FORESTRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON 



IX accordance with the diversified 

 needs of the State the University 

 of Washington has the Colleges 

 of Liberal Arts, Engineering, Forestry, 

 Pharmacy, and Klines and the vSchool 

 of Law. The College of Agriculture is 

 distinct from the University and has its 

 own governing board. The forests of 

 Washington and the Pacific Coast gen- 

 erally are the most magnificent in the 

 world. Nowhere else is the yield per 

 acre so large nor the rate of growth in 

 the forest as a whole so rapid. The 

 past rapid development of the North- 

 west Coast region is directly attribut- 

 able to its immense forest wealth. 



Forestry in Washington is in many 

 respects as important as agriculture. 

 Up to the present the products of the 

 forests have been more important than 

 the products of fields, farms, and mines 

 combined. The State of Washington 

 ranks first of all the United States in 

 the production of lumber. Oregon 

 ranks ninth. Together the two states 

 produce about 13 per cent of all the 

 lumber manufactured in the country. 

 In addition Washington produces more 

 than ()5 per cent of all the shingles 

 manufactured in the country. 



Because much of the land of these 

 States is unsuited to the production 

 either of agricultural crops or of stock, 

 forest products will always be the basis 

 for some of the most important indus- 

 tries. It has been estimated by Forest 

 Service officials that ultimately 50 per 

 cent of all the lumber manufactured in 

 the country will originate in a few of 

 the Western States. Washington has 

 now more than 12 million acres in per- 

 manent National Forests, the State it- 

 self has several hundred thousand acres 

 of land, much of it heavily timbered 

 and over six niilhon acres of forested 

 lands are owned or controlled by lum- 

 ber companies. In addition to the lands 

 in public forests, much of the land 

 privately owned will always be more 

 important in the production of timber 

 than of any other crojx It is a matter 



of note that Washington and Oregon 

 alone contain about one-third of the 

 standing timber in the United States 

 today. 



In providing instruction in forestry 

 the State of Washington has thus 

 opened the way for training some of its 

 young men to work in one of its most 

 important fields of industry, to help 

 solve some of the many problems the 

 community will be called upon to solve 

 in the future. With a distinct feeling 

 of the need of instruction in forestry in 

 the Northwest and particularly in 

 Washington the College of Forestry 

 was established in 1907. 



ORGANIZATION AND CURRICULUM 



The original purpose of the depart- 

 ment was to prepare men to meet the 

 various local needs in forestry, and to 

 promote the interests of forestry in the 

 State by encouraging the right use of 

 forest resources. With the demand for 

 men on the National Forests the ener- 

 gies of the School were at first directed 

 entirely toward training men for the 

 position of technical assistant. It was 

 deemed possible to train men for this 

 position in a four year undergraduate 

 course, and this has been an entire suc- 

 cess. However, as the technical work 

 of this course did not dififer materially 

 from that ofifered in graduate schools 

 of forestry it was considered only just 

 to ofifer a master's degree to students 

 who had already obtained a collegiate 

 degree and wished to complete the re- 

 quired work in technical torestry. In 

 that case a master's thesis is required. 

 The work is completed in two years. 

 At present arrangements are being 

 made for more advanced work for this 

 class of students. Two such courses 

 are being ofi'ered this year. 



In 1909 a special short course of 

 twelve weeks was established for For- 

 est Rangers and Guards desiring to in- 

 crease their efficiency, or for others 

 who wish to fit themselves for these 

 positions. In connection with this 



