The central idea of the Forester, in handling the forest, is to promote and perpetuate its greatest use to men. His purpose is to make it serve the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time. Before the members of any other profession dealing with natural resources, the Foresters acquired the long look ahead. This was only natural, because in forestry it is seldom that a man lives to harvest the crop which he helped to sow. The Forester must look forward, because the natural resource with which he deals matures so slowly, and because, if steps are to be taken to insure for succeeding generations a supply of the things the forest yields, they must be taken long in advance. The idea of using the forest first for the greatest good of the present generation, and then for the greatest good of succeeding generations through the long future of the nation and the race--that is the Forester's point of view.
The use of foresight to insure the existence of the forest in the future, and, so far as practicable, the continued or increasing abundance of its service to men, naturally suggested the use of foresight in the same way as to other natural resources as well. Thus it was the Forester's point of view, applied not only to the forest but to the lands, the minerals, and the streams, which produced the Conservation policy. The idea of applying foresight and common-sense to the other natural resources as well as to the forest was natural and inevitable. It works out, equally as a matter of course, into the conception of a planned and orderly development of all that the earth contains for the uses of men. This leads in turn to the application of the same principle to other questions and resources. It was foreseen from the beginning by those who were responsible for inaugurating the Conservation movement that its natural development would in time work out into a planned and orderly scheme for national efficiency, based on the elimination of waste, and directed toward the best use of all we have for the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time. It is easy to see that this principle (the Forester's principle, first brought to public attention by Foresters) is the key to national success.