run. Industry, therefore, 

 turned its thoughts to 

 improving the gloomy 

 predictions of the groups 

 considered its adversaries. 



It is difficult to pinpoint the 

 beginning of landowner 

 assistance programs 

 because various lumber 

 and pulp companies 

 throughout the South 

 informally assisted 

 neighboring landowners 

 with advice on improving 

 management of their timber 

 stands for many years. 

 According to Southern 

 Forest Institute sources, 

 International Paper 

 Company started a program 

 as early as 1 939, when it 

 appointed four field people 

 to work solely with private 

 landowners, giving them 

 timber management and 

 marketing advice in the 

 capacity of "conservation 

 engineers." 



in each State where the 

 company had operations in 

 the South. 



In January, 1947, the board 

 of directors of the Southern 

 Pulpwood Conservation 

 Association (the 

 predecessor to the current 

 Southern Forest Institute) 

 recommended that each of 

 its member companies, 

 representing approximately 

 80 percent of pulpwood 

 consumption in the South, 

 employ at least one 

 conservation engineer for 

 each mill location to work 

 with landowners. 



In 1948, the name 

 "conservation engineer" 

 was changed to 

 "conservation forester" to 

 more closely reflect the 

 professional affiliations of 

 these individuals. By 1960, 

 approximately 150 industry 

 foresters carried this title. 



In September of that same 

 year, West Virginia Pulp 

 and Paper Company held a 

 meeting and demonstration 

 for 450 landowners in 

 Virginia. 



Manpower demands of 

 World War II temporarily 

 halted International Paper 

 Company's conservation 

 engineer program, but it 

 resumed in 1 947 with the 

 naming of a professional 

 forester to head the program 



Other landowner assistance 

 programs started in the 

 1 950's include the DeWeese 

 Tree Farm Family in 1949 

 (now part of the 

 Weyerhaeuser Tree Farm 

 Family) and programs 

 sponsored by Brunswick 

 Pulp and Paper (1950), 

 West Lumber Company 

 (1953), S.D. Warren-Scott 

 (1954), West Virginia Pulp 

 and Paper, later called 

 Westvaco (1956), and Cape 

 Fear Wood Corporation 



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