TOWN FORESTS 



113 



TOWN FORESTS - By J. W. TOUMEY 



(Continued from page 96.) 



older and more densely populated states of theEast, the in- 

 crease in the present area of public forests is likely to be 

 in forests owned by cities and towns. I believe we can 

 look forward to the increasing importance of these forests 

 not only for the protection and recreational purposes that 

 they serve, but also as important sources of local timber. 



Those who have made a close study of public forest 

 ownership abroad are convinced that communal owner- 

 ship of forest property is advantageous and economically 

 practicable. Many of those who have followed the 

 progress of public ownership in this country also believe 

 that communal ownership will in time prove as popular 

 and practical as it has in Europe. 



There are three reasons why city and town forests are 

 practical and advantageous, and why it is safe to predict 

 their inevitable rapid increase in the future. 



I. City and town owned municipal water supply sys- 

 tems carry with them the necessity for the protection 

 of the drainage areas from which the supply comes. This 

 means that the only practical use to which the drainage 

 area can be put, aside from the production of water, is 

 for the growth of timber. Drainage areas need to be 

 forested. Hence the necessity of city and town forests 

 to protect municipal water supply. Even now through- 

 out the country this is being recognized and cities and 

 towns are buying forest property for this purpose. 



2. The conspicuous increase in outlying city and town 

 parks acquired entirely for recreational purposes in all 

 parts of the country emphasizes the importance of ade- 

 quate recreational areas for public use. These outlying 

 parks which are now being rapidly acquired by towns 

 and cities throughout the country, are in reality city 

 and town, forests and eventually will be managed and 

 handled as city forests and not as parks. The idea of 

 wood production will be emphasized as well as the ideas 

 of recreation and protection. 



3. The marked decrease in adequate supplies of timber, 

 and the rapid advance in the prices of the better grades, 

 make the growing of timber an economic possibility in 

 many localities near many of our cities and towns, and 

 this will eventually stimulate the acquiring of such land 

 for communal forests. 



If a town, by acquiring a forest property, can protect 

 the source of its potable water, can afford space for re- 

 creational purposes, and can supply forest products for 

 its citizens, many towns are certain to take advantage 

 of the opportunity while near-by forest land is relatively 

 inexpensive. Before the war, Vienna owned a g'-eat for- 

 est south of the city, stretching southward to the Aus- 

 trian Alps. This forest was not only the source of the 

 water supply for a large population, but thousands of peo- 

 ple visited it daily for recreational purposes, not only in 

 summer, but in winter as well. Furthermore it re- 

 turned the city a large annual revenue derived from the 

 sale of forest products. 



It is my judgment that public attention should be di- 

 rected by those who have it in their power to do so, 

 to the desirability of increasing our present area of public 

 forests in this country by literally thousands of com- 

 munal forests. Towns and cities should be persuaded 

 into purchasing such forests, and wealthy citizens encour- 

 aged into acquiring suitable forest properties and giving 

 them as memorials to their home communities. Here is a 

 field for the forestry associations in the several states that 

 is almost untouched. If the forestry association in any 

 state can, through its avenues for publicity, show the 

 public what communal forests mean, and why the pres- 

 ent time is auspicious for the increase of such forest 

 ownership in this country, and can carry its influence 

 so far that tangible results are attained, it will perform 

 a public service infinitely beyond anything heretofore 

 undertaken. For one, I believe in city and town forests 

 in America. We should have many of them and widely 

 scattered over the country. Furthermore I believe that 

 they are practical, in the long run economical and ad- 

 vantageous to the community. I believe that a consid- 

 erable area in communal forests well managed will be 

 better appreciated by the public than an equal area in 

 national forests or state forests. 



Germany, before the war had but 1.8 per cent of her 

 forest area in crown or national forests. She had about 

 nine times as much in corporation or communal forests. 

 Switzerland has in national and state forests combined 

 only 4.5 per cent of her forest area, while she has 67 

 per cent in communal forests. In America the idea of 

 communal forests has not been sold to the public. When 

 it is we are certain to see a very rapid increase in this 

 kind of public forest ownership. 



In the development of communal forests it is not 

 enough for individual towns to secure tracts of land 

 either by gift or by purchase and call them town forests. 

 If they do, and if there is no organized machinery for 

 their use and development, very little is accomplishea. 

 Furthermore, an individual town owning a small area of 

 forest land can ill afford to employ an efficient forester. 

 This, I take it, has been the chief difficulty in the past 

 in this country and the reason for the lack of efficient 

 management of the limited areas of communal forests 

 that we now have. It is my judgment that communal 

 forestry must be closely linked up with the state forest 

 administration and laws promulgated that will afford 

 a form of co-operation between the community and the 

 state which will insure to each communal forest a reas- 

 onably high order of forest management. 



The wonder of the forests, their immensity and va- 

 riety, their woith are to be considered as an ineffable 

 appeal to conserve and restore and save. Help to per- 

 petuate talk forestry to your friends and let AMERI- 

 CAN FORESTRY MAGAZINE show them the way 

 to a better understanding and appreciation of God's 

 great outdoors. Nominate them for membership! 



