Trained Men Wanted.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 10, 1 June 1920, Page 818

Trained Men Wanted.

The old-time notion that, because a man had been born and lived near a forest and worked in it for years, he was on that account a skilful forester, and Qualified to express authoritative opinion, must be abandoned. As a matter of fact, in the Western World and in Europe, it has been abandoned long ago (says Jarrah, the official journal of the Australian Forest League, Perth).

In every eountrv the value of timber to a nation is recognized, and the necessity of being a highlyskilled forester to look after the "State's forest" is also admitted. The same may be said of people engaged in the exploitation of forests.

Perhaps no clearer statement of the needs of trained men in the lumber industry has been presented than that issued by the Oregon Agricultural College of Corvallis, Ore., in announcing its courses in forestry:— "An industry without leadership is as surely doomed as a rudderless ship. Of all the industries on the Pacific Coast the timber and lumber business is richest in exclusive worth. One fifth of all the standing timber of the country is in Oregon. The harvesting of this great wealth so as to conserve essential values and serve the public to best advantage, is a task for thoughtful men who are specialists in handling forest products. These men must have the aid of modern science and modern engineering methods. Hence they must have training in a technical school of forestry.

"The war crisis revealed to the world how essential to the nation is the timber wealth of the Pacific Coast. It revealed, also, the necessity of a far-seeing and consistent effort to conserve our forests as a

permanent resource at the same time that we harvest the timber that is ripe and accessible for market. The activities in shipbuilding and the revived interest in private construction, as well as the extensive programmes for public construction that have been commenced throughout the country, all give assurance of great activity in the lumber business. Hence the need of live and resourceful youths to go out from the School of Forestry as future leaders of approved principles of harvesting, manufacturing, and marketing timber products. Such men are few and far between in practical lumbering operations to-day, since forestry is comparatively new in technical education. They will be needed, however, and demanded with* greater emphasis, from var to year. The call is already insistent. The largest and most efficient companies are the ones who are keenest for employing technically trained men. Thev recognize the permanent worth of scientific leadership.

“The timberman has always contended that the practice of scientific forestry methods would develop through the graduates of logging engineering schools where the young men, after engaged in operations, gradually will blend their theoretical ideals with those of the more practical side of lumbering. “The men who served in the forestry regiments in France have learned an appreciation for timber conservation and its maximum use, which will ho exemplified in their future life’s work, and in time will be reflected in the forest policies of the country at large.”