It is the policy of FAO to review here only selected publications which appear to have a direct bearing on the current work of the Forestry Division.FOREST INVENTORY. Stephen H. Spurr. 476 pp. illus. Ronald Press Company, New York. 1952. U.S. $ 8.50.
Several recent books have undertaken to bring up to date the application of the latest techniques to forest inventory problems. This work makes no pretence at covering the entire field in detail but concentrates on the two key problems of estimating total gross volume and growth per acre, for either a given species or a given forest type. Together these form the basic biological problems that must be solved before consideration is given to subsidiary economic aspects.
Extensive forest inventories are necessary before management can be properly applied, and it is to the principles of such inventory work that main attention is given. The author has done original work in air photography inventory methods (See Unasylva, Vol. II, No. 4; Aerial photography by Stephen H. Spurr) and in other aspects of mensuration, but is concerned here with low cost inventories which can be readily financed and which will at least provide a basis for forest management.
Accuracy in inventories is affected by errors in the field measurement of trees and stands, in translating these into volume and growth, and in the method of sampling used to obtain primary measurement. An inventory must be so conducted as to reduce each type of error, in accord with the principle of consistent accuracy. The author has taken account of experiments and experience in many countries, and reports and analyzes them. The methods used in national inventories in Scandinavia, Great Britain and the United States are considered.
This is a thoroughly competent reference work on the principles and methods of forestry inventory and is far more detailed than the FAO Study Planning a National Forest Inventory.
AMERICAN FOREST POLICY. Luther Halsey Gulick. 252 pp. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York. 1951. Price $ 3.50.
At an early stage American forest policy and administration advanced boldly into doctrines, methods and attitudes which at the time often appeared radical, and placed the Federal government in a then highly-advanced role. The creation and administration of the national forest system from lands still public its expansion by purchase and exchange of private lands; inauguration of Federal grants-in-aid, to stimulate and nourish State efforts for the protection of private forest lands; adoption of decentralized administration on the national forests in lieu of full centralization at the nation's capital; building a professional body of officers with a determined policy from the very beginning; aggressive leadership in formulating and pushing ahead with ideas and methods - all these have combined to make a definite pattern and indeed a test, not alone of forestry itself, but of public administration as illustrated by forestry.
American Forest Policy is a thoughtful and certainly controversial attempt by an eminent student of public administration to derive general conclusions from the experience in forestry, conclusions which may be applicable to other public ventures, and to the current trend towards increasing Federal government responsibility for all good things. Several searching and difficult questions are raised:
1. When a government tries to regulate or take over any particular section of the economy, does the public get what it wants? The objectives vary but may include better service, stabilized incomes, security of employment, freedom from monopolies, better management, cheaper service costs, more public-spirited direction, and better distribution. Are such ends, when sought, actually attained?2. When government enters what was formerly the sphere of private enterprise what happens to the economy? Is private action upset? Does the government have to take over the entire operation in due course? Or do public action or regulation and private activity continue to work side-by-side in some sort of equilibrium?
3. What happens to technology and the advancement of the arts in the part of the economy thus affected by government action? Does such action result in technological stagnation, or does it accelerate progress?
4. What administrative problems are created for a government by the assumption of these new lines of activity?
5. What new political problems are raised?
Forest policy today is to be found in no neat document, but rather in what is being done because it receives general acceptance. Many policy questions are broadly settled: the public interest in forest lands requiring positive government action, including public ownership and management but not extending into wood-processing, positive price policy; price support policy or export-import policy; sustained yield and multiple-use protection research; technical assistance; support to local governments; mass education in forestry. Unresolved issues in forest policy include control over private cutting and management; expansion of public ownership; and the public construction of access roads.
There are several unsolved administrative issues, and much of the book deals with them. They include the division of work between the central government and the states; the allocation of the work within the federal government; the methods of decentralizing forest programs to secure adaptation to local needs without sacrificing a national policy; the best method of securing local harmony among differing national and state programs; the relations between central specialized staff and local technical officers; the relation of research staffs to operating staffs at all levels of administration; and the efficacy of benefit payments in comparison with other approaches designed to stimulate private forestry.
Appraisal of successes and failures has to examine the major objectives of policy. These are:
(1) Enough suitable wood at reasonable prices. Here a detailed analysis concludes that there is no danger of a wood famine in the U.S.A. - despite the scare tactics of some conservationists and professionals. This conclusion has already been challenged, both as a fact and as a test case of an expert in one field venturing into another field with which he is not fully familiar.(2) The provision of forests and trees for the "other forest values," generally so far only limited and partial success.
(3) Economic welfare of forestry and woodworking activities, in which partial progress is taking place.
(4) Scientific and technological advance - strong in the forest-growing phase, weak in the economical use of timber.
(5) National and regional security - no timber famine nationally, but an unsatisfactory situation in some regions.
(6) Conversion of the people to a sense of responsibility in land ownership - despite progress, the saddest area of failure and a major point of attack for the future.
