WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT AND WHY

The object of this booklet is to present the elementary principles
of forest conservation as they apply on the Pacific coast from
Montana to California.

There is a keen and growing interest in this subject. Citizens of
the western states are beginning to realize that the forest is a
community resource and that its wasteful destruction injures their
welfare. Lumbermen are coming to regard timber land not as a mine to
be worked out and abandoned, but as a possible source of perpetual
industry. They find little available information, however, as to
how these theories can be reduced to actual practice. The Western
Forestry and Conservation Association believes it can render no more
practical service than by being the first to outline for public
use definite workable methods of forest management applicable to
western conditions.

A publication of this length can give little more than an outline,
but attempt has been made either to answer the most obvious questions
which suggest themselves to timber owners interested in forest
preservation or to guide the latter in finding their own answers.
Only the most reliable conservative information has been drawn
on, much of it having been collected by the Government.

While the booklet is intended to be of use chiefly to forest owners,
a chapter on the advantage to the community of a proper state forest
policy is included, also a chapter on tree growing by farmers.
The first presents the economic relation of forest preservation
to public welfare, with its problems of fire prevention, taxation