CONSERVATION EDUCATION IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS American Association of School Administrators. 1952. pp. 527. Washington, D. C. U.S. $4.00.
This publication is the 1951 yearbook of the American Association of School Administrators which, at the end of 1950, had 7,734 members. Two-thirds of its 527 pages are devoted to a problem of interest to every forester, namely, the education of the public, and particularly young people, with regard to the conservation of natural resources.
The problem is treated here in relation to the American system of education, but the principles underlying education in general, and conservation education in particular, are applicable everywhere. But although the authors rightly dwell at length on the efforts made in the United States to promote conservation, such as the work of the Committee on Southern Regional Studies and Education, and the success achieved, they recognize that even in the United States there is still a vast amount to be done in this field, as indeed in most countries of the world, many of which unfortunately have as yet made no effort to tackle the problem. That is why this book has a significance that reaches far beyond the boundaries of the country for which it was written.
Some may even wonder whether conservation of renewable or nonrenewable natural resources is really a subject for instruction in schools, but if the view is taken that it has an important part to play in raising standards of living and that it should be "(a) helping citizens to become more fully aware of the problems of society, and (b) studying these problems with the view of improving the conditions for living, and ways of living," then it is clearly a subject to be included in the curricula of all types of school.
The school can thus become the starting point of a new conception of living for the whole community. All foresters are fully aware that the most carefully thought-out forest policy, the most appropriate legislation and the best organized forest service are of very little avail without the support of an enlightened public opinion. Starting from these principles, Chapter 3 gives a list of basic concepts for a sound program of conservation education.
"Conservation of natural resources means the wise use of natural resources for the greatest good of the largest number of people for the longest time. "Then, natural resources must be thought of as having an essential unity rather than as separate categories. They are interrelated and interdependent. This unity, the closely linked interdependence of soil, water, minerals, plants, animals and man, constitutes the seamless web of life and matter."
Chapter 3 also contains some valuable conservation education guides:
"Conservation education programs should start with a consideration of community environment and needs then evolve into a consideration of state, regional, national and international aspects"; and "schools should go-operate with community, state regional, and national agencies (governmental and non-governmental), which are concerned with resource use."
The question is raised as to whether conservation education should be the subject of special courses or linked with, or integrated into, general school programs. Preference is given to the latter solution, which would appear to be the right one since by such integration the idea of conservation is rendered more familiar to pupils and more effectively impressed upon them.
While the chapter which has been dealt with at length is of special interest, the other chapters are also worth reading attentively. They contain useful suggestions on "materials" for instruction in conservation such as textbooks, newspapers (singe such instruction must also reach adults), films and slides (of which selected reference lists are given), radio programs, and discuss the principles that should govern the selection of the materials most suitable for each glass. There are also suggestions with particular reference to rural schools and others applicable to city schools. Two important chapters also deal with the training of teachers and the responsibility of school administrators in this regard.
FOREST ENGINEERING - ROADS AND BRIDGES. James L. Harrison. pp. 366. Oliver and Boyd. Edinburgh and London. 1951. 30 shillings.
The author, formerly of the Indian Forest Service, is concerned with the road and bridge problems with which forest officers have to deal-roads that do not come in the category of major highways, but rather more modest ways suited to the loads and extraction methods of the particular area, and bridges which are not massive structures of steel and concrete but simpler structures in which readily available timber may be used.
In such forest engineering the need for and advantages of good design, knowledge of materials, selection of construction methods and sound engineering practices in general are fully as great as for more imposing edifices. The author's bias in favor of the simple and economical, making the fullest use of native materials near the site, and combining these with sound engineering, has resulted in a work specifically for the forest officer who deals with forest road and bridge problems within his competence, and should help him in producing enduring structures.
FOREST ENTOMOLOGY. Samuel Alexander Graham. 1952. pp. 351. American Forestry Series. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. New York, Toronto, London. U.S. $6.00.
Forest entomology has, in recent years, gone far beyond the earlier stage of cataloguing and describing forest insects. Development of synthetic insecticides and their application by aircraft have opened the way to large-scale control operations hitherto impossible. Of at least equal importance, knowledge of insect ecology, of the characteristics of forest stands and of individual trees which make them susceptible or immune to insect attack, have made entomology an integral part of silviculture and management. Aerial surveying and photography have made really good insect surveys practicable.