The methods used in programs such as professional education, federal state co-operation, state forestry, education of landowners, private ownership, decentralized administration - show variable degrees of success as well. On the whole, policy and programs are considered to be, achieving their objectives.
But new approaches are needed, above all to instil a love of the soil going beyond the profit motive, regulation, propaganda or technical advances - and this is by no means a forestry problem only. A comprehensive land use program is needed, rather than an aggregation of fractions; better protection needs to be accepted by the public; a new program for joint land purchase by the State and Federal governments is required; there must be a more rational application of the multiple-use doctrine, some restoration of responsibilities to the States, the consolidation and improvement of management of Federal forests, and public measures to strengthen private forestry.
An interesting conclusion is that the "professional bureaucracy" has become the policy maker contrary to Constitutional theory and that the Executive and Legislative branches of Government are the balance wheel, explaining the expert to the public and vice versa.
While progress has so far certainly settled some policy issues, others are left unresolved, and new ones have been created, notably the question of effective methods of co-operation between Federal and State governments and private ownership, which is political-economic in character. Forestry has thus brought to the fore many problems not anticipated when the Government embarked so extensively into the economic field.
This book by a student of government brings a too rare set of criteria to an appraisal of the forestry venture and to the setting forth of its larger significance. Foresters should study it. Some professional amour-propre will be violated by the quite definite judgements of a non-member of the profession, but it is hardly to be doubted that foresters will be the better off for seeing themselves as others see them, and for pondering over the larger meanings of their theories, doctrines, ambitions and methods.
Reference List of Selected UNASYLVA Articles
AALTONEN, V. T.
Forest Soil Research in Finland. (IV, 3)
ALLOUARD, PIERRE
Better Conditions for Rural Populations in Tropical Areas. (V, 3)
AUBREVILLE, A.
Technical Assistance in the Development of Tropical Forests. (IV, 4)
COHEN, W. E.
Pulp and Paper from Australian Eucalypts. (II, 6)
CRANE, JACOB L.
Huts and Houses in the Tropics. (III, 3)
DE PHILIPPIS, A.
Forest Ecology and Phytoclimatology. (V, 1)
FAO FORESTRY DIVISION.
The Forest Crop of the Future - Quality or Quantity. (IV, 2)
FAO FORESTRY DIVISION.
Forest Resources of the World. (II, 4)
FAO FORESTRY DIVISION.
The European Housing Problem. (IV, 3)
FAO FORESTRY DIVISION.
Planning and Statistical Design in Silvicultural Research. (V, 1)
FOSTER ELLERY.
Wood Workers and World Forestry (I, 3)
FRANK, BERNARD.
Valuation of Forest Lands from the Public Viewpoint. (II, 2)
GILLETT, CHARLES A.
The American Tree-Farm Movement. (II, 5)
GOBERT, JEAN E.
The Forester and Nature. (I, 3)
GONGGRYP, JUSTUS W.
Outline of a General Forest Policy for the Tropics. (II, 1)
GRAVATT, G. FLIPPO.
Chestnut Blight in Asia and North America. (III, 1)
GRON, A. HOWARD.
The Economic Foundations of Forest Politics. (I, 3)
HALL, J. ALFRED.
Forest Utilization. (I, 1)
HESS, ROBERT W.
Pulpwood from Tropical Forests. (V, 3)
HURSH, C. R.
Research in Forest Streamflow Relations. (V, 1)
JAHN, E. C.
Improved Pulp Cooking Methods. (II, 2)
LOTTI, THOMAS AND McCULLEY, R. D.
Loblolly Pine - Maintaining as Subclimax. (V, 3)
MARK, HERMAN.
The Position of Cellulose as a Fiberforming Polymer. (I, 3)
PAVARI, ALDO.
Chestnut Blight in Europe. (III, 1)
POURTET, JEAN.
The Poplar - Its place in the World. (V, 2)
SHAW, RALPH R.
Communication through Literature. (IV, 3)
SPURR, STEPHEN H.
Aerial Photography. (II, 4)
SYRACH-LARSEN, C.
Advances in Forest Genetics. (V, 1)
WATTS, LYLE F.
A Program for Range Lands. (V, 2)
WESTVELD, MARINUS.
Airplane Seeding: A New Venture in Reforestation. (III, 3)
United Nations
PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED NATIONS SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE
ON THE CONSERVATION AND UTILIZATION OF RESOURCES.
17 August - 6 September 1949, Lake Success New York.
VOLUME V, FOREST RESOURCES
Published by the United Nations Department of Economic
Affairs, New York, 1951. pp. 325. Price $3.00. Obtainable from United Nations, New York, N.Y., U.S.A.
This volume of the proceedings of the above Conference contains a most valuable collection of papers contributed by forestry experts from all parts of the world. The principal forestry subjects discussed at the Conference were forest inventories, protection of forests, forest management, protective functions of the forests, administration of forests, logging and sawmill techniques, and preservation and chemical utilization of wood. A summary of the discussion of each subject is presented with the papers. Statistical tables, charts, photographs and short bibliographies are also, included. A list of contributors to the Forest Resource section completes the volume.
