Industrial Forestry Associations 



667 



groups, the major companies and pos- 

 sibly major production are so repre- 

 sented. 



The typical pattern of such indus- 

 trial activities can be found in trade 

 associations. 



First, such activities took the form 

 of consulting services for association 

 members, many of whom believed they 

 could not afford their own forestry de- 

 partments. But this activity broadened. 

 It was obvious, for example, that forest 

 industries could not depend exclusively 

 upon their own lands for future sup- 

 ply, because collectively they own not 

 more than 18 percent of the com- 

 mercial tree-producing lands of the 

 country. It became apparent, too, that 

 a public unaware of tree growing as 

 a form of agriculture could be a serious 

 obstacle to forest management on vast 

 areas. So, in many instances, the for- 

 estry activities of industrial groups ex- 

 panded to reach other types of wood- 

 land owners and to enlist the under- 

 standing cooperation of the public. 



This broadening view has given rise 

 to two young but thriving movements 

 in American forestry. One is the Keep 

 America Green program. The other is 

 the American Tree Farms system. 

 Neither is exclusively an industrial 

 activity now, but each had industrial 

 origin and support. Each, in its field, 

 is contributing to better forest protec- 

 tion and management, upon which so 

 many agencies, public and private, are 

 at work. Both function locally, but 

 both have spread across the Nation. 



Keep America Green is popular edu- 

 cation in forest-fire prevention. Twen- 

 ty-four States had organized their own 

 Keep Green programs by the begin- 

 ning of 1949, directed in most instances 

 by State Keep Green committees, in 

 which industry and other interests are 

 represented. 



The Tree Farm program is a means 

 of encouraging better forest practices 

 by woodland owners, large and small, 

 and a method of informing the public 

 of the practical purposes and impor- 

 tance of forestry. At the beginning of 

 1949, the Tree Farm movement was 



active in 23 States. Its certified tree 

 farms totaled nearly 17 million acres. 

 Although this acreage is not great in re- 

 lation to the 344,973,000 acres of pri- 

 vately owned forest lands, tree-farm 

 certifications have shown an average 

 increase of 2 million acres a year in the 

 first 7 years of the program. Through 

 publicity and example, the movement 

 helps interpret the nature of our forests 

 to many Americans. 



FOREST-FIRE ASSOCIATIONS of the 

 West were among the early organized 

 industrial activities relating to forests. 

 The paramount task of controlling for- 

 est fires was assumed by such private 

 groups, sometimes in advance of pub- 

 lic action. Often a regional group of 

 timberland owners would pool their 

 holdings, meeting costs by a charge per 

 acre. Following disastrous fires, such as 

 the Yacolt burn in 1902, private pro- 

 tection agencies were formed in Wash- 

 ington, Oregon, California, and Idaho 

 between 1905 and 1912. 



The principle thus established of 

 each timber owner paying the cost of 

 protecting his own property in a co- 

 operative arrangement with neighbor- 

 ing owners set an important prece- 

 dent. The principle was incorporated 

 into several State compulsory patrol 

 laws. The associations were instrumen- 

 tal in developing Western State fire 

 codes ; they stressed practical problems 

 first, such as adequate equipment in 

 the field, closed burning seasons, com- 

 pulsory slash disposal, and shut-downs 

 during bad fire weather. They created 

 a consciousness of the necessity for joint 

 action in combating a common enemy. 

 Such experience contributed much to 

 the molding of the Clarke-McNary 

 Law of 1924, which expressed the Fed- 

 eral policy of cooperation with States 

 and private owners in forest protection. 



THE WESTERN FORESTRY AND CON- 

 SERVATION ASSOCIATION, organized in 

 1909, became a sort of "grand lodge" 

 of both private and public protection 

 agencies in the West. It is probably 

 senior today in the industrial forestry 



