MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



MICHIGAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



f 



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, Hon. Chas. W. Garfield, of Grand 

 Rapids; Vice-President, John H. Bissell, of Detroit; Secretary, Filibert Roth, of Ann Arbor; Assistant Secretary, Henry G. Stevens, Detroit; 

 Treasurer, W.-B. Mershon, Saginaw, W. S. Board of Directors Hon. J. E. Beal, Ann Arbor; J. J. Hubbell, Manistee; Mrs. Lena E. Mautner, 

 Saginaw ; Prof. James Satterlee, Lansing ; Fremont E. Skeels, Cadillac ; W. E. Williams, Pittsf ord ; Dr. Lucius L. Hubbard, Houghton ; Mrs. 

 John C. Sharp, Jackson. 



THE SECRETARY'S CORNER 



FIRE VIOLATORS PUNISHED. 



Clarence H. Phelps. deputy state fire warden 

 and game warden, of West Branch, whose 

 work this -ummer has been ccnfined almost 

 entirely to fire work in the northern counties, 

 says: 



"We have had a tough time this summer 

 and there was danger of a repetition of the 

 Metz disaster only once. That was at Portage 

 Lake. where scores of people were for two 

 days in imminent danger, while thousands of 

 dollars worth of property was endangered and 

 thousands were destroyed. That fire was the 

 result of carelessness on the part of two c = mp- 

 ers and they were both arrested. The law 

 of 1907 made it possible to arrest, fine and im- 

 prison those who carelessly or negligently set 

 fires, and we're pushing the careless ones as 

 hard as we can. We have convicted six men 

 in Crawford county alcne. 



"These two fellows who were responsible 

 for the Portage Lake fire, pitched their tent 

 on the lake shore, built a fire to cook dinner 

 and left after dinner without extinguishing 

 the blaze. When they started back, they were 

 met by names in the brush. Their outfit was 

 gone. We were able to prove that they left 

 their fire burning and it started the blaze 



' 



retary A C Carton . f the Public Domain 

 Commission, in comparing forestry in Michi- 

 gan with the work of the general government, 

 "Why. we have 5,000,000 trees on our re- 

 serves." says Secretary Carton. "Half as 

 many as the general government has, and we 

 have sold this year at cost to Michigan people 

 2,700.000 trees. In a few years we will be up 

 to the general government and leading all 

 c 't her ^ates. The reports from other states 



5 * on 'y two . or three are ahead of us 



' The commission has a definite policy 



mapped rut. and : will not be long before 

 even greater results can be shown. 



During the two years since the commission 

 took charge of the big reserve not a single 

 fire has injured any of the seedlings, because 

 we have kept fire lanes clear and protected the 



t: 



The 



commission has approved of a plan t clean 

 up all the state lands and get rid of the matured 

 and old timber. The land department has this 



' lnd 



? ve s . ha " ave a , re ? U L a - r pohcy f Sell "V> m ?,T 

 red " 



^ >ea " 



den's departments. Men cannot cope with the 

 question of subduing forest fires while spend- 

 ing their time "rooting" politically. 



cne.as 

 hen, to y nothing of the danger to Hfe at 

 the cottages. \\e had exerj available man in 

 Crawtord county working at that fire 



Mills were shut down and farmers U their 

 work while the lumber camps were deserted, 

 the men all fighting fire. t was a tough bat- 

 tie and for a time the fight seemed hopeless, 

 Then we went after the two campers and put 



About seven cut ot ten ot our torest fires 

 in the north originate trom engine sparks but 

 the railroads are becoming more caretul. 



-The people are b con/ng more careful, too 

 Lnder the law of 1907 the supervisor of each 

 township is the trwn fire warden. He can 

 hire as many men as is necessary to fight fire, 

 He presents his bill to the township and the 

 township pays. The bills are then sent to 

 Lansing and the state reimburses the town- 

 ship for one-third of its expenses. All fines 

 for violations of the fire law are turned over 

 to the county treasury and credited back to 

 the township where the violation occurred. 

 This is done to help out the town treasuries. 



*T *u;i. tVi;- ; tVio <-rK- tii -tnti^ A ; TT-V..W, 

 1 think this i> the oni\ instance in wnich 



fines are collected and no{ turned into county 

 library funds. But the fines don't amount to 

 much compared with the expenses. The tax- 

 pavers, however, are aiding bv their careful- 

 ,n^ tv,,- ^ro nnw iifcnniiticr ^-enr mii<~Vi 



."nTere^d ^figndn V^eT" ^ "^ 



"Up in Presque Isle county they have had 

 some bad fires again, but no such" damage as 

 was done several years ago." 



- 



1 '" * " 

 < e r > e < " 



" 



that 



has hren 



ve that 

 > ear 



wneed 

 b; e 



Another thing the commission has done is to 

 brjng about a much better feeling among the 

 peop ] e o f t h e up per part of the state regarding 

 t }, e commission's projects. A few years ago 

 everyone up there was opposed to the big 

 reserve. Now there is said to be hearty co- 

 operation and a thorough understanding of 

 what the cornmiss j on ; s accomplishing. 



