Guide to forestry

Book One By

JOSEPH S. ILLICK Bulletin 26

PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY R. Y. Stuart, Commissioner.

GUIDE TO FORESTRY

Book One By

JOSEPH S. ILLICK

Bulletin 2b> mm

PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY R. Y. Stuart, Commissioner

DECEIVED

"J'OCUMtl

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FOREST GUIDES

The Pennsylvania Department of Forestry recognizes that the Boy Scout movement is one of the most valuable agencies in the State for the elimination of FOREST FIRE. With the approval of National Boy Scout Headquarters, the Department has adopted the official designation, Pennsylvania Forest Guides, to be conferred on any registered member of the Boy Scouts of America, resident of Pennsylvania, who signs a Pennsylvania Forest Guide pledge card to be supplied by the Department of Forestry, Harrisburg, Pa.

Each Pennsylvania Forest Guide will be supplied with a bronze button and a book "GUIDE TO FORESTRY" after he has signed the pledge card. Scoutmasters and other Scout officials signing the pledge card will be given white metal "Pioneer Forest Guide" buttons.

Each Pennsylvania Forest Guide or Pioneer Guide who has been available for service for a whole year in the fight against FOREST FIRE, and responded to all calls for such service, can, upon the recommendation of his Scoutmaster, exchange his Pennsylvania Forest Guide button for a Forest Guide badge at the office of the District Forester.

The Department of Forestry also offers 100 gold medals annually to Boy Scouts for special meritorious service in combating FOREST FIRE in Pennsylvania. It is hoped that all registered Scouts will take advantage of this offer, and help to protect the forests from FOREST FIRE— EVERY MAN'S ENEMY.

Boys who do not belong to the Boy Scout organization can become AMERICAN FORESTRY GUIDES by applying to the American Forestry Guide Headquarters, 431 Elm Street, Reading, Pa.

FOREST GUIDE OF PENNSYLVANIA

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: — This is to certify that the bearer hereof is a registered member of the Boy Scouts of America, and having signed the Forest Guide pledge, is authorized to wear the Forest Guide button. The citizens of Pennsylvania are hereby requested to extend all possible courtesies to him as a Forest Guide.

R, Y, STTTART, Commissioner of Forestry.

(Signature of Scoutmaster) (Authorized representative of Local Council)

Date

FOREST GUIDE PLEDGE Believing as a Boy Scout that every citizen should endeavor to see that our Forests, together with their "Wild Life and Plant Life, should be protected and conserved for our common good, I do hereby pledge myself to do nothing willfully or carelessly to injure any Forest Tree, Wild Plant, Bird, or harmless Animal, to do all in my power to protect and conserve the same, to urge others to do likewise, to prevent and extinguish forest fires.

Signature

(Scout)

Iroop No of Penna.

AN APPRECIATION OF SCOUTING

Scouting is worth while. It makes real boys and girls and then turns them into real men and women. A good Scout makes a good American. A good American makes a good citizen, and good American citizens make America the first Nation in the world.

Scouting is good fun, but it is a lot more than that. It is the best kind of preparation for whatever life is to bring in the days ahead. A good Scout is seldom or never caught unprepared, and a man or a woman who has grown up out of a boy or girl scout is always ready to meet the present and future with head up, eyes front, and shoulders back.

There is a lot more in the United States than can be seen from a street car. It is the land, and the boys and men, girls and women who know the land, who make the strength of this and any other country. Not the least valuable thing about scouting is that it teaches the city boy and girl to know the country, and the country boy and girl to know the country better than he or she otherwise would.

The forest is not only the mother of the fountain, but the mother of men as well. Our ancestors lived in the forest. We live with the help of the forest. Wood is still the most useful of all materials, and will continue to be for many years after you and I have passed to our reward.

Boys and girls who know the out-of-doors render services of great value to their Nation and State by understanding the forest and taking part in its protection. It is just as important for people to think rightly about preventing forest fires as it is for them to think rightly about preventing fires in a town, or any other similar calamity. When you help to make people respect and appreciate the forest you help in its protection.

An understanding of the forest and of the conservation of all natural resources is growing rapidly among Scouts. In two years the number of badges awarded to boy scouts in forestry grew from 153 to 513. I would like to see still more awarded in Pennsylvania.

This booklet is prepared primarily for the Boy Scouts of America, Forest Guides, American Forestry Guides, Wood Craft League, Knights of St. George Cadets, Camp Fire Girls, Girl Guides, and other junior outdoor organizations in Pennsylvania. I hope that every boy and girl who gets this book will not only study its pages but take it into the forest, compare what is here printed with what they find out-of-doors, and so get to know the forest which is the home of scouting and woodcraft and a great necessity for the welfare of the human race.

GIFFORD PINCHOT

PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTY

STATE FOREST COMMISSION

R. Y. Stuart, Commissioner of Forestry.

Edward Bailey.

Henry W. Shoemaker.

Mrs. John L. Lawrence.

(Mary Flynn Lawrence.)

Henry S. Drinker.

Lewis E. Staley, Chief, Bureau of 'Operation.

C<~orge H. Wirt, Chief, Bureau of Protection.

John W. Keller, Chief, Bureau of Silviculture.

Alfred E. Rupp, Chief, Bureau of Lands.

Joseph S. Illick, Chief, Office of Research.

W. Erdman Montgomery, Chief, Office of Maintenance.

A. O. Vorse, Chief, Office of Information.

E. A. Ziegler, Director, State Forest Academy.

GUIDE TO FORESTRY