STATE FORESTRY ITS RELATION TO 

 CONSERVATION 



J^=;'HE development of forestry in the United States was the first direct 

 \^J effort to apply a policy of foresight in the handling of one of our greatest 

 sources of national wealth. Out of the ideas which forestry emphasized 

 grew the more recent movement for the proper care and management of waters 

 and minerals. The term conservation is broad enough to cover all forms of 

 management which tend to eliminate waste, safeguard the future and secure 

 the best balance between immediate utility and future value. In this sense 

 it is no new idea. Not only has the individual farmer who is farsighted 

 conserved and developed his farm, but the States and national government 

 have for many years actively assisted farmers through the agricultural depart- 

 ment and State Experiment Stations, by educational measures. Forestry was 

 at first confined to a similar educational role. But during the decades 1890- 

 1910 national forestry developed an important new phase, that of the nation 

 as an owner of forest land. No new lands were purchased in this period, but 

 the nation took the stand tliat the forest resources then owned by the public 

 should remain in collective ownership and be managed as national property 

 and not as private property. More recently, this same policy is urged for 

 water powers owned by the nation, and for deposits of minerals not yet 

 acquired by private interests. While the right of the nation to retain her 

 own property is pretty fully conceded, the terms upon which this property 

 should be developed and used are not settled and at the next session of Congress 

 these questions must be dealt with. This is the simplest and most important 

 principle underlying national conservation. 



In addition to the collective ownership of resources, there arises the possi- 

 bility that the government should regulate the management of property owned 

 by private persons by wise measures calculated to prevent waste while safe- 

 guarding the interests of the owner as well as the public. It is along these 

 two lines of government activity that the public or political features of con- 

 servation must develop. Private conservation may be encouraged as in the 

 past, by education. 



State governments will have an increasingly important role to play in con- 

 servation. Those States are fortunate which have adopted policies enabling 

 them to retain or to acquire forest land, or to hold and lease mineral lands, 

 instead of selling such lands for a small sum before their value materialized. 

 The State, rather than the nation, comes in direct contact with private owners 

 of land, and will be charged with the double duty of properly protecting these 

 lands, and of enforcing whatever regulative measures are found necessary. 

 This is the State's role in conservation. 



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