Educating the Public about
theEducating the Public about
theSince the inauguration of the Town Forest Act in 1915, the Massachusetts Forestry Association (MFA) sponsored hundred of talks before civic organizations and by radio and issued many special bulletins and articles in the press. A number of articles printed in the journals of the American Forestry Association and the Society of American Foresters carried on this promotional campaign at the national level. These broadcasts and bulletins, with headlines such as "Ten Reasons Why Your Town Should Have a Forest", tirelessly spelled out the benefits of community forests.
In New England, the main purpose of the Town Forest Act was to reclaim idle land for production of wood and timber to benefit communities. This benefit was mainly in the form of cash income to the town through periodic sales of forest products, although there were other financial advantages as well (see below). Given the financial benefits that would result from such an undertaking, the ownership of a growing forest was heralded as one of the best investments a town could make.
It was often noted, however, that along with the financial benefits came a long list of so-called "peripheral", "subsidiary", or "intangible" benefits. And, as Harris Reynolds of the MFA pointed out, these intangible assets were quite possibly worth much more to the citizens than the money profits from the forest because they contributed enormously to the quality of life for the residents of these communities.
Calling these benefits peripheral, subsidiary, or intangible implied that they were somehow unimportant, secondary, and immaterial. Today, we recognize that these peripheral benefits--provided "free of charge" by a forest--not only fulfill human life, but sustain human life as well. These types of benefits are called "nature's services". And, as Harris Reynolds so speculatively pointed out, the nature's services provided by a forest are indeed worth more than the financial benefits.
Click on a square to find out what the public was hearing about the benefits of town forests during the Campaign of Enlightenment.
You may notice that, while this Campaign of Enlightenment was carried out during the first half of the 20th century, many of the benefits that town forest promoters wrote about are timeless. Conservation-minded communities that established town forests during this promotional campaign are still realizing a return on their investment in the form of nature's services, even if the town forest no longer provides timber revenue.
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