REVIEWS 



Working Plan for forest Lands of Peninsula State Park, Door 

 County, Wisconsin. Bulletin 3, Conservation Commission. Madison, 

 Wis, 1917. Pp. 43. 



We welcome this effort of subjecting a State forest property to a 

 detailed examination and the formulation of a working plan as an 

 educational method of making the public understand what forestry 

 involves, for to make such an elaborate working plan for a cut-over 

 tract of less than 3,700 acres, averaging 80 trees over 6 inches, with 

 hardly 1,500 feet to the acre, and furnishing annually a cut of 100,000 

 feet, can be justified only for its educational value ; for practical ad- 

 ministration, something simpler would have sufficed. It would have 

 been wise in formulating the report to keep this educational function 

 more prominently in mind by giving here and there explanations which, 

 to be sure, the technical man does not need. Especially in the calcula- 

 tion of the "allowed annual cut" — the felling budget — the layman will 

 be puzzled as to how this wisdom has been derived, especially since by 

 one method 77,000, by another method 147,000, feet are allowed. 



The fact in itself that the park is primarily to serve as a place for 

 recreation makes all the interesting increment data unnecessary and 

 the felling budgets independent of calculations ; silvicultural considera- 

 tions only need to be kept in view. To be sure, the commission pro- 

 poses to change the policy of the park idea and combine with it a 

 management for wood supplies. Even with this idea in view, a simple, 

 common-sense plan would have sufficed. 



There is no harm done, however, by going into the details and formu- 

 lating a regulation plan as for a proposition which could be organized 

 for sustained-yield management. 



The common-sense silvicultural felling plan is clearly expressed on 

 page 19: "The aim in cutting will be to secure a continuous improve- 

 ment in the value of the woods. A stand of the most desirable trees 

 is to be worked for. To this end the following rules are set forth : 

 Cut no ash unless defective or dying. Cut no more white pine or red 

 pine than is absolutely necessary to remove defective and dying indi- 

 viduals. Confine the cutting to hemlock, beech, maple, basswood, and 

 oak, always keeping in mind the diameter hmits. Poplar and birch can 

 be cut at any time if a market for them is secured." 

 344 



