Proclamation 3810—National Forest Products Week, 1967

The vast timberlands which stretched across our continent were of vital importance to the men and women who settled America. In an often hostile land, forests provided the homes, food, tools and warmth for pioneer families.

Wood—the most basic forest resource—is no less vital to America today. From the forests that cover one-third of America's land area comes the material for thousands of products essential to the progress and well-being of our people.

And our forests help us preserve less tangible, but equally important qualities of our Nation:

—Our forests help us protect our watersheds, providing water for farming, leisure, industry, and human consumption.

—They shelter and feed wildlife, and preserve for us simplicity and beauty, helping us to find reserves of quiet strength in a tumultuous world.

Our forests must be renewed so that the great heritage that we received may be enjoyed again by those who come after us. We look to industry, and to each individual American, to help insure the wise use of our forests and its resources, so that renewal will continue.

The Congress, in order to reemphasize the importance of maintaining and restoring our forest resources, has by a joint resolution of September 13, 1960 (74 Stat. 898), designated the seven-day period beginning on the third Sunday of October in each year as National Forest Products Week, and has requested the President to issue annually a proclamation calling for the observance of that week.

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon the people of the United States to observe the week beginning October 15, 1967, as National Forest Products Week, with activities and ceremonies designed to direct public attention to the essential role that our forest resources play in stimulating the advancement of our economy and the continued prosperity of the entire Nation.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of October in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-second.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON