MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



Municipal Corporation and Private 

 Ownership Forests. 



F. AY. Rane, State Forester of Massachusetts. 

 Municipal Forests. 



The time is ripe for the development of 

 this type of forestry. ' I believe all that is 

 required at present, is to agitate the subject 

 and to explain how easily and economically 

 it can be brought about. Our cities and towns 

 have sprung up by the hundreds and thou- 

 sands throughout the land. Their develop- 

 ment has been proportionate to their natural 

 advantages. Permanency has become more 

 stable as time has gone on, until today finds 

 us with municipalities ready and willing to 

 accept and adopt almost any measure that 

 will develop a better future and a busier cen- 

 ter of population. Our cities and towns nave 

 been solving the problems of a permanent 

 and efficient water supply, sewerage system, 

 etc. Our boards of health tell us that a 

 pure water supply is absolutely- necessary to 

 the longevity of our population. Municipal 

 forests about the drainage basins of our water 

 supplies and reservoirs can be made not only 

 an important factor in conserving the water 

 supply and in improving sanitary conditions, 

 but if put under a modern system of forestry 

 management could be made a great economic 

 factor in the production of wood and lumber. 

 They may also comprise one of the great 

 aesthetic features of the section. 



The time elements as a factor so objection- 

 able to the private owner in investing in for- 

 estry undertakings need not be considered 

 here. The advent of the automobile and rapid 

 transit has so enlarged the conceptions of the 

 average citizen that, instead of being content 

 with shade trees and park systems, he longs 

 for the depth and quiet of large tracts of 

 woods, which may be furnished almost with- 

 out cost through the wise forethought of our 

 municipalities. Who has visited 1 Germany 

 without being impressed with the trip into 

 the Black Forests. These very forests are 

 not only beautiful and renowned, but through 

 their scientific treatment yield splendid finan- 

 cial returns. Within walking distance from 

 many of the cities one can step into finer 

 woods than can be found in our best eastern 

 states. Spruce and fir trees two or three feet 

 through, and all the way up to 12 feet high, 

 stand on the ground as thickly as they can 

 stand. There are areas that would cut more 

 than 100,000 feet board measure. 



Municipal forests therefore will do much as 

 object lessons, and their permanency and im- 

 portance will assist very materially in form- 

 ing a workable local, state and national policy. 



The state forester in Massachusetts has 

 completed a working plan for the city of Fall 

 River this season for a municipal forest of 

 3,000 acres. We are working on similar pro- 

 jects for three more cities at present, with 

 still others on the waiting list. 



The Metropolitan Water and Sewerage 

 Board of Boston has completed planting 1,100 

 acres to forest trees about their new reservoir 

 this fall. The city of Helena, Montana, has 

 planted a forest of 900 acres. Warren Man- 

 ning, the noted landscape gardener, the de- 

 signer of the Jamestown Exposition grounds, 

 etc., is an enthusiastic advocate of the broader 

 forestry municipal development, as going 

 hancl-in-hand with landscape gardening. 



In a state like Massachusetts, where many 

 park reservations like Mt. Tom, Wachusett, 

 Greylock, Blue Hills, Metropolitan park sys- 

 tem. Mt. Everett, etc., have already been set 

 aside for public purpose, if to these park sys- 

 tems, municipal parks and forests be added, 

 as well as corporation and private forests, 

 together with increased holdings for fish and 

 game preserves, it is evident that conditions 

 will be developed which will make our state 

 greatly to be envied. What has been and 

 may be accomplished in Massachusetts can be 



wrought with equal ease throughout the Union 

 greater or less degree. 



Corporation Forests. 



All kind* of corporations are formed for 

 doing business nowadays, and it is believed 

 that the same business principles that are so 

 successfully applied to the development of 

 other enterprises can be used with as much 

 certainty in purchasing cheap lands and de- 

 veloping forestry. While the time element 

 seems objectionable when one starts from the 

 beginning, still the first cost or investment 

 is comparatively small, and the returns give 

 every promise of being large. It often hap- 

 pens also that the forest properties already 

 more or less stocked can be purchased, and 

 here much quicker results can be secured. 

 Large lumber box and pulp companies own 

 many acres, and the earlier it can be demon- 

 strated that modern management of forests 

 pays, the quicker will be the results. Already 

 some advance has been made, but nothing in 

 proportion to what may be done in the future. 



Private Forests. 



From the policy of our government the en- 

 couragement of the private land owner is pro- 

 verbial. The teaching of our agricultural col- 

 leges and the agricultural experiment stations 

 is ever toward a better system of agriculture. 

 Rotation of crops, adaptation of soils for cer- 

 tain crops, and a definiteness of purpose re- 

 sults in success. Under this management 

 most farms, barring the prairie country, con- 

 tain acres better adapted to forests than any 

 other crop. These private forests will ever 

 represent a large part of our forest acreage. 

 1't becomes necessary to demonstrate the im- 

 portance of handling these forests or woods 

 in the most economic way. Many small areas 

 ' luned by different individuals are far more 

 difficult to systematize and regulate than much 

 larger tracts under fewer ownerships. 



