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Part of Forestry Leaves
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- 1951
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- A GREAT STRIDE TO FULLER UTILIZATION Under the ECA ai.d plan that was agreed upon and approved by the U. S. and the Philippines, the go-signal has already been given for the installation of a forest products laboratory here patterned after that at Madison, Wisconsin. This is an answer to our long-felt need. With this laboratory, we will find uses for our tremendous wood wastes, hitherto unused timber species and other forest produds. With ,fhe promising results of research, our industrialists will be induced to put up plants for the m::mufacture of pulp products, plastics, textiles and .probably cellulose proteins, sugar, motor fuels, glycerine, glues, etc. from wood not made into lumber, plywood and other timber products. These new enterprises will mean more employment, more wealth. And with the general improvement in agriculture and industry, standard of living will increase and extend to a greater number of people. In the resulting increase in demand for necessities and comforts of modern living, the new wood products will be on hand to fill most of those needs. The now certain realization of the Forest Products Laboratory is a great stride indeed towards making wood, our biggest source of raw material, more fully utilized and lasting in supply, for the nation's good. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LAND CLASSIFICATION PARTIES Large scale land classification--a five-year project with ECA aid, is in the offi~. It is not much of exaggeration to say that the future of Philippine forestry lies much in the hands of the men entrusted with this big job. Theirs is a great responsibility. More than ever, their high sense of duty, courage and wise judgment will be demanded for the best interests of the nation, for there will be some individual and powerful selfish intereosts pressing for the pushing back of timberland lines to the steep slopes and foot of rough ranges, without regard to the need of retai.ning accessible wide tracts of production forests that will sustain The Staff of the FORESTRY LEAVES Organ of the Student Body and Alumni of the College of Forestry, U.P. Associate Editors BENJAMIN ALMONTE FAUSTINO FRANCIA BERNARDO AGALOOS CIRILO SERNA Contributing Editors JUAN DAPROZA NICOLAS P. LANSIGAN FELIX 0. CHINTE SEPTEMBER, 1951 College, Laguna 1951-1952 MARTIN R. REYES Editor-in-Chief ALFONSO TIAM Business Manager PEDRO REYES Assit. Business Manager JOSE GONZALES Art Editor Prof. JOSE B. BLANDO Adviser Board of Management SEGUNDO FERNANDEZ JOSE MENIADO TRANQUILINO 0RDEN DoMINGO DE LEON Circulation Dept. CELSO VERSOZA FELICIANO BARRER NAPOLEON VERGARA Page 119 the lumber industries and other forest industries that will be established. It must be borne in mind that forest industries are one of the sinews of our economy, hence, they must be maintained for all times by a sustained supply of timber. This calls for managed production forests. Our L. C. men must, there/ore, give primary consideration to the retention of areas to comprise working circles especially in regions where there are -now established lum-berin(; companies. Ol no less weighty responsibility is the seeing to it tflat what happened in the United States, where there had been wholesale and indiscriminate disposition of public lands to private parties leading later on to a tremendousexpenditure in buying .back extensive portions that became wastelands, should not happen here. PHILIPPINE FORESTS In its broadest aspects, the Philippine program of national recovery has laid emtihasis primarily upon agricultural development, as is quite proper. This is the recommendation of the Bell report and if is being wisely followed by the E.C.A. But the fact remains that the forests of the Philippines are perhaps the nation's greatest natural· resource, viewed as a means to ultimate survival. Forest preservation and research should go hand in hand with agricultural development. nne reason is the great progress made in the Twentieth century in wood technology. Todav the chemist and physicist can produce from wood a substantial amount of man's total requirements. Carbohydrates, proteins, alcohol, gasoline, in faet all the thousands of products that come from coal and petroleum can be synthesized from a self-perpetuating E:ource, the forests. When laboratory techniques are fully d~veloped into commercial processes, the scientists assure us that the forests of the world will be farmed as extensively as we now farm fields, and more profitably. The Philippines has some of the best lor,est lands to be found anvwhere. Thanks to the foresight of the we11-trained leadership of the government's bureau of forestry, there is an awareness genera11y of the need /or preserving our national and private· Iy-owned forest resources. But relatively little j,9 bein~ done to contribute to the knowledge of our forest potential. The school of lorestrv at Los Baiios was cr0i'ted primarily to train men for forest ~~nagement. not /or research. Now, with the current emphasis laid by the government and the E.C.A. upon technical advancement and research in agriculture and industry, it seem.s timely to convert the school of forestry into a co11el?e of forestry, and add basic research to its mission. The government bureau of forestry has done some valuable research within its financial and other limitations, but research is not its primary function. it is more properly the agency to implement and further the use of .research findings once they are made adaptable to local conditions. There has always been a splendid liaison between the school of forestry and the bureau of forestry, and this distribution of function would serve to strengthen both tnstifutions. With a college of forestry fostering research and a better-financed bureau of forestry managing and protecting our natural forest re:.'OUrces, the latter would be beite~ conserved and its value to the people enhanced, while by means of the former, greater and more profitable utilization would be accomplished. · Today there is a tendency to look upon the public lore'sts as a source of revenue from forest charges rather than as a resource that m.ust be husbanded to prevent its destruction. Editorial-Manila Daily Bu11etin, Sept. 17, '51 Page 120 FORESTRY LEAVES