CHAPTER XVI 

 STATE FORESTS AND FOREST POLICIES 



1. HISTORY 



During the reconstruction era following the Civil War, there was 

 widespread enthusiasm for tree planting and the better protection of 

 forests. Great fires had ravaged our woods, and a strong interest 

 was displayed in planting the treeless plains of the prairie states. 

 Still later, sentiment became focused on the subject, resulting in defi- 

 nite legislative action. This appeared to be a national movement and 

 was country-wide in its extent. Federal legislation in 1876, as de- 

 scribed elsewhere, stimulated definite action by the states more thor- 

 oughly than any other single factor. In 1885, state forestry made an 

 auspicious beginning, for in that year, four states, New York, Ohio, 

 Colorado, and California, enacted legislation formulating forestry or- 

 ganizations. In the last two states, the value of forestry in protecting 

 water flows for irrigation purposes was the initial stimulus. Crystal- 

 lization of sentiment has continued along similar lines in these and 

 many other states of the West. State forestry legislation became 

 most active in New England and the East, then in the Lake States or 

 Central West, and finally in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast 

 States. Although the southeastern and southern states were generally 

 the last to take up state forestry, they have made notable progress 

 during recent years, especially since 1921. Some of them now have 

 the most effective laws and organizations in the entire country. 



Legislative action in state forestry generally follows the leader- 

 ship of one or more able men, like J. T. Rothrock in Pennsylvania, 

 where a Commissioner of Forestry was appointed in 1895 and an 

 adequate policy for state forestry was enacted in 1897. S. B. Green 

 made notable contributions in Minnesota and was a great bulwark 

 of strength in formulating legislative action in 1899 to provide for 

 forest conservation and better fire protection. 



A great forward advance was made in the period between 1901 

 and 1910, during the regimes of President Theodore Roosevelt and 

 Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot. The influence of this president and 

 his chief forester had great weight in the formation of both federal 



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