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of the highlights of the fifth annual Redwood Region Junior Logging Conference, April 28 to May 1, at Mendocino Woodlands camp near Fort Bragg, Calif., under the direction of Bernard J. Vaughn, Union Lumber Company public relations director. A total of 115 high school forestry and lumbering students from 19 California schools attended the conference.

Redwood lumber-grading demonstration by Ralph Talvola, California Redwood Assn. chief grade inspector of Eureka, was a very popular new feature of the conference. Redwood lumber grading competition on the part of the attending students was part of the new field-day competition between high schools. Students also participated in log bucking, distance chaining and other events, and Eureka High School won the school trophy consisting of a chromium-plated falling axe mounted on a curly-grain redwood 5oard.

Other features of the three-day program included a very informative talk by Dr. Fred E. Dickinson, director of the University of California Forest Products Laboratory at Richmond, on the use of wood as a structural material. Dr. Dickinson illustrated his talk with many exhibits of plywood, particle board and hardboard.

Talks on job opportunities and a complete field trip through Jackson State Forest near Fort Bragg were included in the program. On the State Forest the boys visited a current logging operation of Willits Redwood Products Co., where a seven-foot redwood over 200 feet tall was felled for them.

At the conclusion of the conference program, four outstanding students were chosen to attend the Redwood Region Logging Conference at Eureka May 24 and 25. They were Gor- don Bolton, Miranda, Dutton of Arcata, and Roger Cyr of Eureka, Robert Fesmire of Willits. Emanuel Fritz, RRLC secretary-manager, announced the selection.

F. J. Hyman, Jr. of Little Valley Lbr. Co., Fort Bragg, was camp manager during the conference.

April Gonstruction Gonfrocts Drop

Contracts for future construction in the United States in April totaled. $2,776,431,000, a decline of 9/o compared to April 1956, according to F. W. Dodge Corporation, construction news and marketing specialists. The April decline ofiset a large increase in March and, as a result, the cumulative total for the first four months of. 1957, amounting to $10,314,991,000, showed no change from the comparable period of 1956.

Contracts for residential building in April were valued at $I,23I,667,W,8/p below the year-earlier level. For the first four months of 1957, residential construction contracts amounted to $4,031,007,000, down 6/o from the comparable period last year. The number of housing units represented by the April 1957 contracts totaled 93,758, whi'ch was l4/o below the April 1956 level. The trend toward larger and more costly homes acco\nts for the sharper decline in unit volume than in dollar value.

West Side Deolers to Dine

The West Side Lumbermen's Group of the Southern California Retail Lumber Assn. will hold a dinner meeting, Wednesday, June 19, at Brand's restaurant in Mar Vista.

Western Pine Assn. Offers Gourses ot Morysville crnd Fresno.

A two-day short course in "Quality Control in Lumber Manufacture" was held in Fresno, May G7, under sponsorship of the Western Pine Association's research depart- 'ment, a-ccording to Peter Field of the Ivory Pine Co., Dinuba, district member of the WPA's research committee. Headrig sarving accuracy was detailed the first day and rnoisture-control content the second for sawmill and seasoning foremen and other supervisory personnel of WPAmember mills in the San Joaquin Valley and South Sierra "district. Sessions both days were held at the Fresno hotel, with registration starting at 8:30 a.m. Field trips were in-

Quofiry Redwood

Smokey Beqr €omic Sfrip to Be Gommerciolly Syndicofed

A new adventure comic strip ,"Smokey the Bear," syndicated through a joint arrangement between the Forest Service and Columbia Features, Inc., and designed to extend further the educational value of Smokey in forest conservation, will be released for daily and Sunday features starting June 16, announces the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This comic strip character will enjoy the distinction of being the only one authorized by Congress. By a Congressional Act of 1952 the Smokey Bear symbol was declared the trademark of forest fire prevention. Royalties from the strip will go to the Forest Service for cooperative forest fire prevention work.

Smokey's role as America's guardian of the forests will continue in the comic strip features, but the educational aspect of Smokey's role will be greatly extended in the feature series. Little Smokey and a comical racoon named Specs will acquaint readers with conservation, ways of animals and birds, folklore, pathfinding, fire control, game conservation, and woodcraft. Through the licensed sales of commercial educational items bearing the Smokey Bear symbol, a new league of young forest-minded Americans has been created by the Forest Service under the name of "Junior Forest Rangers." Young Americans who pledge their loyal protection to our Nation's forests receive a kit including a membership card for the organization.

The Sunday "Smokey the Bear" feature is designed for a permanent child's reference book on forest life. Entitled "Smokey Says," it is a large, full-color panel to be cut out, featuring instructions in woodcraft, nature study, and valuable, practical knowledge concerning the forest world.

cluded both days under James C. Anderson, industrial engineer from the WPA research lab in Portland

The two classes were also given in Marysville, Calif., at the hotel there, on N{ay 9-10, with the field trip in tl-rat area taken to the A. Speckert Lumber Co. mill.

USPIy Moves Up Teichmeier

Promotion of Alfred W. Teichmeier to the newly-created post of sales manager of hardwood plywoods at United States Plywood Corporation, is announced by E. J. Maroney, vicepresident and director of sales personnel.