46 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



A STATE FOREST PRESERVE. 

 James H. Ferriss, Joliet Park District 



As reported by a national senate committee, the con- 

 sumption of American timber is now fonr times greater 

 than production. Many deserts and waste places of the 

 earth were formerly timbered and fertile, densely popu- 

 lated by leading nations of their time. Man with all of 

 his industry, commerce, science, apparently is the great 

 destroyer. His ambitions and enterprise fill the river 

 beds, destroy the forest, and lay waste the fertile plain. 

 Endowed with intelligence, education, incomparable to 

 all the inhabitants of the land and sea, he is the most 

 wasteful, the one great embarrassment of creation. 



This is not a sermon, however; neither a thing highly 

 scientific. Merely I have dropped in here neighborly, in- 

 formally, for ten minutes, to inquire if there is not some 

 pleasing method or plan, whereby we scientifics might 

 add considerably to the park and forest conservation 

 movement. The awaking people are enthusiastic; enter- 

 prise runs wide and deep. The state highway project, a 

 forerunner, has been an unexpected and a pleasing suc- 

 cess. Electricity and gasoline quicken the pace. The 

 people are doing more and quicker thinking. Perhaps 

 without our help much of the forest lands would be saved 

 and nature's balance in a large measure preserved. As 

 with the older states, the land may not be stripped alto- 

 gether of its verdure and fertility; however, with our 

 help the saving movements can be started much quicker 

 and more usefully, beautifully, certainly. 



It is not needful at this time, in this audience, to dis- 

 cuss the merits of forest preservation, values in public 

 health, protection of navigable streams, effects upon 

 water levels and atmosphere, or the moral effects and 

 educational features as applied to ourselves. If you do 

 not know more of this entire subject than I do, I am 

 sorry. The newspapers and libraries are full of this. 

 The editors, disinterested as they are, have caught on. 

 They find that a truthful story of the hop-toad, an ode to 

 a spray of the Golden Bell, or the portrait of a tumble- 

 weed holds the subscribers better than a whole page of 



