92 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



February 



the east shore of the East Arm, is an 

 eleven room frame house, formerly the 

 home of the Park Commission, which 

 is. now the home of the forest school. 

 It is to be used as a general assembly 

 hall, the students being quartered in 

 tents entirely. 



The park was transferred to the 

 control of the Forestry Board in 

 April and made a forest reserve. i\c- 

 tive measures were immediately start- 

 ed for its care and management, and 



parts of the park were cleaned, and 

 roads repaired ; boats were built, a 

 nursery site cleared, and many other 

 minor details put through. The most 

 important work of the summer was 

 the making of a firebreak around the 

 boundaries of the park. This break 

 consists of a strip two rods wide from 

 which all the brush has been cleared 

 and all the trees below four inches in 

 diameter taken out. The brush was 

 carefully piled in the centre of the 



Douglas Lodge, Itasca State Park, Minnesota 



in June a party of sixteen students, 

 from the State Forestry School, were 

 sent to the park to work out a scheme 

 of protection. They made their head- 

 quarters in the frame building, and 

 put in temporary camps in different 

 parts of the park, where they would 

 be most conveniently located for their 

 work. 



The grounds and lake shore near 

 the house were worked over and put 

 in good condition ; trails to different 



strip and burned, under suitable weath- 

 er conditions. Nine and a half miles 

 of this line were cleared during the 

 summer. Lack of time and labor pre- 

 vented the completion of the work. It 

 is planned to ditch this firebreak with 

 a shallow three-foot ditch — just ex- 

 posing the mineral soil^the dirt from 

 which is to be spread over a three foot 

 border just outside the ditch. In some 

 places a plow can be used for this 

 work, but much of the ground is such 



