16 _ MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS _ _ _ 



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, Hon. Clias. \V. 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, Pittsford; Dr. Lucius L. Hubbanl. Houghton; Mrs. 

 John C. Sharp, Jackson. 



THE SECRETARY'S TORNFR est reserve bill, which probably will pass the tions a breathing space which in poii,, . 



senate next winter, is that it starts off with a refined beauty, helpfulness and accessibility is 



provision for forest fire protection. The sum without superior in tl.e world. 

 CONSERVATION CONGRESS. of $200,000 is appropriated by the bill to en- 



Thc week ending September 10th was made able the secretary of agriculture to co-operate FIRE LOSS NOT SO HEAVY. 



notable by the action of the conservation con- wlth anv state or rou P of states, when re- Declaring that while the forest fire loss in 



gress, held at St. Paul, in which prominent Quested to do so, in the protection from fire (his sute wou , d bg ag he as jt was a ar 

 men of the nation font nart PrpciH^nt Toft of the forested water-sheds of navigable 



Tnd ex-President Roc mo, L the streams ' He is Authorized, on such conditions age,, it could not approach the damage done 



distinguished speakers Conservation was the as he deerns wise > to a 8 ree with anv state or in 1908 ' M ' Scha ? e ' state forester from the 



theme of senati rs, representatives and aover- sta ' es to co-operate in the organization and Roscommon district, talked entertainingly of 



nora, and practically every phase of the sub- maintenance of a fire protection system on the situation in the northern peninsula re- 



ject was exploited from both its national and anv Private or state forest lands within the cently 



state relations to the general welfare stat . e and S1 tuated upon the watershed of a The Michgan forest reserve in the Koscom- 



Much of the argument was eminently one- navigable river. It will be necessary first, mon district escaped entirely this year. On 



tical, but some of the ideas championed were however, that the state shall establish a pro- several occasions fires ran up almost to the 



radical and visionary The policy of the ores- tective system of its own, for the bill ex- edge of the reserve tract, but it was beaten 



ident, in a large degree is practical and should P ressl y Prides that no arrangement shall out without serious loss 



lead to indorsement by state and national ROV- be made WIth anv state that has done nothing According to Mr. Schaffe the effort which 



eminent. What particularly impressed the for itself ' < he fore . str y department is making to prevent 



delegates to the congress is the rapid crystal- An example in New Hampshire shows the fire s. the prosecution of those who have 



lization of the movement to conserve but not value of a fire patrol and the unfortunate re- started them through carelessness and 



sequester national resources suits of having none. In Bethlehem, N. H., on prompt manner in which fire fighters are or- 



The common resources of coal oil phos- the slope of Mt. Theodore Thomas on the gamzed under experienced leaders wheney, 



phate, forest and mineral lands belong equally road to Franconia, is the summer home of necessary, has done much to cut down 



i this as well as future generations and the the widow of the great musician. The place damage in what might have been a dis 



present would suffer a great injustice to be is a few hundred yards off the main traveled season. The season has been an exceptic 



deprived of the benefits of natural resources road, and while not elaborate, is a mecca for dry one in the north and only the greatet 



of coal, oil, forests and minerals for the ad- summer visitors because of the charming precautions have enabled the state to escape a 



vantage of unborn posterity. The living pres- "German garden" which Mrs. Thomas tends loss similar to that of two years ago. 



ent is entitled to the advantages of national or with such loving care, and because also the _.. . ~TTV - MATiriMAT WORTTQT 



state natural resources which should be de- little shelf of land over which the lawn ex- PULAR. TY OF NAIIUNAL *UKh,5>l. 



veloped under government license or super- tends affords one of the finest views of the Before the year's outing season is over 



vision - Franconia range to be had in the mountains. nea rly half a million persons will have sought 



fs'ZTT, undeveI P ed resources of the The noble Lafayette and castellated Mt. Gar- recreation and health in thc national forests 



orests and coal and copper deposits of Alaska field are directly opposite, while the entire . 



