The commission was 
provided with a secretary, 
“who shall be a practical 
forester and have charge of 
the work. . ." (chapter 146, 
Acts of the Tenth Legislature). 
George R. Phillips was 
appointed the first State 
Forester. He soon had a 
skeleton fire-protection 
program in place on about 
1,350,000 acres with the 
help of Clarke-McNary funds. 
A nursery was established at 
Oklahoma A. & M. College 
(Widner 1968). That same 
year, 1925, a new fire law 
provided punishment for 
arson and leaving fires 
unattended. However, it was 
not very effective and was 
replaced by a comprehensive 
law in 1937 (article 1, chapter 
15, Acts of the Sixteenth 
Legislature). Also in 1937, 
the State legislature declared 
it the public policy of the 
State of Oklahoma to 
safeguard and conserve the 
natural resources of the 
State, both renewable and 
nonrenewable. The State 
Board of Education was 
directed to formulate and 
adopt courses of study about 
the various natural resources 
for students in the fourth 
through the ninth grades, 
and to establish courses for 
22 
use in the teachers’ colleges 
and normal schools of the 
State (article 6, chapter 15, 
Acts of the Sixteenth 
Legislature). 
‘Mississippi 
Mississippian Posey N. 
Howell was the State’s first 
advocate for forestry. He 
made it a habit to tack up 
signs On good trees to 
encourage people to leave 
them for seed. Howell gained 
the Mississippi Federation of 
Women’s Clubs as a strong 
ally for conservation. Its State 
chairman of conservation, 
Mrs. G.H. Reeves, was later 
appointed to the first forestry 
commission. With the 
cooperation of other groups, 
the federation sent Mrs. 
Lillian T. Conway of the USDA 
Forest Service on a statewide 
lecture tour and crusade in 
favor of establishing a forestry 
organization. In response to 
the public interest thus 
generated, the 1924 
legislature passed a joint 
resolution requiring the 
Governor to appoint a 
committee of six to study the 
forestry situation and report 
to the 1926 legislature with a 
Suitable draft for a forestry 
law. 
