SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry - Empire Forester Yearbook (Syracuse, NY)

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ti we gs if -5 - -Q ax ..a...sBr ood Utilization ii NELSON C. BROWN HE field of forest utilization has advanced to a very important place in the field -of forestry. Years ago it was scarcely regarded as a part of the American forestry program. Now graduates of the college are largely entering into the business aspects of forestry which means, logging, lumber manufacture, the wholesale lumber business, the retail lumber business, light construc- tion and work with timber preservation, veeneers, plywood, crossties, coopcrage, woodworking, small di- mension, furniture and many other industries dependent upon the forest as a source of their raw mate- rial. A recent compilation of 600 graduates of this department of Forest Utilization indicates that 88 percent of them are in these fields of interest. Qnly 12 percent have elected to take lines of work other than in forestry. This compilation shows that most of our giaduates are working in New York State and bordering sections such as New England, Pennsylvania and in the South. The above listing illustrates only a beginn The following table shows their field of ac- tivity: Occupational Status Percent Lumber Manufacture ,.........,,. .,,,.. 1 1 Wood-Working Indu'stries .. .. 10 Education and Research ...,i.. . 10 Wholesale Lumber ......7,,.. 10 Retail Lumber ...e,ee,e,.,r,e.i,iii. ., 9 Logging ..i...,,,..,.........,,,,,,,.....,..v,,,.,,,,,,., 6 Veneers, Plywood and Adhesives .,Y,,......,..,. 5 Timber Treatments .,,....,, ....,.....,,..,i....,.....,,,..... . .. 3 Lumber and Forest Products Associations t,i,,,ii, 2 Unre-lated Fields ,,,.........,.....,.....,,,.,,.. .,.,.....,......, . 12 Miscellaneous ......e ,,., . 22 Total .........,.. .,,.,....,,....,,...,,,,.,i,, e..,,,,,,,.,,,,,,, 1 0 0 The geographical distribution of the graduates is as follows: State Percent New York State above the Metropolitan Dist. 28 New York State-the Metropolitan District , , , 16 Southern States-Virginia to Texas , ,,,, . , , , 13 New England States ....,,.. ,,.. , . . ,. . ., A 8 West Coast States .,,,. ,,.i . , . . , . 7 Pennsylvania .e.,,e. . . 5 New Jersey .,,,. . ,.,..,. . ,. ,. 5 Wisconsin ..,.,.,.,., ,, ,s,. ........ , .. ,, , ,i.. . . . .. . 4 Illinois ., ..,,.....,,,ii. ,ir. , . ...,., . ..,, . . ,. 3 Foreign Countries, including 11 men in Canada and others in Africa, Germany, India, Italy, Switzerland- Malayan Union, Philippines, South America .. ., . . 5 Miseellaneoluis, largely in Central States, Rocky Mountain States, Michigan, Minnesota and Washington, D. C. . . ,. .... .. . . , . 6 Total .,r. , ,i..., , ...,. ,. ,, ,, 100 ing of interest among our graduates in forest industrial employment. There are some 80,000 logging operations concerned with the harvesting of forest pro- ducts in this country. There are some 60,000 sawmills, some 25,000 retail lumber yards, about 15,000 wholesale lumber companies and at least 75,000 other industries and activities dependent upon lumber and other forest products for their existence. It is patently evident that more men skilled in the tech- nical knowledge of wood, its manufacture, seasoning, grading, treatment, distribution and use. are in demand among these great industries of the nation. The lumber industry is the oldest and one of the most successful and largest industries in these United States. It is believed that there will always be an important lumber industry and its associated activities in this country. The fear of a timber famine has passed. VVe are, and will continue, grow- ing all of the timber we need but because we have wasted about 50 percent of all of the material produced in our woods, it is believed that new technical knowledge and skills will improve the efficiency of utiliza- tion in the future. Left io right Professor Bishop, Professor Hen- derson, Professor Smith, Professor Brown, Nr. Yavorsky, Dr. Vtiylie, Professor Hoyle. l20l

