Editorial 



THE TOWN FOREST 



T 



EN years ago the idea of municipalities acquiring 

 and managing forest land would have been greeted 

 with derision or rejected as unpractical. To-day 

 the policy is widely recognized, and, in at least one state, 

 Massachusetts, an active campaign is being waged to 

 secure the establishment of a town forest by every city, 

 town and village. 



The most fundamental use to which a town forest can 

 be put is that of recreation. The ideas of our city and 

 town dwellers are outgrowing the narrow and artificial 

 confines of highly developed city parks, with their well- 

 kept lawns, flower beds and shrubbery. These will con- 

 tinue to be the lungs of the city, for those who can 

 spare a few moments for rest, and as a demonstration of 

 man's improvements on nature. 



But the spirit of our pioneer ancestry is strong within 

 us. We long for a tramp in the wild woods, a view of 

 nature in the rough. The great majority of us are 

 without the leisure or the means of gratifying this instinct 

 by extensive trips. A Saturday half-holiday, or part of a 

 Sunday, for a trolley ride to some nearby point is the 

 best we can do. What do we find? A dusty road, fringed 

 with '■ No Trespass " signs, reinforced by belligerent 

 property owners or hired watchers with dogs. 



More and more it is becoming a vital necessity for 

 communities to take into their own hands the responsibility 

 for providing forest land free to the public. The essentials 

 of a town forest, as distinguished from a city park, are 

 larger areas, somewhat remote, though easy of access, on 

 which improvements are confined to the construction of 

 trails or roads, with a few essential structures to increase 

 the comfort of the visitor. No attempt should be made to 

 artificialize or " beautify " the forest, but the tract should 

 be under a forester's care. The dead and dying trees 

 should be marked, thus providing employment especially 



during periods of labor surplus. The young crowded 

 stands should be thinned and made vigorous. Waste 

 areas — and of these there is only too great an abun- 

 dance — should be planted. It may be possible to use 

 dependent, pauper or convict labor on this great work for 

 the public good. The more beautiful and accessible groves 

 of mature trees — where a town is fortunate enough to 

 secure such groves — should be preserved with care. The 

 enjoyment derived by the public is worth far more than 

 the commercial value of the timber. Much judicious 

 cutting can be done, however, on portions of the area, 

 for the purpose of renewing and building up the forest. 



It has been argued that our municipalities are so cor- 

 ruptly governed that they are unfit for such responsi- 

 bilities. Has this argument ever prevented the public 

 from taking steps to secure the vitally essential city 

 parks ? And have not these parks been placed for the 

 most part in the hands of boards composed of the best and 

 most disinterested citizens ? Have we any reason to sup- 

 pose that the same keen and universal interest which has 

 driven corruption and party politics out of our city park 

 administration will not be equally efl:ective in protecting 

 the town forests? 



Furthermore, the means is at hand and the procedure 

 clearly shown by which this result can be secured. The 

 employment of a trained forester who has also mastered 

 the technic of landscape architecture, and the placing of 

 this work under a board similar to the park boards, or 

 even under the park boards themselves, will guarantee 

 the success of the work. 



It is time that every American municipality, large or 

 small, should bestir itself in this matter. In no other 

 way can equal benefit of so permanent a character be 

 secured. Town forests must come, and come to stay. 



THE PROTECTION OF BIG GAME 



THE pioneer period in this country's development, 

 when the good of all was best furthered by the 

 unrestrained initiative of the individual, is passing 

 and we are witnessing the dawn of a new era of intelli- 

 gent commercial supervision and adjustment. This is 

 nowhere shown so strikingly as in the handling of the 

 problems of protection for big game animals. The fron- 

 tier heroes — Boone, Crockett, Bowie and their associates 

 ■ — were primarily hunters. The squirrel rifle, with which 

 feats of astonishing skill were performed, was the most 

 useful implement of husbandry. The settler, clearing a 

 home in the trackless forest, would many times have been 

 forced to give up the desperate struggle for a living had 



it not been for the abundance of wild game and fish, both 

 large and small, with which he eked out his living and 

 supported his family. The tradition that game is legiti- 

 mate meat for the pioneer is still strong in newly settled 

 regions, despite laws seeking to limit the killing and pre- 

 serve the remnants of our wild life. 



But with the demarcation of agricultural areas and the 

 permanent segregation of true forest soils unfit for farm- 

 ing, came a change in the underlying economic situation. 

 The increasing interest in big game hunting as a sport 

 and the growing desire of the entire nation for the 

 preservation and increase of these species of animals, 

 the possibility of whose complete extinction has been so 



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