CONSERVATION CONGRESS AND NATIONAL FOREST CONSERVATION 431 



timber at the yield time, adopted in the resolutions of the 

 Conservation Congresses of 1913 and 1913 was reaffirmed 

 in the resolutions of this year. This resolution on lands 

 was unanimously adopted by the Committee on Resolu- 

 tions, and as chairman of that committee I can certify 

 that no one in the committee had any idea that it could 

 be in any sense taken as referring in the remotest degree 

 to the National Forests or to the past or present poHcy 

 in regard to them. 



May I add that my own record of work for forestry in 

 the past three years, during which I have been honored 

 with the presidency of the American Forestry Associa- 

 tion, and my interest in and work in promotion of the 

 National Conservation Congress, of which I am vice- 

 president and a member of the executive committee, war- 

 rant me, as chairman of the Committee on Resolutions 

 of the conference of the Congress recently held, in con- 

 tributing this clearing up of any misconception of this 

 resolution. 



If there is anything objectionable in the resolution, it 

 is interesting to bear in mind that it was formulated in 

 1913 in a subcommittee of which Mr. Henry C. Wallace, 

 ex-president of the Congress, was chairman— was pre- 

 sented to that Congress by the Committee on Resolutions, 

 of which Capt. J. B. White, ex-president of the Congress, 

 was chairman, and was adopted at that Congress at its 

 final meeting and has stood as an expression of opinion 

 by the Congress on a proper jjolicy on the untaken lands 

 of the nation, for three years. 



I have had the privilege and the pleasure of attending 

 the successive meetings of the Conservation Congress at 

 Kansas City in 1911, Indianapolis in 1912, Washington 

 in 1913, and Washington in 1916. At no Congress have 

 I seen forestry interests more sympathetically considered 

 and supported. The admirable report of the Committee 

 on Forests at the recent conference was received with 

 appreciation and approval, as were the other valuable 

 reports on various subjects. Approval was given to them 

 all. It was the distinct understanding of the members of 

 the Resolutions Committee that these reports having been 

 presented to the Congress and received with approval, 

 together with the resolutions recommended in them, by 

 the Congress, did not call for further action by the Reso- 

 lutions Committee, and that committee therefore ad- 

 dressed its work wholly to formulating and presenting 

 in final form the resolutions submitted to it which had 

 not been the subject of committee reports, and which 

 had not been already acted on by the Congress. 



Henry Sturgis Drinker. 



PRESIDENT PACKS STATEMENT 



My article in the June number of American 

 Forestry was written to express our belief in 

 the National Forest Conservation policy, par- 

 ticularly as to the National Forests. The fact that similar 

 resolutions, as explained by Dr. Drinker, were passed at 

 more than one meeting, does not change these principles. 



Two wrongs do not make a right. That it was well to 

 plainly express our faith in the National Conservation 

 policy at this time is shown by the large number of let- 

 ters and messages of approval which I have received. 



I feel assured I voice the feeling of the great body of 

 our citizens interested in the faithful conservation and 

 use of our National Forests in expressing the regret 

 that we have not been assured that the Resolutions Com- 

 mittee of the Washington conference believed in the 

 national policy of administering these great assets held 

 in trust for the people. 



Charles Lathrop Pack, 

 President American Forestry Association. 



FOREST FIRE PROTECTION 



WISCONSIN has had no destructive forest fires 

 since 1911 ; but when we seem most secure is 

 time to take the most effective defensive meas- 

 ures. Four years of immunity should be a warning of 

 danger. Every man in the service of the Wisconsin Con- 

 servation Commission is called on now to prepare for a 

 warfare against forest fires the coming season. From 

 April until the fall of snow in November or December, 

 the strictest watch must be maintained ; every smoulder- 

 ing spark must be extinguished, and every man going 

 into the woods must find a fire warning staring him in 

 the face from trees on trails and around lakes frequented 

 by campers and fishermen and hunters." 



This was the substance of a warning service by Com- 

 missioner F. B. Moody, of the Wisconsin forestry force 

 at a conference of all men of the department, held at 

 forestry headquarters ait Trout Lake. Prevention of 

 forest fires and all subjects in connection with forestry 

 and forest fire conditions were discussed in a series of 

 nineteen papers, wh'ich vv^ere followed by expressions of 

 the views of the experienced men of the service. 



F. G. Wilson, who is located on the Devils Lake re- 

 serve, said that the entire campaign for forest pro- 

 tection was threshed out at the two days' conference. 

 Results of forest fires, cause of forest fires, railroad fire 

 tower's value to the fire elimination problem, and a 

 general plan of fire protection for the State, were the 

 questions that came up, in addition to the general topic 

 of State forestry and handing State reserve lands. 



"The forestry department will send out thousands of 

 cards giving advice to summer resort people, campers, 

 fishermen and hunters, in regard to fire protection." said 

 Mr. Wilson. "The old plan of quoting the law will be 

 abandoned, and instead the department in terse terms 

 will ask cooperation in preventing fires — in extinguish- 

 ing matches before throwing them away, — and especially 

 in putting out fires before leaving a camp. The great 

 slogan will be, 'One tree will make a million matches, 

 and one match will destroy a million trees.' " 



BOOKS FREE TO MEMBERS 

 Members of the American Forestry Association are offered 

 books on trees, birds and flowers, without charge, for securing 

 new members. See offer beneath Table of Contents. 



