FOREST ASSETS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22694, 5 April 1937, Page 11

FOREST ASSETS

[WORK IN AMEEICA ! ATTRACTING TOURISTS REGENERATION OF YOUTH LARGE NUMBERS EMPLOYED The increasing importance being attached in the United States and Canada to the conservation of national parks was described by Mr. V. Grenning, director of forests in Queensland, who arrived at Auckland last night by the Aorangi from Vancouver in order to make a short inspection of New Zealand forests. For the past five months Mr. Grenning has been visiting forest reserves and laboratories in many parts of the United States and Canada, and ho is particularly impressed with the possibilities of forest conservation as a means of absorbing large numbers of unemployed young men. One of the few works carried out under the National Recovery Act of President Roosevelt that had earned praise and not criticism, said Mr. Grenning, was that of the Civilian Conservation Corps, which last year had caused the employment of about 250,000 men between the ages of 18 and 28 in improving the national reserves and in conservation work. Since then an equal number had been added to the ranks of those taken out of unemployment. As a, result, not only had the parks and forests been greatly improved in appearance, but the forestry officials had been enabled to get 20 years ahead of their programme. Value of Tourist Trade Another result of this work had been that the value of the forests, especially as recreation grounds, had been vastly increased, while it had also helped very largely to the regeneration of a most important proportion of the youth of the country, who until this work had been given them had been in the danger of becoming merely more potential members of the ranks of the unemployable. Special educational courses had also been arranged for them at tho forest camps, and they had been given a new incentive in life. The value of the national parks and forests was shown by the fact that about 80,000,000 visitors had seen them last year. Some merely motored through the forests, but there were also many who were coming more and more to regard the parks as profitable holiday places. To provide them with enjoyable holidays, the State had built about 3750 camping grounds throughout the country. In Canada it was estimated that the beauty of tho State forests had attracted as much as 40,000,000 dollars, about £10,000,000, in the last year in the tourist trade, and it was very easily seen that the national parks had more than paid their way in attracting visitors. Commercial Possibilities In Australia, the importance of tho forests as recreational grounds was fully realised, and in some of the States, notably in Victoria, where about 1000 youths were employed, they were already being used to diminish the number of unemployed. Another branch of forestry work which had impressed him in the United States, said Mr. Grenning, was the attention being paid to commercial problems in huge laboratories. One of these, the Forests Products Laboratory in Maddison, Wisconsin, was doing fine work on the utilisation of forest products, sucli as chemical seasoning methods, which resulted in the accelerated seasoning of woods without causing defects. Another study being made was of the pre-fabrication of wooden houses so that houses could bo built by mass production methods at a much cheaper cost. Successful results were being obtained and it was hoped to be able to supply people with all-wooden houses much more quickly and at a cheaper rate than in tho past.