned, opportunities 

 for foresters have heretofore been mainly in the mountain 

 regions of the West where the National Forests are located. 

 As forestry comes to be practiced more and more on State 

 Forests and on private lands, however, similar opportunities 

 will develop in the East. There is no reason why large numbers 

 of foresters should not eventually be employed wherever for- 

 ests occur, and this means practically throughout the country 

 except in the Great Plains ajid in the farming regions of the 

 Central States and Middle West. 



What Handicaps Are Serious. 



"Generally speaking, a forester must be able-bodied and in 

 good physical health. He must have a strong heart, sound 



883 



