CANADIAN F GEES THY ASSOCIATION. 13, 



MR. I. C. WILLIAMS, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF FORESTRY, 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



No doubt the idea you have in your mind in calling upon me is to have 

 me say what we are doing in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania to-day owns in 

 fee upwards of 1,450 square miles of forest lands, of which about 916,000 

 acres are held for the purpose of economic and scientific forestry. Pur- 

 chases of land are constantly being made, so that the milllion mark will 

 soon be reached. The Government gives us an appropriation running over 

 two years amounting to nearly $500,000. In order to care for this reser- 

 vation, we have established an academy where young men are educated in 

 the science and art of forestry, and then are set to work upon these forests 

 to preserve and develop them. Thirty-three young men to-day, therefore, 

 are foresters under these 1 conditions. In Pennsylvania, as elsewhere, we 

 have found our great problem is fire. We have tried in various ways to 

 combat this enemy, and finally the State Government has taken the matter 

 in hand. At the last session of the Legislature (1909) a forest fire law 

 was passed, placing this matter wholly in the hands of the Department of 

 Forestry. A forest fire-warden, a man selected for his efficiency, was 

 appointed for each of the sixty-seven counties, in some cases more than one, 

 amounting to nearly one hundred. And as each forest fire-warden will 

 have three or four assistants stationed at convenient places within his dis- 

 trict, you can well see that the handling of this force alone is a matter of 

 no small magnitude. Our idea is to prevent fires, not extinguish them after 

 they have once begun. 



Outgrowing from the Forestry Department is the Health Department. 

 Several sanatoria have been established in various parts of the reserve 

 for the treatment of tuberculosis, and while this is incidental to the actual 

 work, yet it is one of the things the State has to deal with to-day. The 

 Department of Forestry undertook the problem, and for four years 

 carried it out succesfully. To-day the State has a standing appropriation 

 of $1,000,000 for the Health Department, to be used in caring for these 

 unfortunate people; placing them in the high mountain regions, where they 

 will be cared for in a proper way under scientific conditions and made well. 

 The results are very astonishing. Then, another idea is taking hold of 

 our people. These forestry reservations, while primarily protecting va- 

 rious economic conditions of the State, are also held as a great playground 

 for the people. And we invite the people of Pennsylvania and elsewhere 

 to come out into these reserves and camp, hunt, fish and have the time of 

 their lives. During the year just passed, our Department issued permits 

 to over 3,500 people, who went into the forests to camp and rest, to live 

 close to nature. 



Another project is before our people, and that is to take the men and 

 women who are ill, and put them into the wild, open woods, and there 

 restore them to health, on the ground that it is cheaper to prevent a man 

 from being sick and a charge upon the community than it is to care for a 

 man after he has reached that unfortunate condition. There are great 

 problems before us, and we are trying along with the other States and the 

 Canadian Provinces to work out some solutions which will be effective 

 factors for good. (Applause.) 



The reading of papers was then taken up as follows: 



