the woods to protect its 

 collection systems, and the 

 open-grazing stockmen. 

 Who, in 1900, would have 

 dreamed that professionally 

 trained foresters 75 years 

 later would espouse burning 

 as a cherished and 

 necessary silvicultural tool 

 in managing the pine forests 

 of the South? 



Early lobbying efforts by 

 woodland owners in several 

 Southern States helped 

 secure passage of the 

 Weeks Law in 1911. This 

 authorization for the 

 Secretary of Agriculture 

 through the Forest Service 

 to enter into cooperative 

 forest-fire protection 

 arrangements with the 

 States and individuals must 

 be recognized as the 

 cornerstone and continuing 

 key to increasing the 

 productivity of the vast pine 

 forests of the South. Without 

 it, forest investments 

 contributing to the 

 profitability of the landowner 

 and the general welfare of 

 the public would not be 

 attractive. 



Prevention and suppression 

 of forest fires was so 

 ingrained in foresters that, 

 in the late 1950's, long 

 after Chapman espoused 

 the virtues of prescribed 

 burning, a well-known 

 industrial forest manager, 

 who had endorsed the 



practice of prescribed 

 burning for his company's 

 land, turned red faced with 

 embarrassment and drove 

 back to his office, refusing 

 the honor of lighting the 

 match to institute one of 

 their early "controlled" burns. 

 He just couldn't do it! 



Very little real progress in 

 professional management 

 of either industrial or 

 nonindustrial forests was 

 possible until State forestry 

 departments were formed 

 and made effective. In 1916, 

 only 5 of the 12 Southern 

 States had forestry 

 departments or 

 commissions established 

 by law. 



Many of the industrial 

 companies made beginning 

 attempts to stop their 

 cut-out-and-get-out 

 practices during the first 

 half of the 20th century 

 with Henry Hardtner, of 

 Urania Lumber Company in 

 Louisiana, leading the way. 

 Hardtner had Urania begin 

 investing in cut-over lands 

 in the early 1900's and put 

 them under management 

 for continuous crops. Gifford 

 Pinchot supplied W.W. 

 Ashe, a forester with the 

 USDA Forest Service, to 

 inspect and advise on the 

 management of Urania 

 holdings, 100,000 acres of 

 pine and hardwood lands 

 in central Louisiana. 



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