By H. G. CHAMPION, Professor of Forestry, Oxford University
On 19 October 1950, Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret paid her official visit to Oxford to open the new Imperial Forestry Institute which will accommodate the University Department of Forestry and the Commonwealth Forestry Bureau, which is linked with it.
In her speech, the Princess referred particularly to the important part forests and afforestation play in checking soil erosion - as she saw in South Africa - and to the need for a close understanding between the forester, the farmer, the sportsman and, indeed, all who love the country to ensure that the woods and forests not only meet commercial requirements for timber, but also provide for more general use and enjoyment. Later she planted-a yew tree in front of the building; this tree, a native evergreen providing a useful timber and symbolizing longevity and durability, was chosen as alone fulfilling all the requirements for the occasion.
A special exhibit in three of the laboratories demonstrated the great value of forests in protecting soil and crops against wind and water, in conserving and regulating water supply, and in yielding material essential to human welfare. The need for scientific silviculture and management to ensure the maintenance of the protective and productive values of the forest was illustrated with models, photographs, and diagrams; and the economic, engineering, utilization, and amenity aspects were also represented by a variety of exhibits. One of the rooms was largely devoted to showing the importance of research into the relationship between a tree and the soil on which it grows, a finding which is the objective of the Institute's main team-study at present. There were in addition ten sectional exhibits dealing with recent research work by the staff in silviculture, ecology, tree physiology, soil microbiology, soil mesofauna, chemical and physical properties of the soil, wood structure, mycology, entomology, and economics. About one thousand people visited the building and the exhibits.
View of the new Imperial Forestry Institute at the University of Oxford.
Representatives of the Forest Services, Forest Colleges, and Forest Research Institutions of the Western European countries were invited, as well as a large number of persons engaged in forestry administration, practice, research, or education or connected with research in related fields such as timber use, horticulture, soil science, genetics, and many University members, particularly scientists.
The Institute is housed in a four-story stone building built on an H-shaped ground plan. It is linked by a common lecture theatre with the still incomplete Botany Department of similar plan. The ground floor provides for administrative offices, lecture rooms, and silviculture and pathology; the next floor for the Library and connected activities (including the Bureau), engineering, wood structure, and photographic and artist's work; and the top floor for management, mensuration, economics, and entomology, as well as for the team doing research work on the relationship between tree growth and soil. The basement contains well-equipped workshops, storage space, and other services. In all, there are nearly one hundred rooms of all sizes for a staff (including the Bureau) of 17 senior staff and 43 assistants, secretarial, technical, etc.
In furnishing the interior, timber has been used as much as possible. The Forest Departments and timber associations of practically every timber producing country in the Commonwealth have contributed timbers for the purpose. This has made it possible to provide an exceptionally fine display of timbers in use as paneling (ten rooms in different timbers), flooring (14 species), and furniture (30 species from all continents). Much of the general furnishing has also been carried out in these gift timbers, notably bench tops in Burma teak and Pakistan garjun (Dipterocarpus turbinatus), shelving in various timbers from Borneo, Trinidad, Nyasaland, British Columbia, and Nigeria. South Africa and Queensland have provided Ocotea bullata and Endiandra palmerstonii respectively for two of the most striking paneled rooms; the paneling and flooring of the entrance hall and main corridor are of Betula lutea and Acer saccharum from Canada.
A small area near the building has been allotted for the construction of glasshouses, etc., for experimental work, and the Institute has two relatively extensive blocks of woodland available within a few miles for practical instruction, one of them being directly under the technical management of the Department.
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International Society of Tropical Foresters In Washington, D. C., U. S. A., on 14 December 1950, 24 foresters met to form the International Society of Tropical Foresters. The primary purpose of the new organization is to keep tropical foresters in touch with others in their field and with the work they are doing. It will also serve as a clearinghouse of information on developments and opportunities in tropical forestry, as well as on recent additions to tropical forestry literature. It will be a repository of information on the location and fields of activity of men working in tropical forests or with tropical forest products. It is planned to keep the membership in touch with developments by means of occasional memoranda or news letters. In this way the organization should facilitate contact between Foresters qualified foresters and occupational opportunities. Membership in the society is open to foresters of all nationalities working in all types of tropical forest products, including rubber. No dues are required and those interested are urged to write Tom Gill, 1214 16th Street, N.W., Washington 6, D. C., U. S. A. Mr. Gill is Chairman of FAO's Technical Committee on Unexploited Forests. |
