THE WORK OF THE ASSOCIATION 



BY HON. EOBT. P. BASS 



PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



have entered upon a definite policy of public forestry development. We 

 are still in the very primary stages in the application of forestry to 

 privately owned timber lands. We are in the middle stage of development 

 in regard to the practice of forestry by the various State governments. We 

 are undoubtedly in a critical position in regard to the timber supply in this 

 country. Our use of timber per capita in the United States is greater than 

 in any other civilized country in the world. Our natural resources in that 

 respect are rapidly becoming depleted. Fortunately, we have gradually ap- 

 preciated the conditions which are to confront us in the future, and if we are 

 to develop an economically sound basis as between the supply and demand of 

 forest products, we must develop the science of forestry to the highest degree 

 attainable. In this, it seems to me that the American Forestry Association 

 can be of the greatest use. 



The best development of the science of forestry can only come through the 

 co-operation of all the forces which can be brought to bear to develop that 

 science, namely, the Federal Government, the various State and local govern- 

 ments that is, the town and county governments, according to conditions in 

 the different communities and the private owners of timber lands. To 

 bring these various forces together into one co-operative unit is, to my mind, 

 the next fundamental step in the development of forestry in this country, 

 and in that work it seems to me that the American Forestry Association can 

 play a very important part. In order to do this, it needs to extend its scope 

 to reach all parts of the country, to serve as an educational medium through 

 which not only the few interested in forestry, but all those who have any 

 relation to the lumbering interests, and to all the interests which are involved 

 in the produce of our woodlands may be reached and taught how they may 

 best make use of the resources at their hand. 



The American Forestry Association has before it, to my mind, a great 

 work, and it is the earnest desire of the men now active in the management 

 of the association to seek the co-operation of as many public-spirited men 

 throughout the country as they can reach in this work. They believe it is a 

 work which will be of real benefit to an enormous number of people in this 

 country, and they want the help of all men who can spread the doctrines for 

 which they stand in carrying out the ideas of scientific and of practical forestry. 



190 



