Canadian Forestry Journal, February, 1920 



89 



CITIZENSHIP AT WORK! 



H ■BIG § 



A Short Statement on the National Purpose 



Behind the Canadian Forestry 



Association. 



The Canadian Forestry Association is a co- 

 operative union of ten thousand Canadians who 

 beheve that the care of the public-owned forest 

 resources is a first duty of their Citizenship. 



Of all the resources, the forests are the most 

 easily destructible. Lands, mines, fisheries, 

 water-powers- -mighty factors in the national 

 machme — are subject to abuse and deteriora- 

 tion, but none is so exposed to rapid destruction 

 as the forest. 



Two-thirds of Canada's forests already have 

 been destroyed by forest fires. 



The story of purposeless devastation has ap- 

 pled uniformly from Coast to Coast. 



Changing conditions only add to the enormity 

 of timber destruction. As the forest areas de- 

 crease, the world's demand for the thousand- 

 and-one products of the forest intensifies. Con- 

 sider one forest product — the modern news- 

 paper! Forty milhon newspapers are whirled 

 from the presses of the United States and Can- 

 ada every working day. A blank newspaper is 

 but a flattened log. 



America has to have for her newspapers 

 every twelve months, a pile of spruce logs four 

 feet high and nearly 9,000 miles long. 



Small wonder that the industries and Govern- 

 ments have decided to face the question of im- 

 pending forest "exhaustion" and find a remedy 

 in fire prevention and sane forest managem'-nt. 



Canada is a country of public-owned forest 

 lands. Fully nine-tenths of all the forest lands 

 of the country are in possession of the state. 

 The protection and management of these forest 

 properties so as to keep the great resource self- 

 perpetuating for all time to come is a long-time 

 enterprise. It involves policies extending far 

 beyond the "life expectancy" of any individual 

 and most corporations. For such peculiar rea- 

 sons. Forest Conservation is primarily a state re- 

 sponsibility devolving upon the whole of the 

 |)eople. The chief burden of forest depreciation 

 and the greater part of the dividends of good 

 handling are assumed by the Canadian people. 



YOUR SERVICE TO CANADA. 



Then, why the Canadian Forestry Associa- 

 tion? 



Because in democratic countries, legislation 

 seldom runs in advance of public ODinion. 

 There must first be an informed public before 

 there will be genuine forest protection. The 

 Canadian Forestry Association takes upon itself 

 that educational task. 



"But," the reader may say, "I am not bene- 

 fiting by this propaganda — not personally." 

 Ne'.ther does the great bulk of our ten thousand 

 members. Forest Conservation is but your 

 synonym for alert citizenship. It is not prim- 

 arily a technical or trade matter. It is national 

 welfare. 



THE MAN WHO SETS FIRES. 



"Does the Association reach the man who 

 actually causes the forest fires?" 



"That is a question everyone is interested in. 

 We have our lecturers working in various sec- 

 tions of Canada. They use motion pictures 

 freely. We have what are called "Travelling 

 Lecture Sets" for use in the schools and 

 churches. Then our Railway Exhibition Car, a 

 sort of "Forestry School on Wheels," it has gone 

 into most of the provinces with its unique dis- 

 play and daily lectures. 



We prepare and distribute free booklets, well- 

 pictured, to tens of thousands of young people. 

 We issue special editions of attractive literature 

 to settlers, railroad men, etc Miybe you have 

 encounteied our sermonettes in a cigarette pack- 

 age, or attached to the menu cards of a dining 

 car! They have been used by thousands in 

 such ways. 



We place large fire-warning banners at some 

 of the railway junctions, and no doubt you have 

 read numerous of our newspaper and magazine 

 articles sent out by our Publicity Bureau. Then, 

 too, we get a great many business concerns to 

 substitute our fire prevention advertisements for 

 their regular ads in the papers. 



"Why not allow the GoviMnrnents to under- 

 take this work?" 



"Eventually they may, but mainly as a con- 

 sequence of the Canadian Forestry Association's 

 twenty years of propaganda. For the present, 

 much of the Association's effort is expended 

 in persuading some Governments to institute 