Since this is a time of exploration and of rapid advance in principles and practice in control, this publication, nominally a third edition, is virtually a new work. Particular species of insects are dealt with, less for their own sake than to illustrate methods of direct control by chemicals, methods of indirect control by parasites and predators, and by silvicultural practices.
As the scope of forest entomology widens, it becomes more and more necessary for foresters to learn new methods and relationships, notably how to utilize cuttings to increase resistance of residual trees and stands to attack.
TEXTBOOK OF WOOD TECHNOLOGY Vol. 2. H. P. Brown, A. J. Panshin and C. C. Forsaith. 1962. pp.783. McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc. New York, Toronto, London. U.S. S10.00.
This long anticipated second volume evokes the deep regret of all researchmen for the death of H. P. Brown, one of the outstanding authorities in the field of wood technology. It completes a work the first volume of which constituted also the first of the famous "American Forestry Series" in 1934, under the title Identification of the Commercial Timbers of the United States, and became the foremost handbook of its kind.
This second volume, subtitled "The Physical, Mechanical Properties of the Commercial Woods of the United States", brings together the results of related modern research in concise form.
After the discussion of the physical properties - density, relation to moisture, heat, sound, light and electricity - there follows a short chapter on the bonding and finishing of wood, and then a study of the mechanical properties of wood including a thorough discussion of the mechanics of solid woods, wood connectors and laminated products, stress analysis, testing procedures and practical tables for allowable loads, spacing of connectors, etc.
Part 3, "Chemical Properties of Wood", is in comparison with Part 2 only an introduction to the composition of the cell wall and the extraneous components of wood, its chemical treatment thermal reactions and decomposition by biological agents.
The choice of only a, limited number of references for each chapter as well as the extensive use of definite problems with the complete development of the answers will help to introduce modern and economic utilization of wood into all countries.
LOGGING MECHANIZATION IN THE USSR. A. Koroleff. pp. 158. Illus.. Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, Montreal. 1952. $5.00.
This book combines a detailed discussion of logging machinery and techniques of mechanized logging as now used in many forest regions of the USSR, and a story of how a backward timber industry based on casual manual labor and horse logging has within a dozen years been converted into a highly mechanized industry, comparable to that of the U.S. and Canada.
The author is well qualified to deal with the subject. A graduate of the St. Petersburg Imperial Forest Institute (now Leningrad Academy of Forest Technology), one of the oldest forest schools in Europe (founded in 1803), he was sent by the Kerensky Government to study logging mechanization on the North American Continent. He did not go back to Russia but continued his specialized studies at Yale and at the University of Washington. For a number of years now he has been Director of the Woodlands Research Division of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada.
The material on which the book is based has been taken from about a hundred technical articles, translated by the author himself, published singe 1947 in the Russian monthly Timber Trade Journal Lesnaya Promyshlennost (Forest Industry), the official organ of the Ministry of Forest Industries of the USSR. Some material has also been taken from Unasylva.
It is in the field of power development and application that the book is of first-rate technical interest. The fundamental principle has been that the forest should provide the power necessary for its own working. At present about 10 percent of the total wood involved in Russian logging operations, including some slash, is used as fuel for power production. This percentage is to be substantially increased. It was expected that "by the end of 1950 at least 70 percent of logging trucks and tractors should be operated on producer gas (wood)." Electricity is regarded as of prime efficiency and electric power stations are favored at key points to provide all the power necessary for cutting, skidding (cable or tractor) loading, etc. Where electrification is impracticable, producer gas is applied and machines including tractors operating on green-wood have been developed for the purpose. In effect what would otherwise be wood waste is put to power production of electricity or gas. This has naturally favored whole tree extraction to the points of power production, and considerable work has been done to develop techniques of logging unbranched trees.
It is of particular interest that whereas the U.S. Forest Service Tomcat tractor has not progressed into routine production in the United States, tractors of similar type, designed purely for log extraction, are standard in the USSR-a 2-ton machine for use with selection cutting, a 5 or 6-ton tractor for skidding under the conditions which generally prevail in stands of 23-30 cords per acre (57-74 cords per ha.), and 10 or 12-ton tractor for use in large timber. Chainsaws have been developed which operate from a 12 kw. portable electric power station and weigh as little as 18 lb. (8 kg.).
