SECOND NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON EDUCATION IN 

 FORESTRY 



Bv J. W. TOUMKY 



The first national conference on education in forestry in the United 

 States was held in Washington, D. C, December 30, 1909. This con- 

 ference was called through the initiative af Gifford Pinchot. Its object 

 was fully set forth by II. S. Graves, in an article in the March, 1910, 

 number of the Forestry Quarterly. At that time there were over twenty 

 institutions in this comitry and Canada which gave instruction in for- 

 estry. >-ni(! forestry was just beginning to attain a recognized ])lace in 

 educational circles in this country. There was no recognized standard 

 of professional training as shown in the wide difference in scope in the 

 forest schools and the great diversity in attainments of those calling 

 themselves professional foresters. As pointed out by Graves the Civil 

 Service examinations served in a measure as a professional standard, 

 but as only a part of the men trained in the schools took the examina- 

 tions they scarcely answered the purpose. 



The real purpose of the conference was to take the first steps in an 

 agreement among the schools as to the character and minimum tech- 

 nical training required of a forester of the different grades. It was 

 emphasized that the pressure to emphasize the practical application of 

 forestry without due attention to the theory endangered the best 

 development of forestry education. It was also recognized that the 

 omission or restriction in time of study given to the essential pre- 

 forestry subjects in science and language was disastrous to the best 

 training of the forester. At that time practically all the forest schools 

 had developed within the previous decade and it was emphasized that 

 they must provide a better training than in the past when they were 

 in the period of organization and the adjustment of their curricula, and 

 when instructors of adequate background and experience were not 

 available. 



Looking back over a period of ten years it is clear that the Wash- 

 ington conference attended by delegates from nearly all the forest 

 schools then in existence in America had far reaching effects on for- 

 estry education in this country during the past decade. 



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