48 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



EDITORS INDORSE CAMPAIGN OF FORESTRY 



TfTTTH the Anthony Bill, looking to cut- 

 ting the size of newspapers up before 

 Congress along with an investigation of 

 the reasons for a news print shortage, 

 more newspapers of the country are fall- 

 ing in line with the American Forestry 

 Association in its campaign for a national 

 forest policy. The editors all agree that 

 the drive of the Association for memorial 

 tree planting and for "Roads of Remem- 

 brance" will bring to the attention of thou- 

 sands, who could be reached in no other 

 way, the value of tree planting and what 

 forests mean to the economic life of the 

 country. We quote from the Omaha Bee: 

 "One of the plans The Bee has often 

 urged on the people of Nebraska which 

 will yet come to be adopted, looks to the 

 afforestration of a great expanse of waste 

 lands in the sandhill district. The idea 

 back of this finds expression 

 in the proposal of Charles 

 Lathrop Pack, head of the 

 American Forestry Association, 

 that a national move in the 

 direction be set on foot as an 

 appropriate memorial to Theo- 

 dore Roosevelt. 



"No president felt the im- 

 pulse more than he, nor did 

 any understand so well the 

 benefits to come from the prop- 

 er administration of such a 

 policy. Grover Cleveland gave 

 life and vigor to a land policy 

 that Roosevelt brought to its 

 ultimate service, yet it was the 

 strenuous one who could vision an Ameri- 

 ca denuded of its wonderful timber 

 growth. His conservation ideas did not get 

 the encouragement they should ; the public 

 was not then responsive to the appeal, but 

 some progress has been made. Under his 

 successors more definite efforts have been 

 put forth to save a portion of the natural 

 wealth of the country for its people, but 

 these have not as yet taken satisfactory 

 form. 



"The Pack suggestion does not lay so 

 much stress on conservation as it does on 

 reproduction. It will not prevent the rea- 

 sonable use of forests standing, but looks to 

 their systematic replacement by replanting. 

 Valuable timber, may be brought from seed- 

 lings within a generation ; the marvelous 

 firs and pines of the northwest, the giant 

 oaks and hickories, the walnuts and the 

 elms of the Mississippi Valley and the oth- 

 er wonders of the forests now gone, or fast 

 going, can not be restored in less than 

 centuries. 



"But the Maryland and Virginia penin- 

 sulas show what may be done within a 

 lifetime. What has happened there can 



be duplicated in Nebraska, in Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, and other places throughout the 

 land. The future demand for timber may 

 not be equal to that of today; it certainly 

 will not be so satisfied, but the present 

 generation can well endow the future in- 

 habitants of the land by taking steps to 

 give them something in the way of standing 

 timber." 



The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Trenton 

 Times and the Houston Post are among the 

 other papers that have commented edi- 

 torially on the possibilities of making a 

 national forest policy the great tribute to 

 Theodore Roosevelt. In the Biddeford, 

 Maine, Journal, we find the editor express- 

 ing this view : 



"Recalling Theodore Roosevelt's love for 

 nature, President Charles Lathrop Pack, of 



YE SCRIBE PRACTISES WHAT HE 

 PREACHES 



(Burton (Wash.) News. 

 The American Forestry Association urges that 

 we plant trees in memory of our boys who gave 

 their lives for the world's freedom. Trees that will 

 shade and adorn the highway are especially de- 

 sired. Ye scribe hereby pledges one broad-leaved 

 maple and one dogwood along the front fence, as 

 soon as the rains start in earnest. 



the American Forestry Association, urges 

 the planting of trees in all parts of the 

 country as memorials at this time of gen- 

 eral commemoration of his birthday. 



"In a broader aspect, this Association 

 has begun a campaign for the planting of 

 memorial trees and the creation of "Roads 

 of Remembrance" as a simple and effec- 

 tive way of bringing the great principles of 

 reforestation before the public mind and 

 keeping it there. It is pointed out that to 

 interest the people in trees is the first step 

 in the process of establishing such auto- 

 matic recognition of the value and need of 

 a specific national forest policy as shall 

 be effective to save wide areas of country 

 from climatic calamity, create much wealth 

 in timberland and avoid the fires which 

 now all too frequently cause such heavy 

 loss. 



"It is believed that this idea of planting 

 trees on a large scale as memorials of dis- 

 tinguished men is an excellent one, as it 

 has an appeal which will be of general ser- 

 vice to all the people while at the same 

 time carrying a romantic tradition of en- 

 during strength in the national character. 



It is argued that the forests are like a 

 bank account, in that they cannot be con- 

 tinually drawn upon unless deposits are 

 made occasionally. The need of a national 

 forest policy admits of no argument on 

 the negative side; it is not a project for 

 the benefit solely of any particular indi- 

 vidual or class, such as the lumberman, the 

 paper-maker, the wood-worker, but for all 

 the people. 



"To say nothing of the rapidly growing 

 demands for home consumption, the 

 demands from all parts of the civilized 

 world upon the United States for lumber 

 and forest by-products in this ante-war 

 period will be greater than ever before. 

 Consequently, every practical consideration 

 is on the side of a vigorous and intelli- 

 gent conservation of our natural resources. 

 Among those resources the forests are par- 

 ticularly important, not only 

 from the material standpoint 

 of dollars and cents, but from 

 the no less practical standpoint 

 of the protection and conser- 

 vation of the physical and 

 spiritual health of the general 

 public. The planting of mem- 

 orial trees affords the oppor- 

 tunity for creating headway 

 for a campaign of interest in 

 and practice of the science of 

 reforestation. So far as it 

 goes it is an admirable means 

 to a desirable end. The plant- 

 ing of the suggested "Roads of 

 Remembrance" may be the 

 next step in the movement to the end that 

 there may be created a public sentiment 

 favorable to the reforestation of large 

 areas that have been denuded by the for- 

 est butchers. The forest owners are slowly 

 learning their lesson. When that has been 

 learned they will realize that it is not 

 good policy to harvest one crop and leave 

 the area in such shape that another crop 

 cannot be secured for fifty or seventy-five 

 years, but that the better way is to cut 

 only the more mature timber and leave the 

 smaller growth for a later cutting. Thus 

 successive crops, at least two or three in a 

 generation, may be secured in such a man- 

 ner that the tract will be left in as good 

 condition as when operations were first 

 begun." 





The Baltimore News reviews the figures 

 in the Wall Street Journal and calls them 

 "a note of warning." Further on the News 

 says: 



"Our foreign lumber trade amounts to 

 about 3,500,000,000 feet a year ; and this 

 year the demands of European reconstruc- 

 tion will call for an even greater amount. 



