Proclamation 5731—National Forest Products Week, 1987

This year we Americans again set aside a week in October to remind ourselves that from earliest times our vast forests have provided us with food, water, fuel, and raw materials, and that forests remain a source of countless products necessary for our shelter, comfort, and utility. We can be truly grateful for the jobs and trade that forests generate, for the extensive part forest products play in our national life, and for our firmly established national policy of wise use and preservation of forest resources.

We can be grateful too for the occurrence this year of one of the most active tree-planting campaigns in our history. The new forest trees going into the ground this year will be our living legacy for the generations to come. Tomorrow's forests will be productive and continually renewing sources of wood for housing, furniture, and paper; of water for drinking and irrigation; of rich habitats for fish and wildlife; and of opportunities for outdoor recreation. Just as now, forests will be vital to our economic, social, and environmental well-being in the future—and just as now, we will need careful and creative stewardship to nurture them.

To promote greater awareness and appreciation of the many benefits of forests for our Nation, the Congress, by Public Law 86-753 (36 U.S.C. 163), has designated the week beginning on the third Sunday in October of each year as "National Forest Products Week" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this week.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning October 18, 1987, as National Forest Products Week, and I urge all Americans to express their appreciation for our Nation's forests through suitable activities.

In Witness Whereof I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twelfth.

RONALD REAGAN