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FORESTRY. 171 
FORESTRY. 
THE MINNESOTA NATIONAL PARK, 
J. O. BARRETT, SECRETARY OF THE MINNESOTA STATE FORESTRY 
; ASSOCIATION. 
~ The proposition to have a forest reserve in Minnesota is no new thing. 
For ten years or more it has been agitated. In one of his addresses, our 
worthy president, Wyman Elliot, earnestly called the attention of this 
society to its importance. Gen. J. H. Baker, and others, years ago intro- 
duced in our legislature resolutions to congress, urging a reserve, but 
failed for difficulties that could not then be overcome. During the session 
of congress in 1891, the timber culture act was repealed and the present 
forest reserve system substituted, and the president authorized to set 
apart from settlement such remnants of native woodlands in different 
parts of the country, as in his judgment are necessary to save the head- 
waters of our springs and streams from extinction, and thereby preserve 
the flow of our rivers and the valuable varieties of our timberin contibu- 
ous growth. Minnesota’s opportunity at last had come. The friends of 
forestry seized upon it. Under approval of the State Forestry Association 
the writer succeeded in getting a resolution through both branches of our 
late legislature, praying the president to locate, by proclamation, a park 
on the public lands in the northern part of the state. This initiatory 
success was followed by a petition to the president to organize the present 
proposed Minnesota National Park, which, exclusive of state swamp 
lands and some personal claims, contains about 6,000,000 acres, located 
north of the great iron belt, taking in nearly al] the Indian reservations 
with the intent to cover the watersheds tv our main rivers and lakes. 
Being but an opening wedge, and crude at that, it was expected that its 
boundary lines and provisions would have to be changed the better to se- 
cure the objects sought, before final action could be safely taken. This 
petition was signed by the governor, by ex-governors, judges of the 
supreme court, state officials, editors, educational professors and other in- 
fluential citizens. At Washington it was pronounced a very strong de- 
mand for the reserve. No sooner had this foothold been gained than a 
determined opposition to the enterprise sprang up in Duluth, and in the 
chambers of commerce in the Twin Cities, and in a few other cities. 
The city and country presses largely have taken sides, mostly it is be- 
lieved in favor. Men, of course, have the right of remonstrance, but 
when the remonstrance involves a plot to monopolize the domain in ques- 
tion, the reserved rights of the people, whose claims are paramount, ne- 
cessitate a policy to benefit the opposers against their wills. But the op- 
position, though based in greed, is an eye-opener. The state is stirred up 
as it never was stirred before to discuss the merits of forestry. 
