|
|
||||||
 |
Home | Meeting Info | Contact | Koontz Fund | Offices, Awards & Honors | Continuing Education | Links | Highlights | Newsletter |
|||||
|
Highlights of Texas Forestry Texas Society of American Foresters |
||||||
|
The Twentieth Century: pre-1920 << PREV NEXT >> |
||||||
|
1901 John Henry Kirby, after charting the Gulf Beaumont & Kansas City Railroad that criss-crossed the southeast Texas forests and building a lumber mill at Silsbee in 1893. In 1901 he chartered the Kirby Lumber Company and began acquiring approximately 1 million acres of timberland for his two companies, Houston Oil and Kirby Lumber. In the early 1900s Kirby was operating 14 sawmills through-out southeast Texas. In 1901 Kirby requested from the USDA Bureau of Forestry assistance in setting up a sustained forestry operation. Two USDA foresters, William Curren and A.K. Chittenden directed field crews to make a survey of the Houston Oil and Kirby Lumber lands which measuring 8,000 acres in sample plots. A "working plan" was written, outlining recommendations for management procedures. A diameter cutting limit was imposed. By 1921 an ambitious tree planting operation was underway. In 1939 Kirby Lumber hired John Meyers as its first company forester, followed by George Wright and Wallace Smith and in 1949 George Stanley. By 1984 the company had more than 650,000 acres with a staff of 55 professional foresters. The network of small mills that Kirby operated in the early 1900s was phased out by 1954 when the Silsbee mill made Kirby a one mill giant. Kirby Lumber Company was acquired by the Santa Fe Railroad and then acquired by Louisiana-Pacific in 1987.
|
||||||
| . | ||||||
|
1904 The first description of Texas forests was published by USDA Bureau of Forestry as Bulletin No. 47, titled Forest Resources of Texas, following a two year study. William L. Bray, a botany professor at the University of Texas was the author. The report was more descriptive than analytical. H.H. Chapman and J. Fred Baker were employed by the USDA Bureau of Forestry to work in the Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo. The attempt was to convert the area to forest, but the project failed and the land was purchased for a state park. 1907 Ranking third among lumber producing states of the Nation, Texas reached its peak in lumber production with 2,229,590,000 board feet. 1909 Captain J. Lewis Thompson, Thompson Brothers Lumber Company, arranged for students of the Yale School of Forestry to spend some of their field training in Texas near Trinity and Doucette. The latter site was at Twin Lakes south of Woodville. Professors H. H. Chapman and R. C. Bryant accompanied the students who were visited by the Chief of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, in May 1909. Pinchot was in Texas to discuss forest conservation matters with members of the Southern Pine Manufacturing Association. A growth and yield study of longleaf pine in Tyler County, was published by Professor H. H. Chapman. He estimated that it would take from 75 to 100 years to make a commercial crop of longleaf pine, and advised that private investment would not work on such an undertaking; that it would take a public forest reserve. 1911 The U. S. Bureau of Corporations estimated that there were 66 billion board feet of pine sawtimber in East Texas. According to the Texas Almanac, there were only 25 billion board feet of sawtimber left in Texas. 1914 The Texas Forestry Association was organized at Temple, Texas, by W. Goodrich Jones. It was a non-governmental, non-profit, statewide, privately supported organization to promote the economic development and utilization of the State's forest and related resources. Mr. Jones served as the organization's first president. In 1949 the Association employed a full-time Executive Secretary, L. L. Bishop, who served until 1953. He was succeeded by Bruce Stewart and in 1955 by E.R. Wagoner who served continuously through 1983. Ron Hufford became Executive Secretary in 1984; he is now the Executive Vice-President. In 1970 the Texas Forestry Association merged with the Texas Lumber Manufacturers Association and continues as the Texas Forestry Association. J. Grivin Peters of the USDA Forest Service, Washington Office, wrote " A Forest Policy for Texas," as a forerunner to helping work toward an office of State Forester in Texas. |
||||||
|
1915 Through the efforts of W. Goodrich Jones, later known as the "Father of Forestry" in Texas, and J. Girvin Peters, the office of State Forester was created by the Texas Legislature with an accompanying $10,000 appropriation for the first year of operation. The office became part of the A&M College of Texas. The legislation specified that the office be filled by a graduate forester. The State Forester was first in charge of the Department of Forestry, then the Texas Forestry Department and finally the Texas Forest Service and continues today as part of the Texas A & M University System. Fire control, rural fire defense, forest management, tree improvement, wood utilization and urban forestry have been cornerstones of its activities. A list of State Foresters, or Directors, as they are now called, and dates of office is: |
||||||
TOP OF PAGE ^ |
[John] J. H. Foster E. O. Siecke W.E. White A.D. Folweiler P.R. Kramer B.R. Mills J. B. Hull
|
1915-1918 1918-1942 1942-1948 1949-1967 1967-1981 1981-1996 1996-present |
|
|||
|
TOP OF PAGE ^
|
1916 The State/Federal program for control of wildfires in Texas was initiated with funds authorized by the 1911 Weeks Law (36 Stat. 961) and matching State funds. Six patrolmen were employed in southeast Texas under the direction of Walter Bond. By 1922, 1.5 million acres had intensive fire protection and another 6.5 million acres had extensive or "blanket" patrol. Houston Oil Company's land holding subsidiary, the Southwestern Settlement and Development Company was formed, holding title to approximately 660,000 acres of timberland, of which Kirby Lumber Company held timber cutting rights. The Texas State Forester's office produced its first publication, Bulletin-1, "Grass and Woodland Fires in Texas," written by State Forester J. H. Foster. John H. Foster became second secretary-treasurer of Texas Forestry Association. 1917 The Texas Forest Service issued two bulletins, General Survey of Texas Woodland, to "acquaint the public with the forest and woodland conditions as they exist in a general way over the entire state," and Forest Resources of Eastern Texas. For the forty counties in East Texas 1.7 million acres was virgin, 7.8 acres was second growth and 8.3 million acres was culled and cut-over. It was established that there were 56 billion board feet of pine and hardwood sawtimber in Texas. 1918 Eric O. Siecke was appointed State Forester. 1919 The publication, Texas Forest News, was started by the State Forester's office. E. O. Siecke was the editor. It was published as a newsletter in cooperation with the TFA. It was issued continuously, except for a short time during the depression, until 1991 when the publication was discontinued. The Texas Forestry Association issued a small 20-page booklet, Forestry and the Texas Citizen, in which it outlined the need for a forest policy in Texas, with six major items listed. One of these items called for a "nominal tax on forest land supporting immature stands of timber and a yield tax when the timber is marketed." |
|||||
