Canadian Forestry Journal, April, 1917 



1071 



Hitching Up With Public Sentiment 



How Pacific States Developed a Triple Alliance Between Timber 

 Owners, Governments, and People for Conservation. 



Address by E. T. Allen, Western- Forestry and Conservation Association, 

 Portland, Oregon, at the Forest Conservation Conference, Montreal. 



We ought to feel a great deal of 

 interest in the Protective Associations 

 here because the movement really 

 commenced with us. In 1906 in 

 Idaho the Co-operative Timber 

 Owners' Association started, and soon 

 grew to four in northern Idaho, and 

 spread from there to the State of 

 Washington, and in Idaho and Wash- 

 ington, we fairly had only begun, 

 when it was decided that the move- 

 ment should be combined in the 

 various States, interested at that 

 time, and a sort of alliance was formed 

 of which I was placed in charge. We 

 have tried to bring the same results 

 into Oregon, California and Montana. 



The ''Triple Alliance" 



We have not done much in Cali- 

 fornia, except in the northern part, 

 but there are now, I think, between 

 twenty and twenty-four Co-operative 

 Timber Owners' Associations in these 

 five northwestern states, and we have 

 a sort of a Grand Lodge in our West- 

 ern Forestry and Conservation As- 



sociation. It is a sort of a clearing 

 house for these two dozen private 

 patrol associations. That work began 

 in 1909, and we immediately con- 

 ceived the idea that we would not go 

 very far if it was regarded as a timber 

 owners' game only, and we realized 

 that it must be a sort of a triple 

 alliance, i. e., timber owners. Govern- 

 ments, (Federal and State) must 

 work together in harmony, and then 

 as far as possible better the scheme 

 to avoid duplications. 



Public Opinion Supports 



It soon turned out also that this 

 association had a tremendously great- 

 er public opinion than any private 

 patrol unit, because when a hrm like 

 the railroads or a timber company 

 sent for their employees and told 

 them to be careful of fires, they were 

 not very much impressed, but when 

 an organization representing alto- 

 gether over a million acres of land, 

 and on good terms with the State, 

 with a strong public position, and a 



