The History of forestry in America 

 the area of forests in the United States 



709 



Fernow 



probably does not diminish now at as Forest 



rapid a rate as it used to, the value of "To have established the conception 

 the remaining area is very rapidly de- 

 preciating, not only by removing the 

 accumulated supplies, but by cutting 

 the best and leaving the inferior mate- 

 rial, by neglecting to give attention to 

 the reproduction of the better kinds, 

 or even by recurring fires destroying 

 the capacity for such reproduction." 



In 1892 Fernow expressed regret 

 that the funds were inadequate for test- 

 ing all of the important woods, because 

 there was considerable demand for 

 tests of species which, though "still 

 more or less unknown . . . are now 

 being drawn upon to eke out the defi- 

 ciency of supply of the better-known 

 kinds." Those unknown species in- 

 cluded Douglas-fir, cedars, sugar pine, 

 and baldcypress. 



As another evidence of the concern 

 felt by some members of the industry 

 over waning timber supplies, there may 

 be mentioned the paper presented by 

 H. G. Putnam, a Wisconsin lumber- 

 man, which called for action by Con- 

 gress for protection against fires and 

 protection of young trees in logging 

 both to insure a future timber supply 

 and to protect stream flow. 



The accomplishments of the forestry 

 movement prior to 1898 have been 

 criticized on the ground that there 

 was much forestry in words but none 

 in the woods. It is important to realize, 

 however, that without the many years 

 of propaganda, of learning and in- 

 forming at least part of the public 

 regarding the facts of the forest situa- 

 tion and the need for doing something 

 about it, the conservation movement 

 of the early 1900's would likely have 

 been a dud. It is necessary to remem- 

 ber, also, that there were almost no 

 trained foresters to carry forestry into 

 the woods before 1898. The Division of 

 Forestry and the associations not only 

 were successful in stimulating public 

 interest in forestry problems, but they 

 had a large share in developing public 

 forestry policies and in drafting basic 

 legislation, both Federal and State. As 



said, in his Report upon 

 try Investigations, 1877-98: 



o have established the concej 



that forestry, silviculture, and forest 

 preservation are not the planting of 

 trees, but cutting them in such a manr 

 ner that planting becomes unnecessary, 

 is one of the most potent results of 

 the efforts of the Division of Forestry. 

 ... For preservation, it must by this 

 time have become clear, does not con- 

 sist in leaving the forests unused, but in 

 securing their reproduction." 



Pointing out that by 1898 the lum- 

 ber-trade journals gave respectful 

 hearing to the advocates of forestry 

 whom they had ridiculed as "denud- 

 atics" only 12 years before, Fernow 

 goes on to say: 



"The time has come when it [the 

 Division] should not only more vigor- 

 ously pursue technical investigations, 

 but when it should have charge of the 

 public timberlands, and especially the 

 public forest reservations, which will 

 never answer their purpose until con- 

 trolled by systematic management. . . . 

 A Division of Forestry in a government 

 which has reserved millions of acres of 

 forest property must logically become 

 the manager of that forest property." 



BETWEEN 1897 AND 1919, the na- 

 tional forest policy developed. 



As directed by the act of June 4, 

 1897, the Secretary of the Interior im- 

 mediately undertook to provide for the 

 protection and administration of the 

 forest reserves. The task was assigned 

 to the General Land Office, which ap- 

 pointed a field force of forest super- 

 intendents, rangers, and others, and 

 an office staff in Washington. None 

 of them had any technical knowledge 

 of forestry, and it was not until 1902 

 when a tentative arrangement for the 

 Bureau ("Division" until 1901) of 

 Forestry in the Department of Agri- 

 culture to handle the forestry work on 

 the reserves fell through that the 

 General Land Office set up its own 

 technical forestry division. FilibertRoth 

 was put in charge of the work. He bor- 

 rowed several men from the Bureau of 



