The Annual Meeting 



MORE members attended the annual meeting of the 

 American Forestry Association held at the 

 Copley-Plaza Hotel in Boston on January 17 and 

 18 than ever were present at any previous meeting. From 

 every State in New England and the Southern Appala- 

 chian section, from the Atlantic States, the North- 

 ern and many of the Middle Western States they came, 

 and spent two days hearing papers and addresses devoted 

 to many phases of forestry, and attending a joint forestry 

 dinner at which the guests of honor were Governor 

 Samuel W. McCall, of Massachusetts, and Dr. Charles 

 W. Eliot, President-Emeritus of Harvard University. It 

 was a most successful meeting in every way, productive 

 of a great deal of enthusiasm in the cause of forest con- 

 servation ; of practical results, in action taken for the 

 furtherance of the movement, and of publicity, which 

 carried to the knowledge of thousands upon thousands 

 of people the fact that the Association is a powerful na- 

 tional force in educating the people regarding tree and 

 forest conditions. 



President Henry S. Drinker presided at the opening 

 session and in his address said : 



"Friends of Forestry in New England who have 

 graced our meeting with their presence : May I say on 

 behalf of the American Forestry Association that our 

 Directors gladly responded to the cordial invitation ex- 

 tended by the forest lovers of New England to the Amer- 

 ican Forestry Association to hold this, its annual meeting, 

 in Boston? The New England States undoubtedly con- 

 stitute distinctively the group of States that in the past 

 have shown most interest in forestry, and who have 

 done most, as a group, to forward the study and prac- 

 tice of sound principles of forestry looking to the proper 

 care and reproduction of our woods, and the preserva- 

 tion of those of our forests which should be preserved 

 for their scenic value. Those of us who come to you 

 from Pennsylvania — the 'Keystone State' — from Penn's 

 wooded State — can justly feel pride in our record of a 

 State Forestry Association dating from 1886, an organ- 

 ized State Forestry Reservation Commission dating from 

 1893, and of pioneer efforts in the establishment of State 

 Forest Reserves that have now grown into an estate of 

 over one million acres of State lands set aside for the 

 practice of forestry, exceeded in area only by the great 

 Adirondack Reserves of the Empire State of New York, 

 which, however, by the recent fiat of the citizens of New 

 York in the rejection of their proposed new constitu- 

 tion (which would have sanctioned modern forestry 

 practice), seem to be destined to continue to serve rather 

 as a pleasure ground for the hunter and the fisherman 

 and the lover of woodland life, than as a forest reserve 

 proper. 



"We congratulate you on your well-organized and active 

 Associations for the promotion of forestry — among them 



prominently the Massachusetts Forestry Association, the 

 Association for the Protection of New Hampshire For- 

 ests, the Connecticut Forestry Association and the 

 Maine Forestry Association — in the formation of which 

 latter the American Forestry Association was privileged 

 to exercise a sympathetic part and interest. 



"One of the greatest measures enacted by Congress in 

 recent years, the Weeks Law for the establishment of the 

 Appalachian Reserve, extending from New Hampshire 

 through the Eastern States to Georgia, bears the name of 

 your distinguished Senator and your New England for- 

 esters, led in the movement by our able and most ener- 

 getic friend, Philip W. Ayres, of the New Hampshire 

 Association, are now cooperating with the American For- 

 estry Association and with many bodies of leading and 

 distinguished citizens of the Atlantic States in the effort 

 tc procure the enactment of such an extension of the 

 Weeks Law as shall enable the good work so far done in 

 procuring and setting aside an Appalachian forest re- 

 serve to be carried on and perfected — a work full of 

 potency and promise of good in the care, preservation, 

 and increase of our woods and waters. 



"So in coming to New England and to Boston we, for- 

 esters of the Middle, Southern and Western States, feel 

 that we are coming to confer with old friends and good 

 friends, whose hospitality we have before enjoyed, and 

 whose hearty and able promotion of forestry in this sec- 

 tion makes a visit here an inspiration and an encourage- 

 ment to those of us who come to you having similar aims 

 and sympathies. 



"We thank you for your welcome and we pledge our 

 continued and active aid in the promotion of the forest 

 measures you have at heart for the betterment of forest 

 interests in the New England States." 



Following the annual report of the Secretary, detailing 

 the work of the Association during 1915, reporting 3,018 

 new members secured, and stating the popularity of the 

 Association's magazine, American Forestry, in its new 

 and improved form, the President appointed a nominating 

 committee, and the members then heard the two addresses 

 scheduled for the afternoon. These were by Philip W. 

 Ayres, forester for the Society for the Protection of the 

 New Hampshire Forests on "The Weeks Law Situation," 

 and by Harold Parker, of Lancaster, Mass., Chairman 

 of the Massachusetts State Forest Commission, who 

 spoke on "New England's Forestry Problems." The ses- 

 sion closed with the election of the following officers: 

 President — Charles Lathrop Pack, Lakewood, N. J. 

 Vice-Presidents — Joshua L. Baily, Pennsylvania ; An- 

 drew Carnegie, New York; William S. Colby, California, 

 Secretary the Sierra Club ; Mrs. Emmons Crocker, Massa- 

 chusetts; Dr. Charles W. Eliot, Massachusetts, Presi- 

 dent Emeritus Harvard University ; Dr. B. E. Fernow, 

 Canada, Dean of Forestry, University of Toronto ; Henry 



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