Impact of Forestry Associations on Productivity 

 of the South 's Forests 



by J. Walter Myers, Jr. 1 



The Dawn of the Forestry 

 Association Movement, 

 1875-1900 



It is difficult to pinpoint the roots and 

 genesis of the forestry association 

 movement in the United States and 

 the South. Immediately after the 

 Revolutionary War, some local and 

 intermittent interest was expressed in 

 the new Nation's timber resources. It 

 was not, however, until the American 

 Forestry Association was formed in 

 1875 that any sustained effort became 

 a reality. The American Forestry 

 Association's origins can almost 

 certainly be traced to Europe and the 

 international congresses of forest 

 managers held on the continent in the 

 1800's. Also it is possible to trace 

 establishment of several Southern 

 State forestry associations to impetus 

 provided by the American Forestry 

 Association. Other groups, though, 

 seem to have been organized simply 

 to meet a perceived need, and 

 without outside influence. 

 Since the American Forestry 

 Association is the oldest organization 

 of its type in America, a few details 

 on its origins should be noted. John 

 Ashton Warder, of Cincinnati, OH, 

 its founder, attended an international 

 exhibition in Vienna, Austria, in 1873 

 as a U.S. commissioner and wrote 

 the official report on forests and 

 forestry. In it he listed the European 

 schools of forestry, dating back to 

 1813, and also the European 



'J. Walter Myers, Jr., was executive vice 

 president of the Forest Farmers Association 

 Atlanta until his retirement in 1982. 



associations of "forest managers." 

 Dr. Warder had practiced medicine 

 until 1855, when he bought a farm 

 near North Bend, OH, so he could 

 devote more time to his avocation, 

 horticulture, and particularly to 

 pomology. Apparently, he was also 

 interested in forestry and forest 

 conservation. It seems reasonable to 

 believe he conceived the idea of 

 forming a forestry association in the 

 United States while attending this 

 1873 exhibition and writing his 

 report. At that time in America, there 

 was no single organization primarily 

 concerned with forest conservation. 

 Quotations from Warder's report 

 suggest that he felt the Nation needed 

 such an association. 



In any event, Warder subsequently 

 issued a call to interested 

 horticulturists, nurserymen, botanists, 

 and citizens at large to attend a 

 conference in Chicago on September 

 10, 1875, to discuss formation of an 

 American forestry association. The 

 idea was endorsed, Dr. Warder 

 elected president, and a constitution 

 adopted with the objectives of "the 

 protection of existing forests of the 

 country from unnecessary waste, and 

 the promotion of the propagation and 

 planting of useful trees" (Clepper 

 1975). 



In the decade after its founding, the 

 American Forestry Association 

 merged with a group known as the 

 American Forestry Congress, which 

 had been formed in 1882, and 

 merged a second time with the 

 Southern Forestry Congress at a 

 meeting in Atlanta in 1888. The latter 



