METHOD OF FORESTRY CAMPAIGNING 



BY E. T. ALLEN 

 Forester ITcstcrn Forestry and Conservation Association 



I PROPOSE to discuss not needs 

 or methods of better forest man- 

 agement, but means of making 

 propaganda for these things effective, 

 or, in other words, the technique of the 

 publicity and educational work that is 

 almost as important as forestry itself. 

 The Western Forestry and Conserva- 

 tion Association has probably devoted 

 more effort to developing this line of 

 action than any other agency. Its suc- 

 cess in moulding public and legislative 

 sentiment is the reason I have been 

 asked to describe some of its methods 

 in the hope that they may suggest some- 

 thing of help elsewhere. 



It may be well to begin by describing 

 our organization itself, both because it 

 might be duplicated in some localities 

 and to show wherein its methods may 

 not be practicable for ordinary forestry 

 associations dependent upon small dues 

 from a large but somewhat passive 

 membership. It has no individual 

 members, but is a league of over a dozen 

 local organizations extending from 

 Montana to California. Two are State 

 conservation associations with miscel- 

 laneous membership, but the rest are all 

 working patrol associations maintained 

 by timber owners. These constituent 

 locals are actual protective agencies, 

 spending from $250,000 in a favorable 

 year to $700,000 in a year like 1910 for 

 patrol, fire-righting and building trails 

 and telephones. They patrol nearly 20 

 million acres and with remarkable suc- 

 cess, for being unhampered by politics 

 or the economical vagaries of appro- 

 priating legislatures or congresses, they 

 have developed probably the most ef- 

 ficient and perfectly-equipped systems 

 in the United States. They are financed 

 by pro rated assessments upon the mem- 

 bers' acreage, varying from 2 to HI 

 cents an acre, according to season and 

 locality. 



Attending to local field work inde- 



pendently, these fire associations levy 

 an additional acreage assessment for 

 the Western Forestry and Conservation 

 Association in order to have a clearing 

 house for ideas and experience in fire 

 matters, facilities for cheaper and more 

 effective educational work than they 

 could do alone, and a medium for de- 

 veloping co-operation with State and 

 Government. The leading State and 

 Federal forest officials are members, 

 ranking in its meetings and on its com- 

 mittees with the delegates sent by the 

 constituent private organizations. The 

 result is a triple alliance; working in 

 the utmost harmony for the common 

 end of forest preservation, accorded 

 thorough public confidence, and financed 

 chiefly by forest owners for utilizing 

 opportunities afforded by all three. It 

 has a voice in all official councils and 

 measures, as well as in the press and 

 with lumbermen and public, because it 

 is non-partisan and particularly because 

 it represents those who spend money 

 and do things rather than those who 

 merely ask others to do and spend. An 

 illustration of our standing was afforded 

 in 1910 when, upon the request of our 

 president, Mr. Flewelling of Spokane. 

 President Taft ordered out the army to 

 fight fire. 



In gaining this power and in using it 

 our first principle has been never to 

 seek any end not of general benefit or 

 to show discrimination for or against 

 State, Government, lumbermen or pub- 

 lic. We are equally without sympathy 

 for the propagandist \\\\-.-. locates all 

 forest evils in the greed of lumbermen 

 and seeks remedy by re i'iit breeding 

 impracticable compulsion, or for the 

 unreasonably individualistic lumberman 

 who does about equal harm by his own 

 bad methods and the retaliation he 

 draws upon his industry. \Ve recog- 

 ni/f no difference of importance In- 

 tween increasing the lumberman's de- 



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