MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



of northern Michigan and Canada. The stu- 

 dents are making a special study of lumber 

 conditions and milling methods. Most of 

 them have been in the camps during the holi- 

 days, and they spent nearly a month in the 

 - before returning to their classes. 



The class was divided into squads of two 

 students each, and each squad worked in a 

 different camp. The squads were well 

 equipped with photographic apparatus and 

 measuring instruments, and each student is 

 expected to be able to give an exhaustive and 

 thorough report of northern lumber conditions. 



In the co-operative work between the Agri- 

 cultural C> 'liege and the United States For- 

 scrvice. the forestry department at the 

 college has recently received from C. C. Hall, 

 ?uperv:.-or of the Deer Lodge national forest 

 of Montana, a large quantity of seeds of the 

 me, "pinus murryan." These 

 were gathered at an elevation of 0,000 

 feet above the sea level. They will be planted 

 in the college nursery this spring. This lodge 

 pole pine is a possible growth for the refor- 

 esting of Michigan lands. 



The lodge pole pine resembleb the jack- 

 pine of this state. In its natural habitat in 

 the west it form* a pure forest with uniform 

 :h. covering large areas in the region 

 of the Yellowstone Park, and in Idaho, Mon- 

 tana and Wyoming. It is used extensively 

 in the manufacture of pulp wood, base boards 

 and posts. The lodge pole pine is not as dur- 

 able a tree as many others, and when used 

 for piling and posts it must be heavily treated 

 with preservatives. A point in favor of the 

 lodge pole is its very rapid growth. It is a 

 very hardy grower, but does nut attain a very- 

 large diameter, being ten to twelve inches 

 breast high. It is hoped by throwing the 

 species out of its natural habitat a more ex- 

 cesive growth may be attained. The lodge 

 pole pine may become a factor in reforesting 

 the northern districts of Michigan, where the 

 more valuable species, suc'.i A3 Norway and 

 white pine, and even the jack pine, do not 

 find sufficient plant food for their growth. It 

 may also be of great use in reforesting the 

 windswept coasts adjacent to the lakes, e>pe- 

 cially in the northern part of the state. Of 

 all the trees in the northern ,-ection. the lodge 

 pole pine is considered in many respects to 

 be the most hardy. It cannot be looked upon, 

 however, as a tree which will produce vast 

 amounts of valuable timber, but rather 



.inner to establish forests on barren 

 fter which better >pecies may be 

 planted in. 



Seedlings of trees nativi ~tate are 



being exchanged for seedlings i ire*. - 

 yet treed out in Michigan, hoping a - 

 will be found which will be better adapted 

 to the present conditions in the state than 

 any other now being used. I'n this way some 

 e hard problems of reforestation of the 

 sand and waste barrens in the northern part 

 of the st;ite mav be solved. 



LUMBERMEN MUST CLEAN UP. 



n. W. B. Mershon. treasurer of the Michi- 

 gan Forestry A v>dation, has received a copy 

 if the ]) -- of the forestry conference 



recently held at Madison, Wis. At this con- 

 ference were discussed the evils of the nsu i: 

 careless style of lumbering operations and the 



:ter methods, looking to le- 

 struction of the smaller trees and wiser prac- 



as to the removal of debris. 

 A< to the conference Mr. Mershon - 

 "The best feature of this is that the lumber- 

 men in Wisconsin, thtmselves. have advocated 

 more rigid laws for fire protection, among 

 s, compelling all loggers to pile their 

 brush and destroy it. Lumbermen not long 

 ago. and many of them today, contend they 

 cannot afford to pile up their tops and clean 

 up the ground after they have cut down the 

 . but the slash must be left where it is 

 a menace to surrounding property. Forest 

 fires that feed only on leaves are not danger- 

 ous to forest growth as a rule. It is where 

 into the old windfalls and slashings 



and the debris left from lumbering that dam- 

 age is done. 



"The government in its forest preserves, 

 when it sells timber, compels the party buy- 

 ing it and cutting it to pile the tops and brush, 

 and then the government supervises the burn- 

 ing of it. Here in Michigan everyone cut- 

 ting down a tree should be compelled to de- 

 stroy the top and rubbish so it will not be 

 a menace to other property. One might just 

 as well scatter kerosene around a planing 

 mill as to leave tops and rubbish lying around 

 in a forest, for it merely invites disaster. This, 

 I think, is the keynote of our forest fire pro- 

 tection, and must be emphasized, and a good 

 strong law must be passed in Michigan that 

 puts a stop to a man endangering the prop- 

 erty of his neighbor and the whole com- 

 munitv." 



damage done in standing timber by the fires. 

 One man owning a section on which there was 

 standing timber, had it examined by a cruiser 

 and it was reported as very small percentage 

 injured. He decided to be sure, however, and 

 began cutting it. He found three maple trees 

 alive out of 10:;. and among 100 beeches not 

 one was alive. Xext summer the actual dam- 

 standing timber can be estimated." 

 "I wouldn't say the state has got to start all 

 over agan in reforestation," continued Mr. 

 Bradfield, "because in some counties the dam- 

 age was not heavy, but at that Michigan JS 

 practically a burned over state, forest fires hav- 

 ing swept over the greater portion I of the 

 northern section during the last 25 years." 



WANTON DESTRUCTION IS INEX- 

 CUSABLE. 



The original forest of Michigan was among 

 the finest in the world. It suggested the 

 motto on our shield. The cutting away of 

 what was necessary, in the interest of 

 settlement, must be approved. But much of 

 the destruction was inexcusable waste 

 scarcely one-half of the state was settled, 

 and one-third of the land is improved. About 

 one-third of the state lies today cut and 

 burned over an unprofitable waste area. 

