A FOREST POLICY FOR LOUISIANA 



By R. D. Forbes 

 Superintendent of Forestry, Louisiana Department of Conservation 



When in January, 1917/ Dr. Fernow reviewed the forestry situation 

 in the United States, he gave it as his opinion that but one State of the 

 Union had developed "a really business-like forest policy and carried 

 it practically to a tolerably worthy issue." This is a broad statement, 

 and might not stand altogether unchallenged before a jury of State 

 foresters. Certainly, Dr. Fernow had no idea in making this statement 

 of charging 29 out of the 30 State foresters, then holding office, with 

 failure to recognize the true objects of their work as foresters and, 

 having formulated them, to strive doggedly and effectively toward their 

 attainment. The very fact that Pennsylvania alone had developed a 

 definite policy of State acquisition of true forest soils and undertaken 

 upon them a continuous production of forest crops indicates the tre- 

 mendous difficulties with which the State foresters of the country have 

 had to cope in advocating this cardinal principle of forestry. The 

 average State forestry department has been compelled by public apathy 

 and misunderstanding to develop piecemeal and along the lines of the 

 least resistance. Instead of being able at the first to place before the 

 public the fact that the forest resources of the State were being rapidly 

 depleted, and being able to oflfer, with some hope of adoption, a scheme 

 for remedying the situation on a broad scale, the average State forester 

 has been compelled to start at a point infinitely remote, and laboriously 

 prepare the public mind for the adoption of the essential object of his 

 work. That is why 29 of Dr. Fernow's 30 foresters, instead of being 

 diligently employed with the problems of continuous forest production 

 on true forest soils, publicly owned, are "puttering," as he puts it. on 

 dendrological manuals ; shade-tree work ; illustrated lectures ; supplying 

 market data to the skittish lumberman or woodlot owner, who mav by 

 such insidious kindnesses be wooed away from the broad highway of 

 forest destruction into the narrow and dim (oh, very dim!) paths of 

 forest conservation ; forest nurseries to supply planting stock for the 

 artificial reforestation of one acre, where the crying need is for the 

 natural reseeding of a thousand acres ; establishing sylvan recreation 



' The Situation, by B. E. Fernow, Jour, of For., Vol. XV, No. i. 