await development for the benefit of the ter- sweep of the vista across the valley of the of the United States. According to the record 



ntory. The policy championed by the presi- Gale river extends from Moosilauke on the of the department of agriculture, the total 



dent to impose a reasonable charge for de- west to the North and South Twin, and even last y ear was m . close ^gatta 406,775 



veloping these resources would greatly in- beyond to the base of the Presidential range. the finest mountain scenery and much of the 



crease the public revenue. The rich coal fields A few years ago Mrs. Thomas, busily tend- best fishing and big-game hunting in the 



are withdrawn from private entry and under in? her flowers, noticed a slight curl of smoke United States, the national forests made more 



government license could not be exploited as in the woods near the base of Lafayette. It and more accessible each year through pro- 



a monopoly and impose a burdensome tax on burned doggedly, but not increasingly, for tection and development by the government, 



consumers. Congress has reserved the min- several hours and, as Mrs. Thomas in describ- are fast becoming great national playgrounds 



eral and coal deposits below the surface in ing the incident, said recently to a party of for the people. The use of the forests for 



the revised public land laws. friends, "A man might have put it out with a recreation is as yet in its beginning, but is 



t is only since 1902 that conservation of bucket of water or the sweep of a brush." But Bowing steadily and rapidly in some of the 



national resources was recognized by congress the man to do this simple thing evidently was forests at the rate of a hundred per cent per 



in withdrawal of land acts and approval of not at hand. The fire was burning the next annum. The days seem not far distant when 



irrigation legislation that is reclaiming an em- morning: and, for eight days, sweeping bare a million persons will annually visit them. 



pire of fruitful agrcultural lands in the arid and wholly denuding of their fresh beauty the The sportsman finds his paradise in the 



regons west of the Mississippi. Already vast northern slopes of Lafayette and Garfield. A national forests. In many of them big game 



areas have been reclaimed and resources in- few moments of attention in the early stages abounds. A record of'9,218 miles of trail cut, 



creased to support an added population of of the fire, had it been seen by the keen eye 1 > 236 miles of road laid out, and 4,851 miles of 



15,000,000 people. With the improvement of of a mountain ranger, would have saved this telephone line strung tells what the govern- 



great natural water powers, the reclamation devastation and preserved from unsi^ht'iness me nt has done in the way of pushing the con- 



f millions of acres of arid land, the conser- one of the most magnificent stretches of coun- veniences of civilization into the primeval for- 



vation of forests from spoilation and the de- try in the White Mountain region est. The day of the wilderness of the savage 



lopment of the coal and oil resources in the Unfortunately when the evergreens are and the pioneer is swiftly passing; the clay of 



its of all the people, then will conserva- burned out they do not readily replace 'them- the , "atonal Crests as productive resources 



tiomsts have achieved their laudable purpose selves. The young trees do not fare well in and as national parks approaches. 



.s I.TOC aimed ,n the conservation congress at the open sun. and as a rule the second growth THR FORE ST RANGFR HAS FXCTTTNC 



_ _ is cherry and poplar, which lose their leaves RANGER HAS EXCITING 



MOPT? wnuTTCT DA*T<-T*CI 1n tne fa " anc1 leave the slopes naked for LIFE. 



Gifford Pin RANGES NEEDED. months. Mr. Pinchot states that eventually A great deal has been printed about the 



ern n Ittl <! w against west- the White Mountain slopes, which have been "new profession of forestry." To the casual 



ter for Senator Heyburn and Car- devastated as much by the rapacious lumber- reader it has come to mean a sort of cross 



orest fires instead of the man as by fire, will reforestate themselves between a botanical excursion and a Sundav 



every stated the n?nn th situation in with evergreens, but the process is a very school picnic in the woods. The chief duty 



of r h ? P rfn trees grow, slow one. The White Mountain region is of a forest ranger is conceived to be to act 



this Hn but fh P rt ST, * omethln S '" C ne f the Rrea t recreatim spots of the world, as wet nurse to a lot of pine saplings. And 



of the stat svstem < rtL^L'li' weakne f s h t '"' mountains have been cut as far tip as because it is so contrary to American tradi- 



Drovide fo the Pmnln . * " * "' the h ' mbermeri could *" wi 'h no regard for tions to make a business of savine-rather 



? ^T/r-T" Wh - \ nyth " R hut the few dol!ars to be made b y tha n making and spending-the man in the 



lid, for fn.rn n V fi "' e T "? ? he . slniirle "'"^ The government soon, street has come to regard forestry as some- 



nniY?f T'w'rV 01 ' \\ ' S to . be hope f wil1 take over the White thin * amateurish and foreign-a newly im- 



3 ng points of the Weeks for- Mountains, and thus insure to future genera- ported fad, ranking with polo and the raising 



