Out o[ the \(oods

Bv Jim Stevens

Big Doings in Montreal . .

The 9,000 members rif the Societl' of American Foresters and their 1,200 prt-,fessior.ral brothers rif the Canadian Institute of Forestry are specialists rvho hol<l technological kevs to the future of a billion (1,000,000,000) acres of North Arnericau tirnber land.

In terms of trees and the bounclary betn'een Canada and the United States is a "phantom borur<llrr1'," as K. G. Iietrsor.u, president of the Canaclian L.rstitute, said in opening the recent four-day meeting of the two groups ir-r llontreal. It is also a phantom boundary for the science of the silviculturist. the forest engineer, the wood chemist, the iorestrv eclttcator and the forest laboratory technician.

The then.re c-,f the joint convention n'as "Tretrtls in North American Forestry." Each of the Ileetings an<l technical sessions had tn-o chairmen. Press releases antl suttttnaries of technical pal)ers u'ere issued in the tu'o langttltgcs of the Pror'ince of Quebec. I-nglish antl Frer.rch.

Highlights . .

The main entertainrlent feature at Jlontreal presented Frencl.r-Canaclian folk songs anrl danccs b-v a -l-H girls' club. 'fhe ancient Quebec ballad. "Alouette," is an all-Anrerica forestr,r' school song. S-{F delegates from Alaska, California, Florida ancl ]Iissouri chanted it in \Iontreal s'ith the spirit, if not the accent of Joe I-e \Iurphas'.

Back of the convention's forrnal theme and technical topics loorned a giant challenge. "\\'hat of the trees for tornorrorv? Are u'e grorling the rvood rvc shall neecll"

The foresters faced predictions of building authorities that another million dn'ellings rvill be built in the United States alone clrrring 1953. and that U. S. annual hotrsing reqtrirernents u'ill rise ()n to t\\'o nrillion units in 1970.

No substitute is ir1 sight for lurr.rber as the basic material of housing, or for the rvood railroad tie or u'oodpulp nes'sprint. The foresters heartl estirnates that U. S. consunrption rvill expand frorn the 1951 figure of 26,500.000 cords to 33,000,000 cor<ls br' 1975.

Cana<la has vast reaches of untappe<l forest u'ealth. s'ith 92 per cent of its acreage government orvnerl. Canadian foresters reported at Jfontreal that fire. insects and disease rvere killing rnore forest trees than the logging in<lustr_r' of the countrv u'as cutting.

(Continuerl on Page 52)