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fandsca e an Recfzeational mana emevtt GEORGE A. ALBRECHT l'iCRl9ifX'l'lON is a major use of forest land, together with timber production, watershed protection, and grazing. Men who think they would find it interesting to plan for the provision of recreation facilities, or who would find it to their liking to be responsible for the public use of such facilities can utilize the specialized training which forms the curriculum of the Department of Landscape and Recreational lllanagement. Their major task in years to come would be to make var- ious public lands accessible and pleasurably usable without destruction of certain organizationsg there- fore, the training is broad enough to enable graduates to work with either type of agency. Provision of facilities which make a recreation area satisfactory entails a knowledge of road and building construction, drainage, water supply, and other utilitarian matters as well as familiarity With, and skill in landscape planning and design. The latter field requires an acquaintance with a wide va- riety of plant materials and an appreciation of the architectural appurtenances which often are a part of a park development. Courses in landscape design require most student time and consequently the cur- riculum in this department is quite comparable to that in a school of landscape architecture. lndications are that there will be plenty of work to do for those who see fit to prepare themselves f-or this field of activity. liach year an increased number of visitors enjoy national, state, and county forests, and it seems that there will be a continual increase in the amount of planning and construction necessary to provide facilities for these visitors. Therefore a major task in the field of forestry is to fit these devolpmezits into the over-all program of the forest so that the American citizen may experi- ence a healthful change from city environment and individuals may learn to appreciate the value of these vast governmental land holdings. During the last decade highway departments throughout the United States have been much more concerned with the appearance of their roadsides and with other matters which are within the field of interest of graduates of this school. The indications are that there will be a further demand for men trained in landscape design to contribute to the efforts of the highway engineers. Recently New York State established a landscape bureau as a part of the Department of Public VV-orksg an important addi- ti-on to the list of states which already had established comparable organizations. Much is being done in parkway plan-ning and the work involved requires men with landscape training and experience. Students most often enter the department with the idea of finding employment in forest recrea- tion or park work. However, it is interesting to note that the landscape design training they receive enables them to qualify for positions concerned with any development of land fgf human use and en- joyment. Recent graduates have accepted jobs as site planners with housing authorities, as city plan- ners, or with private landscape architectur- al design firms or landscape contract or- ganizations. There seems to 'be a variety of opportunity to suit the tastes of men who either like to plan for new things, or to actually go out in the field and construct them, or to supervise their use and main- tcivance. From left I0 right Mr. Vtfelch, Prof. Arnold, Mr. Viertel, Mr. VVillard, Prof. Albrecht, Prof. Sears, Prof. VVilliams. l19l

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ood eclmolocjq Du. l-Ixuuxv P. BROWN HIC American public is now cognizant of forestry as such, as the result of a long campaign in education initiated before the beginning of the twentieth century. The Society of American Foresters, the associa- tion of professional foresters in the United States, has just celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in the national capitol. H ence, forestry may now be considered as well launched among the professions. NVood technology is an important phase of forestryg it deals with the principal forest product, wood. Specifically, it is concerned with the study of the technical properties of wood, that is, with those properties which must be taken into consideration when wood is used for any purpose whatso- ever. Our forefathers arrived at the uses of wood largely by trial and error methods , with the infor- mation thus accumulated handed down to succeeding generations. Frequently this information was er- roneous and proved expensive in application, the more as the cost of wood has advanced. This has resulted in the 'birth of the science of wood technology, the scientific utilization of wood. Students undergoing training in wood technology are required to take courses the subject matter of which is directly pertinent to this natural product. lfn addition they are thoroughly grounded in bas- ic subjects such as physics, mathematics, statistics and chemistry which provide the information and the tools to essay the technical properties of wood for their worth. Among the practical responsibilities of a wood technologist is not only the ability to select the proper kind of wood for the purpose in view, knowing' its intrinsic properties in advance, but also the skill to select the proper stock of that kind of wood. As is to be expected, a tremendous backlog of information on the technical properties of wood has been built up to date. The scarcity of metals during Worlcl Wzir lf and the ready accessibility of wood as a suitable substitute under the proper conditions of inspection advanced wood technology very rapidly. However, -because of the exigencies of this period of national emergency, the research on wood was often hurried and far from conclusive. Since Worlcl Wai' Il, wood technology has continued to advance at a steady pace, with increasing emphasis on fundamental research. Students contemplating specialization in wood technology with a view to making it a life profes- sion quite naturally ask themselves what the future holds with respect to positions. The opportunities are good for the man with the proper aptitudes, with remuneration in proportion to abilityg he will be undergoing training as a wood technician, with considerable emphasis on the engineering approach. The analytical type of mind is a prime requisite, bespeaking as it does success in courses in mathemat- ics, physics and chemistry. A prospective wood technologist must -be the type of individual who not only wants to know that a thing is so but why it is 503 this last statement is highly important in gauging 'his possibilities of success in this field of endeavor. Re- search should 'have appeal, not as a vehicle to grind out a living, but as a horizon that ever beckons. Sealed from Inf! to right! Dr. Anderson, Dr. DeZeeuw, Dr. Brown, Dr. Harlow. Standing: Mr. Skaar, Mr. Core, Mr. Leney, Mr. Caldwell, Dr. Kitazawa, Mr. Cote. t21i