Forestry in a New Era

Abstract The forestry profession has failed if its accomplishments were to be measured by the extent of private forestry instituted on private lands. However, in a span of 30 years it has changed the country from forest indifference to forest concern; from unorganized effort to nation-wide public forest policies; from practically no protection to protection of over 55 per cent of the Nation's forest land; from a narrow conception of forestry as tree culture to a realization of its import as a momentous land-economic problem; from a dearth of scientific knowledge of forestry to highly organized, efficient forest research institutions; from a handful of pioneers to a large group of experienced, resourceful and competent foresters of unquestioned integrity. The present era presents new challenges—to effect the practice of forestry among private owners, and to work out the right use of lands suited only to forests, particularly those acres being abandoned because too poor for farms, and the cut-over lands dropped for taxes. Professor Mulford, whose comments on this paper follow it, believes that in this new era, the forester needs "a new, easily understood public declaration of faith, to become gradually a part of America's matter-of-course thinking."