Education in Forestry 



6 57 



termites, treatment to render it fire- 

 resistant, application of adhesives in 

 the manufacture of plywood ; chemical 

 utilization ; and the tools, the methods, 

 and power required in wood-working 

 operations of all kinds. This group of 

 activities might be described as "tim- 

 ber engineering." It requires a thor- 

 ough knowledge of mathematics, 

 physics, chemistry, and their practical 

 applications in the form of machinery 

 and processes. Some schools now recog- 

 nize the distinctive character of the 

 training needed for their effective con- 

 duct by providing special training in 

 which the basic and applied sciences 

 of particular interest to the wood tech- 

 nologist are emphasized. 



Foresters today realize that forestry 

 as a business founded on the commer- 

 cial utilization of wood will succeed 

 only if there is a profitable market for 

 products made from wood and that the 

 existence of such a market, in turn, de- 

 pends upon the cost and utility of the 

 goods to the consumer. They them- 

 selves, consequently, need some knowl- 

 edge of the properties and uses of 

 woods, and they recognize the impor- 

 tance of the wood technologist in pro- 

 viding the same kind of professional 

 competence in utilization of wood that 

 they themselves provide in its produc- 

 tion. Wood technologists, on the other 

 hand, need to know something of 

 the distribution, production, and man- 

 agement of the resources from which 

 they obtain their raw material, and 

 they recognize the importance of the 

 forester in producing a continuous 

 supply of the material without which 

 the wood technologist would have 

 nothing with which to work. Schools 

 of forestry today are training men for 

 both fields of endeavor and are giving 

 each an appreciation of the other's work 

 as a basis for effective cooperation. 



Closely related to the biological and 

 engineering aspects of forestry are its 

 economic and social aspects. Forest 

 policies and forest practices have to do 

 primarily with the production and use 

 of wealth, whether the forests to which 

 they are applied are in private or in 



802062 49 43 



public ownership. The private owner is 

 naturally most interested in obtaining 

 a net profit in dollars and cents, while 

 the public owner may be equally inter- 

 ested in services that are difficult to 

 measure in financial terms, such as the 

 prevention of erosion, the regulation of 

 stream flow, the production of wildlife 

 for fur and sport, and the provision 

 of other recreational facilities. Private 

 and public forests alike therefore find 

 their ultimate justification in an eco- 

 nomic or social return that justifies the 

 expenditures involved. 



This means that professional train- 

 ing in forestry now places an em- 

 phasis on the social sciences that was 

 unusual in the early years of the cen- 

 tury. Forestry must be practiced in a 

 world of reality in which income (in- 

 cluding public benefits) must justify 

 costs, in which all operations must be 

 conducted within the framework of 

 existing political and social institu- 

 tions, and in which the forester must 

 be able to work with other people both 

 as individuals and groups. Economics, 

 political science, sociology, administra- 

 tion, and psychology consequently are 

 fields with which the modern forester 

 is expected to be familiar, in addition 

 to such fundamental subjects as botany, 

 zoology, chemistry, mathematics, and 

 surveying. He also must be able to fit 

 his own specialty of forest growing into 

 other activities that involve the use of 

 cultivated lands in farms and of wild 

 lands elsewhere, so as to develop a 

 finely integrated pattern of land utili- 

 zation in which each area is devoted to 

 the use for which it is best adapted 

 from the combined view of the biologi- 

 cal, engineering, and social sciences. 



That forestry is now a profession 

 that offers an attractive career to well- 

 trained men is due largely to the effec- 

 tiveness with which schools of forestry 

 have discharged their responsibilities 

 during the past 50 years. The profes- 

 sion will doubtless continue to include 

 within its ranks many men whose train- 

 ing has been acquired in the woods, 

 in the practical school of hard knocks, 

 but as the requirements become more 



