216 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



employed now than will suffice to do the 

 work. 



The worst feature of this proposed bill 

 is the situation which it creates with 

 regard to the division of appropriations 

 for the work of the commission. Even 

 if these were made separately for the 

 different classes of undertakings, they 

 must be recommended by a triple-headed 

 commission, whose individual interests 

 lie along wholly separate lines. What 

 is given to forestry may be looked on as 

 taken from game and fish protection, 

 and vice versa. 



Governor Whitman, of New York, 

 in his recent message, stated: "The work 

 of the divisions of forestry, and of fish 

 and game, must be kept entirely separate" 

 and in this State, so often quoted as a 

 model in recommending the consolida- 

 tion of forestry with fish and game, the 

 two classes of work maintain entirely 

 distinct sets of wardens, overlapping in 

 the same territory. They have never 

 attempted to combine the field work of 

 fish and game wardens with that of a 

 forest fire warden; and those who are 

 familiar with conditions in our wooded 

 regions will readily understand the 

 necessity of keeping these two kinds of 

 State work entirely distinct in the minds 

 of the settlers and public. We believe 

 that the economy urged as a reason for 

 this consolidation cannot be demon- 

 strated. It may be that Wisconsin 

 does not need her present form of sepa- 

 rate conservation commission nor a 

 separate State Park Board. But to 

 make the consolidation of these boards 

 a reason for combining forestry with 

 fish and game protection will result 

 inevitably, as it has elsewhere, in greatly 



lessening the efficiency of forestry work 

 in the State. 



Have the citizens of Wisconsin any 

 complaint to urge against the present 

 form of State forestry commission, that 

 they will stand by and see it abolished? 

 Minnesota is expending $75,000 annu- 

 ally, in forest fire protection, under a 

 similar board. Oregon recently aban- 

 doned the plan of combining forest fire 

 protection with fish and game protection 

 and created a separate forestry board 

 similar in character to the one which 

 Wisconsin legislators propose to do away 

 with. Oregon took this step to secure 

 efficiency. Which State is right? 



One thing is certain. The present 

 form of separate, non-political control 

 of forestry in Wisconsin has been dem- 

 onstrated to be the best existing plan 

 to secure the desired progress in forestry, 

 and to this statement a dozen States bear 

 witness, namely, New Hampshire, Ver- 

 mont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Penn- 

 sylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, North 

 Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Minne- 

 sota and Oregon. The proposed con- 

 solidation is discredited and has failed 

 in the States of Oregon, Kentucky and 

 Alabama, and has given very unsat- 

 isfactory results in Michigan and 

 Louisiana. 



It is for the people of Wisconsin to 

 choose. They are at the parting of the 

 ways. So clearly is the issue presented 

 that the American Forestry Association 

 has incorporated in its platform a plank 

 calling for the maintenance of non- 

 political, departmentally independent 

 State forestry boards as of the first 

 importance in State forestry. 



WORDS OF WISDOM 



A 



LLENTOWN, one of the most 

 progressive of Pennsylvania 

 cities, is ignoring the most 

 important subject of the pres- 

 ervation and increase of the shade 

 trees on her streets. The Chronicle and 

 News of that city editorially sounds 

 the following warning : 



"Rather than encouraging by non- 

 action the demolition of the city's 



fine shade trees on some of the older 

 streets, Allentown should have from 

 fifty to one hundred thousand noble, 

 beautiful trees upon her streets and 

 open places, and she would have them 

 had we, in time, placed their planting, 

 trimming, care and maintenance under 

 public, expert control, as has been 

 done in the most progressive and 

 wideawake cities of the world. As it 



