MICHIGAN 



ROADS 



FORESTS 



DETROIT, MICH.. JUNE, 1909. 



MICHIGAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



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

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

 Vicc-Prcsident, Morrice Quinn, Saginaw; Secretary. Henry G. Stevens, Detroit; Treasurer, VV. B. Mershon. Saginaw, W. S. Board of 

 Directors S. M. Lemon, Grand Rapids: H. N. Loud, Au Sable; Thos. B. Wyman, Munising; E. C. Nichols, Battle Creek; R. Hanson, Gray- 

 ling; Geo. N. Brady, Detroit. 



COMES BACK AT 



MICHIGAN S WARDEN 



Last winter the United States foresi 

 estimated that Michigan's losses from forest 

 fires last year would reach a total of 

 S44.000.000. of which $K>.oOo.imo was non- 

 merchantable young growth. 



The accuracy of this estimate v. 

 tioned by the state game, fish and forest war- 

 den, who published an estimate of hi- own. 

 putting the total loss at ah ut ?:J..~ 70.000. 



The -tate warden gives as the basis of his 

 estimate "the supervisors in organized town- 

 -hips, the lire wardens in surveyed townships, 

 and the timber owners throughout northern 

 Michigan." He tabulates the losses by coun- 

 ties, and challenges the forest service io do 

 the same. He speaks of the two members 

 of the forest service who gathered the facts 

 for the government as "evidently imported into 

 Michigan for a purpose." and says that they 

 "remained four or five weeks, stopped at the 

 hotels, went back to Washington, and 

 from there told the people of Michigan thai 

 the forest fire losses amounted to something- 

 over $44.000,000." 



The primary source of information used by 

 the forest service for its estimate of damage 

 to standing timber was the records of lumber 

 companies and timber owners, and the rec- 

 ords, maps and estimates made for owners by 

 their own timber cruisers. These data were 

 supplemented by personal investigations by 

 the two members of the forest service which 

 carried them into thirty-six counties of the 

 state. The man in charge of the work was 

 a man originally from Michigan, trained at 

 the University of Michigan, and familiar with 

 forest conditions in the state through previ- 

 ous studies. His assistant was an experienced 

 lumberman of long training in the woods of 

 northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. 



The forest service is in a position to judge 

 with some accuracy as to the value of the 

 state warden's figures from actual contact with 

 many of the officers who made them, and 

 knowledge of how the reports were prepared. 

 In some cases the assistance of one of the 

 members of the service was asked and received 

 in making them out. A large number of re- 

 ports were secured from fire wardens by the 

 forest service, but less than 10 per cent were 

 found to be reliable. The township fire ward- 

 ens were, as a rule, neither lumbermen nor 



timber cruisers, yet as far as c'uld be ascer- 

 tained they relied principally r.pcn their own 

 estimates of the damage done. 



In the northern peninsula the timber is 



ov.-ned mainly by large holders, who f, r busi- 



ns do not care to make public the 



figure- of their own losses. On ihis account 



the information received by the rvicc 



confidential. In many cases the owners 

 informed the members of the forest service to 

 whom they opened their records that they 



e the same inf.-irrnation i 



state ;ir.thorities. The forest service has re- 

 liable estimates of the 1 isses by e unties, bu'i 



Id net make these public in full w 

 breaking faith with some of those from whom 



naticn was received, since l.-.rge parts of 

 single counties are embraced in' the holdings 

 of individual concerns. 



\ i< -;. however, of the relative accuracy 

 of the two estimates can readily be ma:!e by 

 'ering the i' rest service estimate 



i a single item. The arn > - .-.- Io3 



timber, which will he a total 

 by the frrc-t service 2.190.'' 



f eet. with a valre 



'] by the '>rtcd 



(I more than thp th : - 



amornt. with much of the Hirrcd-r.vcr i 

 land of the state n 

 the ! vice ha- 



.-howi;i;r that in the cue item i i' 

 timber which will be a total loss, specific 

 ers arc rut over $0.000.000 as a result cf the 

 fires. 



The state warden's figures for the 1 

 from all sources are less than one-third of 

 he actual records of an incomplete list 



r. which 



will never get to market at all. besidi 

 heavy further los-es from damaged merchant- 

 able timber, increased tvn- 

 ase to growth not yet merchantable, destruc- 

 f other forms of property and expendi- 

 tures for fighting fires. 



ccpticn cf the obstacles with which he and his 



ates have had to contend in securing 



even such meager reforms as have been 



brought about in the adoption of forestry laws 



re protection of the state reserves and 



timber tracts in general. 



He was largely instrumental several years 

 ago in bringing about the formation of the 

 Michigan Forestry Association, which i- a 

 body of men and women who are lovers of 

 forestry and its preservation along rational 

 lines. This has no official significance, but it 

 has been a power in educating the children 

 and the citizenship of the state in the crnser- 

 vation of the ("rests and reforestation. He 

 also was a leading factor in the conference 

 between fore-t experts of Canada and the 

 str.tes b-rdering Michigan a few years ago, at 

 which time a uniform policy was outlined 

 among these states and the Dominion where 

 Lhc forestry problem is very similar. 



DID SPLENDID SERVICE. 

 Hon. Charles W. Garfield, president of the 

 State Forestrv Commission of Michigan, who 

 wns legislated out of office by the creation of 

 the Public Domain (.' >n. has been 



n< ted not alone in Michigan, but throughout 

 the country as an enthusiastic c! f the 



forest interests of his state ard of the r 

 He has given generously of his time and abil- 

 ity in advancing the cause of rcforestr.tio 

 conservation of forestry r 



cement as has been made in this -tate 

 has been largely due to his untiring efforts 

 and his thorough understanding \icct. 



Only to these who have been intimately iden- 

 tified with this work has there come any con- 



J AGIN AW FOREST FARM AT U. OF M. 



Special facilities for the study of forestry 



ipplicd to students at the University ol 



Michigan by the Saginaw forest farm, a tracv 



iior. i one mile west o.' ihe city of 



\rbor. presented to the university by the 



Urn. Art/.rr Hill. c.\ S;'gir:r.v. The farm. 



comprising eighty acres. j< a typical example 



ef the 1--.V.-. hilly land of the drift di-trici. and 



contains as great a variety of topographical 



,-,nd s ii conditions as could be expected in an 



f tHs extent. Its srils vary from heavy 



clay to sandy gravel. In addition to its other 



good features, there is a lake of clear water, 



from ten to fifty feet dep and covering an 



area of twelve acres. 



The farm is to serve as an object lesson in 

 forestry. Upcn it provision is to be made for 

 (1) an arboretum of all useful forest trees that 

 can prow in Michigan: (21 demonstrative 

 areas for sed-bed and nursery work: (3) model 

 plantations of forest trees, and (41 special 

 experiments in forestry, relating to various 

 methods of propagating different kinds of 

 timber, to the raising of particular forest prod- 

 ucts, and to other practical purposes. 



PENNSYLVANIA RESERVE FORESTS. 



A deed entered here today conveys 3.492 

 acres of denuded timber land in Lincoln, Jef- 

 1 and Jenner townships to the Common- 

 wealth of Pennsylvania. The land purchased 

 will be replanted with timber and will become 

 part of the proposed state reserve forests. 



Negotiations are pending for additional 

 thousands of acres for this project, and it is 

 said the reserve to be established in this sec- 

 tion will assume gigantic proportions! Here- 

 after no county tax on the land described in 

 the deed will be assessed, but the state will 

 pay road and school taxes. 



