I. T. HAIG
Executive Secretary, Organizing Committee
THE Fifth World Forestry Congress, for which preparations are now well in hand, will take place in one of the world's most productive forest regions, the home of the world-famous Douglas fir. Foresters from all parts of the world will meet for 12 days at the University of Washington, whose beautiful campus looks towards the lakes and Mount Rainier, one of the towering snow-covered volcanic mountains that mark the main coastal range of Western North America.
The campus itself was made available to the Congress through the courtesy of the University Board of Regents and former University President, Dr. Henry Schmitz, himself a professional forester. It contains a number of spacious buildings, among them Anderson Hall, which houses the College of Forestry, the modern Student Union building which will be one of the Congress meeting halls, and comfortable modern dormitories which will be made available to congress participants.
Responsibility for preparations for the Congress, in collaboration with the Forestry and Forest Products Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization, have been vested by the Department of State in an Organizing Committee of 45 men and women from every phase of forestry activity and interest in the United States - the national departments (Agriculture, Interior and Commerce), forestry schools, forestry associations and societies, conservationists, state forest services, and forest industrialists. The Chief of the United States Forest Service, Dr. Richard E. McArdle, is Chairman of the Organizing Committee.
Detailed preparations have been delegated to seven working groups on finance, program, tours, machinery and equipment exhibits, educational exhibits, and local arrangements, under the continuing direction of a Central Executive Committee, with Dr. V. L. Harper of the United States Forest Service as Chairman. Some committees are quite large. There are 79 persons on the Program Committee and over 60 persons on the Tours Committee, for example, with the result that over 270 American foresters, industrialists, and associated forestry representatives are now engaged in one capacity or another in preparing the Fifth World Forestry Congress.
These committees have already made preliminary plans for the technical program, for pre-Congress, post-Congress, and in-Congress tours or excursions; for interesting commercial (machinery and equipment) and educational exhibits (films, posters, forestry displays) and other activities.
The Congress program will cover: silviculture and management; genetics and tree improvement; forest protection; forest economics and policy; education; forest products; forest and range watersheds; forest recreation and wildlife; logging and forest operations; tropical forestry.
It is hoped to have world authorities speaking on carefully selected forestry topics of current world interest under each of these titles and leading the discussions. As in former congresses, papers may be presented on any congress topic by any congress participant. The official languages will be English, French and Spanish.
The Organizing Committee plans to take the occasion of the Congress to show foreign participants as much as possible of the United States, its people and its forests, forest institutions, and forest industries. The northern neighbor, Canada, planning to do the same; after the Congress, Mexico will be host to a study tour on Mexican pines which is being organized in conjunction with FAO. The West Coast location of the Congress, with its relative nearness to the world-famous redwoods and Douglas firs and the equipment and giant machinery necessary to log and mill the great trees of these forests, will make it relatively easy for congress members to see these sights. The magnificent scenery of some of the western national parks, such as Yosemite with its great granite knobs and spectacular waterfalls is expected to attract many congress members.
Congress excursions are also planned to other interesting and important forest regions. These include Alaska with its fjords, glaciers and virgin spruce-fir forests, and its fledgling forest industries; the semiarid and arid southwest, famous for ponderosa pine; the Rocky Mountain states and Lake states with their varied scenery and forest conditions; the New England states with their great universities and many and varied forest industries; and the extensive southern pineries (over 100 million acres in extent) stretching along the southeastern seaboard from the New Jersey State coast, just south of New York State, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and beyond on the Gulf of Mexico.
As Dr. Richard E. McArdle, Chairman of the Organizing Committee, indicates in the personal invitation printed in this issue, the United States Organizing Committee welcomes the opportunity to meet with the foresters of other nations, to discuss with them the forestry questions of greatest current interest and importance, and to show them at least a little of the forest and forestry activities of its country.
