PRACTICAL FOREST WORK FOR AD^ 

 VANCED STUDENTS OF NEBRASKA 

 FOREST SCHOOL 



WORK in the forestry courses at 

 the University of Nebraska has 

 recently been augmented to a 

 marked degree. Within the past year 

 the advanced students have been mak- 

 ing a field study of forest and lumber- 

 ing conditions in northern Wisconsin 

 under the direction of Professor Phil- 

 lips, Assistant State Forester Moody, 

 various cruisers and the owners of sev- 

 eral wood-using industries in the re- 

 gion. ?\Ir. Moody is thoroughly ac- 

 quainted wath forest work and has lum- 

 bered in Maine and Washington ; he 

 has worked for the United States For- 

 est Service in Maine and Colorado and 

 has been Assistant State Forester of 

 Wisconsin for the past three years. Be- 

 cause of Mr. ^Moody's broad training in 

 both practical and theoretical forestry, 

 his time with the students will be of 

 the highest value. 



The region about Rhinelander was 

 selected as being the best suited for the 

 work, as that city has the greatest va- 

 riety of high-class wood-using indus- 

 tries of any city of its size in the United 

 States. The locality is rich in hard- 

 woods and conifers, is in the center of 

 a great area devastated by the forest 

 fires of the past season, and is also cen- 

 trally located in the areas held as state 

 forest reserves. It is considered that 

 no better region could l)c selected in tlic 

 entire United States for a detailed study 

 of practically all the great phases of 

 lumbering and forestry, and tliat a 

 month under such favorable conditions 

 is worth at least three times that length 

 of time in a less favorable region. A 

 happy feature of the work has been the 

 enthusiastic attitude of the lumbermen 

 402 



in doing their utmost to supply the stu- 

 dents with full information. 



The work in the forest was first taken 

 up from the standpoint of forest types, 

 silvical descriptions of the more impor- 

 tant species and the value of the forest 

 for protection. A particularly inter- 

 esting feature was the work being done 

 by the Wisconsin A'alley Improvement 

 Company, which is authorized to con- 

 struct and maintain a system of reser- 

 voirs on the tril)utaries of the Wiscon- 

 sin River for the purpose of producing 

 a uniform flow of water and thereby 

 conserving and improving the water 

 supply throughout its entire length. 

 This company is doing the greatest 

 work of its kind east of the Rocky 

 ^Mountains and heartily cooperates with 

 the state forestry officials in retaining 

 the forest cover about the headwaters 

 of streams. This work conveys an in- 

 teresting object-lesson, since the north- 

 ern states have been suffering from 

 damaging floods in early spring and a 

 decided shortage of water during the 

 summer months. The W^isconsin River 

 is receiving active attention at the pres- 

 ent time because of the large number of 

 important industries depending on its 

 water supply for power. These indus- 

 tries have been confronted by a summer 

 shortage, causing them to limit opera- 

 tions from one to three months at a 

 time. The spring floods of the more 

 important streams of Michigan. Wis- 

 consin and Minnesota alone have caused 

 millions of dollars of damage annually, 

 and such work as is being done by the 

 Wisconsin A^alley Improvement Com- 

 pany marks a wonderful step in flood 

 prevention in this region. 



