i8g9- 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



43 



THE FORESTER. 



PUBLISHER'S ANNOUNCEMENT. 



The Forester is published monthly by the 

 American Forestry Association at 



No. 117 Corcoran Building, Washington, D. C, 



where all communications should be addressed. 



The subscription price is One Dollar a year, 

 and single copies are sold at ten cents. 



Make all checks, drafts, etc., payable to The 

 Forester. 



FOREST ORGANIZATION. 



Among the resolutions adopted by the 

 Pomological Society of Southern Cali- 

 fornia at its recent meeting at Covina 

 are the following : 



Resolved, That a plan of work in forestry 

 and water preservation should be framed and 

 worked to. 



Resolved, That an efficient forest patrol 

 force can only be formed by disciplined men 

 of good physical capacity. 



Resolved, That the plan formulated for 

 forest work in the Sierra Madre at our Covina 

 meeting be forwarded to the Secretary of the 

 Interior, the Secretary of War and the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture. 



The plan mentioned as having been 

 formulated at the Covina meeting in- 

 cludes, in brief, a proposition to form a 

 forest patrol by details from the regular 

 Army to serve under forest officers. The 

 proposition itself is not a new one, but, 

 under new conditions, there seem to be 

 reasons why it can no longer be re- 

 garded as being either practicable or ex- 

 pedient. At present the work of the 

 Government pertaining to forestry is 

 distributed among three agencies, the 

 General Land Office and the Geological 

 Survey, both in the Department of the 

 Interior, and the Division of Forestry, 

 in the Department of Agriculture. This 

 distribution of powers and duties has 

 not resulted in any direct conflict of au- 

 thority. It has, however, served to 

 demonstrate that, owing to lack of unit) 7 , 

 many efforts, well directed though they 

 have been, have necessarily involved 

 the waste of more or less money, time 



and energy. The question very naturally 

 arises as to whether the measure advo- 

 cated by the Pomological Society of 

 Southern California might not tend to 

 compficate the situation still further by 

 the addition of the Army as a fourth 

 agency ? The American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation the Pennsylvania Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, and the National Board of 

 Trade, in meetings held during the past 

 few weeks, have adopted resolutions 

 favoring the unification of the several 

 governmental agencies for the investiga- 

 tion, survey and administration of public 

 forests, prefacing the proposition by the 

 statement that such a change would be 

 in the interest of public economy and 

 lead to a more efficient and satisfactory 

 service. The National Irrigation Con- 

 gress, at its meeting in Cheyenne last 

 September, declared in favor of the cre- 

 ation of a Bureau of Public Forests in 

 the Department of the Interior, a propo- 

 sition which has since been endorsed in 

 the resolutions adopted at the annual 

 meeting of the Colorado State Board of 

 Horticulture. 



It is unnecessary at this time to dis- 

 cuss the wisdom and propriety of utilizing 

 the Army in even a temporary plan for 

 forest management. There may have 

 been a time when such a course might 

 well have been adopted as a measure of 

 temporary expediency, but? if so it "would 

 seem that such a time has passed. At 

 present there are pending in Congress 

 two bills for the increase of the regular 

 military establishment. This certainly 

 indicates that the entire army is occupied 

 in the discharge of its proper functions 

 and that it now has no men to spare for 

 forest patrol purposes. Not only is the 

 Army not available for service in any 

 scheme of forest administration and 

 management, but it is doubtful if the 

 War Department desires to have its 

 present duties and cares increased. 



Certainly it cannot be said that "an 

 efficient forest patrol " consisting of 

 "disciplined men of good physical ca- 

 pacity" cannot be organized apart from 

 the Army as readily as within its ranks. 



