The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1946-04-25
Pros and Cons of
Forest Conservancy
Act Are Given Airing
One Hundred Fifty Attend Meet
ing Last Thursday Evening
At Accident School

The advantages and disadvantages
of the Forest Conservancy Act, which
was passed by the Maryland Legis-
lature in recent years, were aired at
public meeting in the Accident
! school last Thursday evening, April
i IS, arranged by the county forestry
board. About one hundred fifty
people interested in forestry products
attended the meeting.
Chief spokesman for those oppos-
ing the regulations of the bill was
Clifford Friend, Accident. Friend de
; clared the bill denied trial by jury
! in court, something the constitution
provides for every citizen, and that
it gave forestry officials authority
to interfere in private rights. He
called the law communistic and totali-
tartan.
There is only one reasonable way
to cut timber i'm these parts, that is
to cut all salable timber. If you
| leave eight large trees per acre they
will never be worth anything. In fiji
teen years we could cut another crop
of props more valuable than saw
timber could be- Garrett county is
geared to the production of props. 1t
would deprive us Of our living to take
away prop cutting. Conservation
means make proper use of-not pre-
vent use of"
Prior to Nh Friends remarks,
Joseph Fahey, Grantsvillc, chairman
Of the meeting, introduced Senator
Bernard Gender, member Of the
Board Of State Forests and Parks,
who gave an outline of how the bill
came into being through meeting
of legislators and state foresters
from thirteen eastern states who felt
that conservation of our timber re-
sources should have been started
years ago to preserve The timber for
future generations.
He stated that out Of state timber
operators seemed to be the most VIC
lent DIRECTORS to the bill because they
were profiting at the expense of the
depletion of the timber. He pointed
out that out-of-state operators had
caused destructive cutting, citing as
a particular example the cutting of
the TruesdaIe tract which had caused
the famous AItamont Springs to
practically dry up.
Because Of destructive timber cut
ting other springs and streams were
drying up and as result the water
table in Maryland has dropped TWEEN
ty feet in recent years. He felt the
problem was whether or not all the
timber would be destroyed or whether
some would be left for future genera
tions, since at present the timber was
being cut much faster than it could
be grown.
Joseph f. Kaylor, state forester,
also answered Mr.. Friends objection
to the act and explained some of its
favorable conservation points.
John Clark, member of the House
of Delegates from Hartford county,
declared citizen there were working
together to get the maximum out of
the resources they had and that pro-
lection Of forests was one of them.
Mr.. Fahey said he could not believe
the law was as bad as some at the
meeting had declared it to be, having
been passed by the unanimous vote
of both houses and signed by the
governor He suggested that if parts
Of the law were bad, to repeal them
in am orderly fashion and not to open
Iy violate law which is on the stat
ute books. "Thc same constitution
which guarantees our rights demands
that we abide by the laws of the
Legislature and the will of the major
ity as expressed by law
Mr. Kaylor told the group that
New York state had recently passed
similar law, making it probable hat
other eastern states would follow
suit Oregon and California also have
similar law.