The book serves a useful purpose by acquainting the timber operators of other countries with the status progress and trends of the logging industry in the USSR, information which is very difficult to obtain. The subject matter is treated critically but with restraint and objectivity, interestingly presented and easily readable. The lesson which the author sought to drive home is to show that, allowing for some extravagant claims, the rate of increase in efficiency of logging in the USSR is high, and that this increase is due to energetic efforts in logging mechanization and strong support for research. If other countries are to retain their prominent positions as timber exporters, research in logging mechanization and efficiency should receive much greater emphasis.
THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST. An ecological study. P. W. Richards, pp. 50. Illus. Cambridge University Press, London, and New York. 1952. $12.50.
Any ecological study of a commercially valuable forest type or group of types, while perhaps not of interest to loggers and the timber trade is, in this case at least, important to foresters and other scientists concerned with management and research in the tropical rain forests of the world. The author, drawing on his short but intensive experience in tropical forests in South America Africa, Malaya and Borneo, as well as on the available literature, deals not with the economic aspects of the tropical forests but approaches his subject from the standpoint of "a plant community or an environment." He aims his comprehensive work not only at foresters and botanists, but also at zoologists and geographers- in other words, the technicians. His style and methods of presentation, however, will certainly make this book appeal to "those not trained as professional botanists."
He describes the structure, regeneration, development and habits of the trees and associated vegetation the climate, microclimate, seasonal changes and soil conditions as the outstanding elements of the environment, the composition of various forest communities and of mixed forest as a climax; primary successions on dry and wet sites, and tells of the succession along coasts on sandy and muddy shores. He gives particular attention to the rain forest deciduous forest, and savannah, and to the tropical rain forests at upper and lower altitudinal limits as well as at their north and south boundaries, and compares the conditions at both altitudinal and latitudinal extremes. He also deals briefly with secondary succession induced by action of man, such as clearing for cultivation and fire, and by action of storms.
In the final pages, which the author galls a postscript, there is a discussion of the future of the tropical rain forest. Rather it is an expression of fear that because of the rate and manner of exploitation in many areas, the tropical rain forest may be completely destroyed. The plea is for preserving important segments of the tropical rain forest for scientific research purposes - and certainly there should be no serious opposition to this objective. But it is precisely here that, on the basis of ecological information such as Dr. Richards presents, the forester should play his role of developing a silviculture which will perpetuate the tropical rain forest- not as an undisturbed outdoor laboratory but as a continuously productive source of important forest products.
THE Nations accepting this Constitution, being determined to promote the common welfare by furthering separate and collective action on their part for the purposes of
raising levels of nutrition and standards of living of the peoples under respective jurisdictions,securing improvements in the efficiency of the production and distribution of all food and agricultural products,
bettering the condition of rural populations,
and thus contributing toward an expanding world economy,
hereby establish the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations... through which the Members will report to one another on the measures taken and the progress achieved in the fields of action set forth above.
Preamble to the Constitution of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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PARAGUAY |
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IRAQ |
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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC |
LEBANON |
UNITED KINGDOM |
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LIBERIA |
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA |
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LUXEMBOURG |
URUGUAY |
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ETHIOPIA |
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UNASYLVA is prepared by the Forestry Division and published quarterly in English, French and Spanish by the Documents Service at FAO's Headquarters in Rome. FAO does not hold itself responsible for statements or views expressed by authors of signed articles. UNASYLVA may be obtained from the sales agents listed on the back cover. Annual subscription, US$ 2.50 or 12s. 6d. Single copy, 65 gents or 3s. 3d. Rates are payable in local currencies when orders are placed through local sales agents. A full series of back numbers is still available.
Important NEW Publications
Yearbook of Forest Products Statistics, 1952,
Sixth of the series prepared by FAO Forestry Division, this yearbook contains new and often provisional information for 1951 and revised data for 1950 from more than 100 countries.
Price: $2.50 or 17s. 6d.
Grazing and Forest Economy
A companion volume to FAO's Improving the World's Grasslands,* this short monograph deals with the general aspects of grazing and the forest and the regional situations in temperate, tropical and arid regions.
Price: $2.00 or 10s.
Elements of Forest Fire Control
Deals with policy at the national level, planning a protection program, its organization and administration, the prevention, pre-suppression, and suppression of forest fires.
Price: $1.00 or 5s.
Raw Materials for More Paper: Pulping Processes arid Procedures recommended for Testing
This practical handbook of the latest information on all phases of pulping new and old fibrous materials is the report of the technical meeting of pulp and paper specialists in Rome, in December 1952.
Price: $2.00 or 10.s
* Published by Leonard Hill Ltd., 9 Eden Street, London, England
