ALABAMA'S INTEREST IN 



FORESTRY* 



BY 

 LESLIE L. GILBERT 



Secretary, Alabama Commercial and Industrial Association. 



AN INTEREST in forest preserva- legislation. The people love the for- 

 tiori is slowly being awakened in ests. God intended they should. The 

 Alabama. A year ago the Commercial good Lord gave us a partnership in 

 Club of Montgomery took the initia- them, and by virtue of that natural 

 tive, and a month ago a standing com- property interest we are enabled to say 

 mittee on "Forest Preservation" was to forest owners, "You should so man- 

 created in the state organization of age your forest that its permanent fu- 

 commercial clubs. We had an able ture existence will never be endan- 

 representative of the Forest Service gered nor its beneficent protection 

 present at our annual meeting in No- withdrawn from the water powers and 

 vember last, and expect now to have fertile fields of the valleys. You 

 him spend the entire month of Febru- should manage your property so as not 

 ary in Alabama, stirring up an inter- to injure or endanger the property of 

 est in forest matters. others." 



Most cities awaken to the value of The South is vitally concerned in 

 their franchises after they have given t he conservation of her forests and the 

 them all away. So, also, many com- protection thereby afforded to her 

 munities realize the value of their for- ma ny valuable water powers. A great 

 ests only after their land has been wa ve of industrial prosperity has swept 

 stripped of its trees. To the publicity over t h e Southland. In the past twen- 

 given this work by this Association ty-five years the capital invested in 

 to the note of alarm sounded by the southern cotton mills (many of which 

 Forest Service we in Alabama are are run by hydraulic power) has in- 

 indebted for time and opportunity to creased from $21,000,000 to $225,000,- 

 protect ourselves. 000; the value of the crop from $315,- 



I differ somewhat from the conclu- 000,00 to $680,000,000 ; its production 



sions reached by Mr. Lippincott yes- Q f pig_j ron f rom 397,000 tons to 3,- 



terday. He spoke of the proprietory 300,00 tons; its production of wool 



interest felt by the general citizenship f rom $6,000,000 to $67,000,000 ; and 



in any nearby forest ; deploring its use j ts ] um ber from $39,000,000 to $250,- 



for picnics and playgrounds and urg- 000,000. 



ing a more rigorous protection of the In &n th}s remarkable pr0 gress, Ala- 

 rights of private property ; that vandal bama hag le(J thg march as first in the 

 trespassers should be taught that the alphabet of natura i resource and devel- 

 forest is as sound a crop as a golden opment 

 orange orchard. All this is true ; but * 



do not attempt to destroy this "pro- Of coke it produced last year about 



prietory interest" as a remedy. This $8,000,000, being the second state in 



very sense of partnership in the forests the Union. 



is the very medium through which the Of ore it produced last year about 



strong influence of the people general- $4,500,000, being the third state in the 



ly may be crystallized into protective Union. 



*Read at Annual Meeting of the American Forestry Association, Washington, D. C, 

 January 16 and 17. 