FOREST LANDS RESTORED TO 

 AGRICULTURE. 



President Taft has signed a pr -clnmation 

 eliminating 6.075 acres of land from the Hay- 

 den National Forest, in Wyoming, in pursu- 

 an ce of the administration's general plan of 

 restoring to the public domain all areas not 

 valuab'e for forest purposes. The eliminated 

 tracts are situated mainly along the north- 

 eastern boundarv of the forest. The largest 

 and most important part of the elimination, 



m ore than 4.000 acres is said to offer oppor^ 

 - K . 



v for nr 



BURN THE SLASHINGS. 

 E. W. Griffith, state forester of Wisconsin, 

 w ho has given the preservation of forest prcn 

 ducts considerable study since the big forest 

 fires during the summer of 1908, advocates the 

 burning of all hemlock and pine slashings left 

 by lumbermen in the forests of that state. As 

 the forest conditions in Wisconsin are prac- 

 tically identical with those in Northern Michi- 

 gan , Mr. Griffith's recommendations are of in- 

 terest in Michigan. 



Mr Gri ffith believes that the burning of the 

 s]ashjngs would be the most effective K means 



of preventing disastrous fires. He has found 

 that most of the fires have originated in cut- 

 over districts where the slashings have been 

 left to dry Mr Griffith has recommended to 

 {he legis]ative comm j tte e on water power for- 

 estry and drainage, the drawing up of a law 

 that will make the burning of slashings com- 

 pulsory. 



The state forester was questioned as to the 

 expense of burning the slashings, and he said 

 that sixty cents per 1,000 square feet of ter- 

 ritorv would be a " "t side fi W He reccm- 

 mended that the state forestry board experi- 

 B t by burning slashings on asection, orhalf 

 *< thus gain an idea of the cost of 



Mr. Griffith dedares himself strongly in 

 favor of the sute c{ Wisconsin retaining pos- 



Cession of all the water power rights it now 

 owns. He says the state should refuse to 

 8 ran t da - m franchises unless given control as 

 a consideration. The state, he declared, should 

 retain all the rights it still possesses. 



The state forester's arguments relative to 



the burning of slashings were so forcible that 



it is now expected that the legislature will 



s at its { ort hcoming session a law making 



f i,:- wri ,i, rntnniflcnrv nn tVi r,o-t /-.f th ! 



U^ffitt& iftff 23ftj 



a number of ^ h timber atcrs ;* 



both Northern Wisconsin and the upper penin- 

 su i a f or more than a year pa^t, and it is said 

 tna t many of them are ready to co-operate 

 w i tn tne state officials 

 T . 



s **l ^K L 7 ""terestn 



T V? v t Q* ! um ^ ermen 



eliminated land later will be opened to settle- 

 ment 



^UT^AW A TTTATM7D 

 MICHIGAN A LEADER. 



Michigan is one of the leading states in the 

 union in reforestation projects, does rearly 

 as well as the general government itself, in 

 fact, and has a well defined 1 policy mapped 

 inn. which promises within a few years t<. 

 make the state the leader in this important 

 work. This, in brief, is the statement of Sec- 



FOREST WARDENS CRITICIZED. 



s One never hears of a deputy fire warden 

 b e in f? "among; those present" when an ex- 

 tensive forest fire is raging, comments the 

 Mamstique Pioneer-Tribune. If it were not 

 for tne activit >" an< | alertness of the lumber 

 companies and their employes, much more 

 damage would result from the fires. Aside 

 from sitting in the shade of the corner grocery 

 store and expounding politics, the deputies do 

 little else t earn the lucrative salaries paid 

 them by the state. If experienced woodsmen 

 were appointed and given free rein there would 

 be less cause for censuring the state fire war- 



, r T H H h 



is being tried, in our hard woods, where the 



* * \ r 



J* [^ es To"h S rn th 7'^^ ' 'L 



** fjl, 'treatment 



. , , 



But in any case the fundamental fact re- 



mams, namely: No man should have the right 

 , endanger /either his own or his neighbor's 

 forest or other property by hundreds of acres 

 of dangerous unsightly slash. 







Governor Warner has appointed the follow- 

 ing additional delegates from Michigan to 

 the national conservation congress, to be held 

 at St. Paul, Minn., September 6 to 9: W. D. 

 Young. Bay City: M. D. Olds, Cheboygan; 

 E. F. Loud. Au Sable; W. B. Mershon, Sagi- 

 naw; Charles W. Garfield, Grand Rapids; 

 G. Von Platen, Boyne City; J. S. Stearns., 

 Ludingtcn; Bruce O'Dell, Cadillac; Prof. 

 Filibert Roth, Ann Arbor. 