 Every acre of this might and should bear a 

 forest cover, growing a dollar's worth of tim- 

 ber every year. More than six million acres 

 of the area is state tax title lands. 



Wood is a prime necessity. Our popula- 

 tion is rapidly increasing, while our wood 

 supply is more rapidly diminishing. We are 

 consuming wood three or four times as fast 

 as we are producing it. But in the wood 

 question is involved the question of water. 

 Denuded hillsides mean recurrences of de- 

 structive floods and droughts. That great 

 financier, James J. Hill, ha> said: "Irrigation 

 and forestry are the two subjects which are 

 to have a greater effect on the future pros- 

 perity of the United States than any other 

 question, either within or without congress." 

 Irrigation is largely dependent upon the pres- 

 ervation of the forests. 



There is no citizen whose property is not 

 related vitally to the question of forest pres- 

 ervation and reforestation. But the trouble 

 is we are often asleep and awake only in 

 the shock that accompanies rain. To the dis- 

 n of this leading question we ought to 

 give time and attention. Rev. Martin L. Fox, 

 Muskegon, Mich. 



MICHIGAN PRACTICALLY A BURNED 

 OVER STATE. 



"I wouldn't even dare make a guess at this 

 time.' replied \Vesley Bradfield. of the United 

 - Forest Service, when asked the amount 

 of damage done in Michigan by the fires of 

 last fall. He has completed a thorough inves- 

 tigation of conditions in the northern part of 

 the state and has returned to Washington to 

 prepare his report. 



Mr. Bradfield was sent to Michigan to make 

 an investigation of forestry conditions and 

 compile a report on which could be based rec- 

 ommendations relative to reforestation. He 

 traveled over many sections, and interviewed 

 land cruisers, lumbermen and many officers 



sidents of the counties in the northern | 

 part of the state. 



"It is a great big proposition and a great 

 deal depends on the viewpoint. Where the 

 land is to be cleared for farming within a few 

 years the fires have done much to aid the 

 settlers. On the other hand, in the back sec- 

 tion that could not be settled for many years. 

 a terrible damage has been done. I have heard 

 men tell of young pines as high as your head 

 which were killed by the fires in several sec- 

 In twenty or twenty-five years those 

 trees would be commercially valuable, and if 

 the land was not to be cleared before that time 

 they would be of great value. I found, also, 

 that it is difficult to estimate the amount of 



TIMBER PRESERVATION. 



Hon. Wm. B. Mershon, of Saginaw, treas- 

 urer of the Michigan Forestry Asociation, in a 

 brief talk on the growing interest in the for- 

 estry question, said: "Lumbermen seem to be 

 waking up in all parts of the country to the 

 necessity for the passage of laws that are very 

 rigid and drastic for* the prevention of forest 

 fires and the protection of forest property. At 

 Albany. X. V.. recently was held a conference 

 of forty representatives of big lumber com- 

 panies, private camp owners, and the state for- 

 est, fish and game commissioner, and they de- 

 termined to ask the legislature to pass laws 

 empowering the governor to suspend the hunt- 

 ing and fishing season in case of emergency, 

 to prevent the careless starting of forest fires 

 in a dry season, licensing of guides, register- 

 ing of tourists and the making of such records 

 as will aid in determining the cause of forest 

 fires and the punishment of their authors. 



"Timber owners and lumbermen of Michi- 

 gan, it seems to me, should get together, and 

 have an understanding as to how far we can 

 and will go in our demands for better protec- 

 tion of forest property. The sportsmen also 

 ought to get together. If the public domain 

 commission is established in accordance with 

 the bill recommended by the special commis- 

 sion of inquiry, then the game warden depart- 

 ment surely will be out of politics and handled 

 by this committee consisting of five non-parti- 

 san and uns.alaried men. A gun license should 

 bring in a revenue to the state of over $100,000 

 annually. Supplementing this with a non-resi- 

 dent license, and a good fund would be estab- 

 lished whereby something could be done to 

 prevent the extermination of the wild fowl and 

 forest life." 



FIRE PATROL COSTS LITTLE. 



The Timber Fire Protective Associations of 

 northern Idaho are doing a splendid work 

 at a very small cost. 



Under provisions of the laws of Idaho the 

 timber companies, individuals and the state, 

 jointly, through the several associations into 

 which this section is divided, maintain organi- 

 zations, hire men, build trails, establish and 

 provision stations and cabins to keep up pa- 

 trols and guard against fires, each contribut- 

 ing to the expenses in proportion to the num- 

 ber of acres each ha? in the district. 



The Clearwater Fire Protective Associa- 

 tion's district contained last year 288,796 acres 

 of timber lands. The total cost of patrolling 

 was $7,127.69. or .0249 cents per acre. The 

 iation lost only 45,000 feet of timber by 

 fire during the year. 



The Potlatch Timber Association contains 

 ::i 4. <>.->$ .acres of timbered lands. Total cost 

 of patrolling. $9,738.36; cost per acre, .0309 

 cents. The total loss in this district is repre- 

 sented by 60,000 feet. 



The Pend Oreille Timber Protective Asso- 

 ciation contains 303,173 acres of timbered 

 lands.- Total cost of patrolling. $8,741.01: cost 

 per acre. nts. The loss in the dis- 



trict is given at 10,000 feet. 



The average cost to the state and timber 

 holders, according to the land commissioner's 

 report, in the entire territory covered by all 

 three of these associations was 2 2-3 cents 

 per acre. 