Many states are following the example of 

 the countries of the old world in offering as- 

 sistance, in suggesting systems of manage- 

 ment and in educating private owners to a 

 better understanding of handling their wood 

 crop. In the case of private forests in large 

 areas they should be treated 1 and cared for 

 the same as municipal and corporation for- 

 ests, and there seems to be no reason why 

 they should not develop even more rapidly in 

 the future. 



In conclusion, considering an imperative 

 necessity for the growing of our future forest 

 products, and considering the opportunity for 

 business corporations and 1 men to not only 

 secure financial gain but bring great good to 

 their respective communities, there certainly 

 will be need in the future for all our well di- 

 rected acts of the present day. Is it not ex- 

 ceedingly fortunate that the conditions out- 

 lined do exist, and that the solving of them 

 offers hopes to the future? It is fortunate, 

 too, that as people we are ever ready and 

 quick to respond to any undertaking, no mat- 

 ter how strenuous the task, provided it will 

 secure us benefit and reward. I have every 

 hope, therefore, that our forestry! problems 

 will receive an early consideration at the hands 

 of our people and all sections of the Union 

 will do their parts in conserving the forests 

 we already have and adopting modern methods 

 of forest management, as well as in reforest- 

 ing lands unadapted to agriculture, returning 

 them to forests, for which to all intents and 

 purposes they were created. 



roaring streams would become dry and beasts 

 that furnish furs would perish. 



l-or the coming year he proposes to employ 

 fifty men to patrol and keep in check the fires 

 in the Adirondacks. But it is not enough 

 merely to preserve the forests, trees must be 

 planted, as i> being done in Germany and 

 France. His department has planted thirty 

 acres of tree gardens, where three years ago 

 there were only seven acres. Much of the 

 l.iiiio.OOO acres of woodland in New York state 

 is rapidly being cut and burned away, and un- 

 less something is done at once, in a very few 

 years there will be no forests in New York 

 at all. 



Radical legislation including amendments to 

 the state constitution, to provide better safe- 

 guards for the protection of the state forests, 

 is recommended by Commissioner Whipple in 

 his report to be submitted to the legislature. 



"Some of these suggestions will undoubtedly 

 seem radical," says the report, "but to those 

 who are constantly studying and dealing with 

 the subject they will appear absolutely neces- 

 sary if we are to have a practical and safe 

 policy of forestry and forest preservation. In 

 no other way can our forests be preserved, 

 utilized and enjoyed for the benefit of all." 



He recommends that a provision be made to 

 protect the highlands of the Hudson, approxi- 

 mately 150,000 square miles of woodland coun- 

 try, and to exemplify there the results that 

 may be obtained by practical forestry. This 

 is deemed advisable, especially on account of 

 the historical .interest that attaches to this 

 beautiful section of the Hudson valley. 



PINCHOT APPROVES THE PLAN. 



Clifford Pinchqt, the national forester, heart- 

 ily approves of the plan for a Commission of 

 Public Domain for Michigan, as recommended 

 by the commision of inquiry. "It is difficult," 

 says Mr. Pinchot, "to think how the commis- 

 sion of inquiry could have devised a better 

 plan. 1't seems to me as nearly ideal as we can 

 hope to have in practical administration. The 

 great need is to have the forests, land, game, 

 water power and all other questions of conser- 

 vation administered by men who have a keen, 

 unselfish interest in them. The difficulty is to 

 single out those men and put them in power. 

 It would seem that the agencies proposed by 

 the commission of inquiry for this work are 

 most excellent. 



"I am advised that the board of regents and 

 the board of agriculture in Michigan, each of 

 which will, according to 'the plan, select two 

 members of the commission on public domain, 

 to consist of a high class of citizens. They 

 could be relied upon to select the right sort of 

 men for the commission of public domain. 



"A commission made up on the basis pro- 

 posed would very evidently have a free hand. 

 Considerations of patronage would not trouble 

 it. The commissioners would be at liberty to 

 choose their executives solely from the stand- 

 point of merit, and this is of the highest im- 

 portance. A large part of the work of which 

 the commission would have charge would call 

 for executives of special training. 



"To successfully manage forests, wisely 

 utilize the public lands, protect game and con- 

 serve water power quite largely requires the 

 service of men who make that their business 

 in life. Such men would doubtless be chosen 

 by this independent commission and it would 

 mean a great advance step." 



THE FALL OF THE FORESTS. 



Commissioner Whipple Tells How New York 

 Will Suffer if it Is Not Stopped. 



.At a dinner of the Camp Fire Club of Amer- 

 ica, held in New York, J. S. Whipple, com- 

 missioner of the State Forest, Fish and Game 

 Department, told what would happen unless 

 the state got to work to preserve the forests 

 of the Catskills and Adirondacks land now 

 productive would speedily become barren. 



MICHIGAN THE WORST CARED FOR. 



United States officials familiar with the for- 

 est situation in Michigan and the fires which 

 swept the state last fall, says a Washington 

 correspondent, express the opinion that State 

 Game and Fire \Varden Pierce proved negli- 

 gent in not organizing a more efficient method 

 of handling, controlling or preventing the for- 

 est fires. As compared to all other states that 

 have done something toward preventing for- 

 est fires. Michigan is regarded as the worst 

 cared for. 



