A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 815 



available to them the fund of experience gained in the protection of 

 Federal forest lands and in the protective activities of other cooperat- 

 ing States. The history, progress, and results of this cooperative 

 enterprise are discussed fully in the section Federal Financial and 

 Other Direct Aid to the States. 



It cannot be expected that the set-ups for protection in the various 

 States will all fit precisely the same pattern. At least there will be 

 differences in details. Nevertheless, from experience gained to date, 

 it seems possible to outline the general features best adapted to meet 

 the needs. 



Forest protection against fire is a specialized activity. During the 

 last 30 years there has been built up a body of knowledge of the 

 behavior of fire under varying conditions, the causes of fire, and the 

 most effective methods of preventing and suppressing fires, which 

 warrants calling the protection job a technician's job. While forest 

 protection against fire is not by itself the practice of forestry, nor is a 

 technician in protection necessarily on that account a technical 

 forester, the art and the science of fire control pertain to the art and the 

 science of forestry, and other things being equal, a protective organiza- 

 tion in which well -trained and experienced technical foresters largely 

 fill the higher positions is much more likely to be effective than an 

 organization little influenced by professional education, contacts, and 

 attitudes. 



This is the more important because as a public activity protection 

 should be directed from a forestry viewpoint. Its objectives are 

 forestry objectives. It should be planned along lines designed pri- 

 marily to safeguard the future welfare and productiveness of the 

 forest as a resource, not simply to safeguard private property in 

 standing timber. Consequently, while it would be erroneous to 

 hold that a good administrator of a State system of fire protection 

 cannot be developed from a capable woodsman qualified for executive 

 and managerial responsiblities but untrained in technical forestry, as 

 a rule and in the long run recognition of the job as one which should 

 be either performed or supervised by a trained forester will bring the 

 best results. 



Were the protective work the only need of the State in forestry, the 

 advantage in having a technical forester in charge of it, as against a 

 competent nontechnical man with the right viewpoint, would not 

 always be very material. But the interests of the States call for a 

 work of all-around leadership toward better use of the forest resources. 

 Rarely is the undertaking of the State in forestry confined wholly to 

 protection. Even where the immediate reason for organizing a 

 forestry department has been to provide the machinery necessary in 

 order to qualify for Federal cooperation in the work of protection, the 

 basic law ordinarily contemplates other activities. The State for- 

 ester's function normally includes a broad leadership in forestry 

 generally through enlightening the public, assembling the informa- 

 tion necessary to guide the development of a sound State policy of 

 forestry, and giving expert advice in the fields both of public and of 

 private policies and practices. In addition the State forester may 

 and ordinarily does have technical duties either of forest land adminis- 

 tration or of forest-nursery management. 



It has already been brought out that in an overwhelming majority 

 of cases State departments of forestry are now headed by technically 



