PROGRESS OF FORESTRY IN WISCONSIN 



By frank B. moody 



Assistant State Forester 



^^:^HE past season has closed a year of the greatest activity in forestry 

 t) matters in the histoi-y of the state. Roads, trails and fire lines have 

 been built, making protection possible in regions of greatest fire menace; 

 a patrol system has been inaugurated ; plantations of pine have been estab- 

 lished and a nursery has been started. The people have been aroused to the 

 necessity and are beginning to realize the feasibility of a system of fire pro- 

 tection and of reforestation, and the state legislature has granted appropria- 

 tions which will allow a sure and fairly rapid development of both. 



By an act of the state legislature in 1903, a non-political state board of 

 forestry was created consisting of the president of the state university, the 

 dean of the agricultural college, the director of the state geological survey and 

 one member appointed by the governor. The members of this board hold 

 office indefinitely and receive no salary, although traveling expenses are 

 allowed when actually engaged in work pertaining to forestry. The following 

 year a state forester was appointed by this board and in i906 an assistant 

 state forester was selected by civil service examination. 



By various acts of the state legislature and by orders of the state board 

 of forestry the forest reserves were increased from 40,000 acres in 1904 to 

 254.000 acres in 1908, all of which are north of Township 33 and scattered 

 throughout seventeen counties in the northern part of the state. The scat- 

 tering agricultural land in all counties except Vilas, Forest, Oneida, and 

 parts of Price and Iron, was appraised and placed on the market. The 

 proceeds of such sales go into a forest reserve fund which is available for 

 the purchase of other lands to be added to the i)ermanent reserve area in the 

 above-named counties which lie at the headwaters of the Wisconsin and the 

 Chippewa Rivers. These lands are for the most part cut and burned over 

 pineries with scattered patches of pine reproduction. All money received 

 from the sales of land, timber, and other forest products is credited to the 

 forest reserve fund and is at the disposal of the state board of forestry for 

 improvements, protection, and for the purchase of interior holdings. This 

 year (1911) an appropriation was granted allowing .|;50,000 annually for a 

 period of five years, to be used exclusively for the purchase of land. The 

 annual appropriation was increased from '|9,800 in 1903 to $35,000 in 1911 

 to provide for a patrol .system, permanent improvements, and reforestation. 

 In 1900 the federal government granted the state 20,000 acres of public land 

 north of Township 33 as an addition to the state reserve. Proceeds from the 

 sale of any portion of this gi-ant go into a fund which can be used for 

 reforestation only. 



At the present time the reserve comprises 380,000 acres of which a small 

 part is timbered and the remainder is cut-over land and sw.amp. The cut-over 

 lands were logged by railroad, leaving a network of old grades which can be 

 readily transformed into wagon roads and fire-lines. Within the permanent 



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