24 



THE STATE REVIEW 



Officers of the Michigan Forestry Association 



The Michigan Forestry Association was organized in Grand Rapids August 30,1905, having for its object the promotion of a rational system of 

 forestry in Michigan. The society is managed by the following roster of officers: President, John H. Bissell, of Detroit; Vice President, 

 Thornton A. Green. Ontonagon; Secretary, T. M. Sawyer, Ludington; Treasurer, J. J. Hubbell, Manistee; Board of Directors, Mrs. Francis 

 King, Alma; Charles J. Monroe, South Haven; L. L. Hubbard, Houghton; S. M. Lemon, Grand Rapids; H. N. Loud, Au Sable; George 

 B. Horton, Fruit Ridge. THE STATE FORESTRY COMMISION Charles W. Garfield, Grand Rapids; Arthur Hill, Saginaw; and William H. 

 Rose, Lansing. 



The Forest, Fires 



By Filibert Roth, Forest Warden 



Michigan has again been punished for her 

 carelessness and her indifference to her best 

 interests. A number of serious forest fires 

 have ravaged parts of the Upper Peninsula. 

 The history of these fires is a mere repeti- 

 tion of all forest fires large and small. They 

 are started, no one knows how, although the 

 estimate of President Hawks of the D. & M. 

 Ry., may be assumed to be correct in almost 

 all cases. Mr. Hawks said: "Most forest 

 fires are started by fools, you may depend 

 on that." These fires are started every year 

 in hundreds of places all over our north 

 counties, in both peninsulas; they burn for 

 days and weeks; no one cares about them, 

 for according to the old saying: What is 

 everybody's business is nobody's business. 

 In ordinary seasons they burn themselves 

 out without attaining the dangerous propor- 

 tions of large forest fires, each burning over 

 from a few acres to a section or more of 

 land; a rain stops their progress, and once 

 more the air is free from smoke, the sun 

 sets without that lurid, blood red, smoke 

 veiled, ill omened appearance so commonly 

 observed in April and May in our north 

 counties. 



But occasionally things go differently. A 

 dry season, a cold spring delays the start of 

 the young green vegetation, the danger time 

 drags on, the fires become more numerous 

 and each has time to grow. Suddenly a heavy 

 wind, in most cases encouraged by the many 

 fires, springs up, the small slow spreading 

 fire suddenly becomes the uncontrollable 

 forest fire, rushing through tne lorest irre- 

 spective of its composition or character, 

 jumping streams and swamps and rapidly 

 destroying the forest cover of acres and 

 square miles of country. 



Even such fires occur every year in Mich- 

 igan. Usually they are scattered, most of 

 them occur on cut and burned over lands no 

 longer reckoned at high values and involve 

 only young stuff and scattered pieces of 

 merchantable timber. If reported at all they 

 are referred to as having "done no damage." 



\Vhen Big Fires Come 



Once in a decade or so the fires are especi- 

 ally large or numerous, they hit considerable 

 mature forest, burn out many settlers, de- 

 stroy a few hamlets and then the matter is 

 of public notice. Plenty of reports with large 

 headlines, often much exaggerated, never 

 based on careful examination, stir the people. 

 Soon, however, the people of the district and 

 especially a number of business firms who 

 work in timber, fear that this sort of adver- 

 tising as "all burned out" is an injury to 

 their affairs, and a reaction sets in. The 



losses are minimized, the reports discredited 

 and often very energetic efforts are made to 

 show that there was but little fire; that it 

 did no great harm; did not disturb business 

 at all; that it even helps clear up the land, 

 and that the few settlers who claim to have 

 been burned out were not real settlers at all, 

 but were a sorry lot of "mossbacks" or 

 lumberjack farmers. As the state authori- 

 ties do not consider it their business to look 

 into these things there is no investigation 

 of the case; the facts remain unknown, and 

 the people forget; the legislature finds no 

 good ground for action, and the great lesson 

 is lost once more. 

 Instead of determining the exact truth, 



Picked Up; Searching Parties to Explore 

 Further Inland; Whole Towns 



Destroyed. 



Considerable description of the fires, the 

 work of rescue, and the serious losses, to- 

 gether with a map illustrating the distribu- 

 tion of the fires in eight rather distinct dis- 

 tricts accompanied the above headlines. 



On May 20 the following statement ap- 

 peared in the same paper, accompanied by 

 considerable detail concerning the fires: 

 STATE MUST HELP 



VICTIMS OF U. P. 



FIRE, SAYS WARNER 



Governor Seeking Definite Information Re- 



WHERE THE FIRES HAVE BEEN 



estimating carefully the losses and then 

 going before our legislature and asking for 

 an efficient means of protecting our great 

 resources, the losses are hidden, the whole 

 matter hushed up for fear of an exposure 

 hurting a few "interested parties." 



On Saturday, May 19, the following ap- 

 peared in the Detroit Evening News: 

 RESCUE TRAINS RACE 



WITH FLAMES IN THE 



BLAZING FORESTS 



garding Big Forest Blaze. 



Now Under Control and Refugees Coming 

 Into Escanaba by Trainloads. 



But Four Persons Known to Have Perished, 

 But 6,000 Are Homeless, It Is Claimed. 



In Five Sections of the U. P. Big Conflagra- 

 tions Are Raging; Known Loss 

 of Life Is Small. 



HOMESTEADERS ARE IN PERIL 

 Flee to the Railroads and Hundreds Are 



"STATE MUST HELP FIRE VICTIMS." 

 Farmington, Mich., May 19. "We'll have 

 to do something, as a state, for the Upper 

 Peninsula fire victims," said Gov. Fred M. 

 Warner to the News tonight. 



"I have wired to Former Senator O. B. 

 Fuller, of Ford Delta county, not far from 

 Escanaba, for particulars. He is on the 

 ground, and I expect him to let me know 



Continued on page 27 



