1899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



9i 



State Associations. 



Southern California. 



The meeting called by the Southern 

 California Academy of Sciences was held 

 yesterday forenoon in the assembly room 

 of the Chamber of Commerce to organize 

 a Forest and Water Society. There were 

 about forty men present, representing 

 -several branches of the Fruit Growers' 

 Exchange, and other organizations, as 

 -well as a number of persons engaged in 

 water development and hydraulic engi- 

 neering. 



B. R. Baumgardt acted as temporary 

 chairman, and Abbot Kinney was elected 

 president and W. H. Knight secretary. 

 The president read a paper on forestry, 

 and a number of persons participated in 

 a discussion of the work to be done. 



It is the object of the society to pro- 

 mote the interests of forestry and irriga- 

 tion by inducing the Federal Government 

 to take greater interest in the subjects, 

 though so far as could be ascertained, 

 the society is not prepared to make any 

 suggestions to the Government of specific 

 irrigation development to be undertaken. 

 Acommitteeof five, consisting of A. R. 

 Sprague, T. P. Lukens, G. H. A. Good- 

 win, A. Campbell Johnston and B. R. 

 Baumgardt, were appointed to draft reso- 

 lutions and report a constitution and by- 

 laws. They urged the Executive Com- 

 mittee to secure the membership in the 

 society of all organizations and individ- 

 uals interested in the work ; endorsed the 

 forest school conducted under the aus- 

 pices of the University of Southern 

 California; request the Secretary of the 

 Interior to recognize forestry graduates 

 on forestry patrol; and endorse the es- 

 tablishment of a botanical garden in one 

 of the public parks of Los Angeles. 



Vice presidents will be appointed for 

 each county in Southern California. 

 Three were named for the following 

 counties: Los Angeles, W. G. Kerckhoff; 

 Ventura. N. W. Blanchard, and San 

 Bernardino, Col. Adolph Wood. The 

 others will be appointed later. 



Some idea of the scope of the work of 



the society may be gathered from the 

 committee work provided for in the Con- 

 stitution. The Committee on Forestry 

 shall devise plans for the conservation 

 of our forests, and adjust conflicting in- 

 terests ; that on flood waters and reser- 

 voirs shall obtain data regarding suitable 

 sites for storage -eservoirs, and their cost 

 of construction; that on the distribution 

 of waters shall consider how the waters 

 of this section can be best utilized for 

 agricultural and industrial purposes; and 

 that on legislation shall endeavor to 

 secure such State or National legislation 

 as may be approved by the association. 



Much enthusiasm was manifest in the 

 meeting. The president spoke of the 

 annual destruction by fires that are de- 

 nuding the mountains of their beautiful 

 forests, which serve not only to increase 

 precipitation, but act as natural storage 

 reservoirs for holding the snows and rain- 

 falls on the mountains. This work of 

 conservation must be taken up at once, 

 he declared, or the mountains will be 

 bare in a few years, and we shall leave a 

 heritage of shame to the next genera- 

 tion. 



Olaf Ellison spoke of the work that 

 had been accomplished in various parts 

 of Europe, in France about the Bay of 

 Biscay, in the Peninsula of Jutland, and 

 in Sweden and Norway. 



Capt. S. S. Mullins felt an eager, ab- 

 sorbing interest in this question. He 

 had witnessed the vandal work of shep- 

 herds, who build four fires a day, one for 

 each meal and one at night, if it is cool. 

 They do not, like intelligent hunters, see 

 that their fires are extinguished before 

 leaving them, but leave that matter to 

 chance and to the grossest neglect. 



Col. Adolph Wood, of the Arrowhead 

 Company, thought that shepherds should 

 be forbidden to take their flocks into or 

 over a Government reserve. He consid- 

 ered the subject one of vital far-reaching 

 interest. 



A. W. Koebig, Dr. C. G. Baldwin, 

 George H. Peck and others were among 

 the speakers. Los Angeles Times, Mar. cj. 



