The Making of Forest Policy in Pulp and Paper Trade Associations, 1878–1986

Records of the American Paper Institute in New York City show that until the end of the last century, the pulp and paper industry in the United States had no reason to be seriously concerned over "forest policy." Until then there was no need to be interested in the social and economic aims underlying forest management and forestry. development. Forest products were not successfully used on a commercial scale to make paper until after the 1860s, when the groundwood process was developed to make newsprint.' For the making of finer grades of paper, rags-mostly imported -and cotton were still the major sources of raw materials even in the 1880s. The early trade associations were thus more concerned with supplies of rags from abroad than with domestic wood supplies. In 1878 several product and regional groups of paper manufacturers organized their first national organization, the American Paper Makers Association, the APMA, with William Whiting of the