MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



NORTHERN FOREST PROTECTIVE 



ASSOCIATION FORMED. 

 With the appointment of Thomas B. Wyman 

 as its chief of foresters, the Northern Forest 

 Protective Association is mapping out the final 

 plan of the campaign upon which it is about to 

 embark. The association is a newly formed or- 

 ganization of big land owners, most of whose 

 holdings are in upper Michigan, but who con- 

 trol a considerable acreage in northern Wiscon- 

 sin also. It? purpose is the protection of the 

 standing timber of its members, and chiefly its 

 protection from forest fires. Mr. Wyman at 

 present is the chief forester of the Cleveland 

 iffs Iron Company, with headquarters at Mu- 

 nising. He will resign this position and will 

 g:ve his whole time to the work of the associa- 

 tion, of which he practically will be the execu- 

 tive head. 



As Mr. Wyman is probably the best authority 

 on forestry in upper Michigan, both as regards 

 technical rind practical knowledge, the directors 

 <il the association are delighted at his decision 

 to accept the position of chief forester in their 

 employ. While all the details of its execution 

 have been left to Mr. Wyman, the general plan 

 'if work adopted by the association is that of 

 a patrol of the lands of the members. This plan 

 is in line^with the forest ranger system adopted 

 b? the United States government in the west- 

 ern states, as well as by several organizations 

 (>' private timber owners. By such a patrol it 

 is expected o put out many incipient fires and 

 by education and timely precautions to prevent 

 what otherwise might result in serious confla- 

 grations. 



To obtain the funds with which to carry out 

 this forest patrol plan, the directors have voted 

 to levy an assessment of one-half cent an acre 

 on the lands in the association, in addition to 

 v hich each member rays a membership fee of 

 As there are now approximately 2,000,000 

 ?cre? of land .-:igned up, the amount available 

 for the coining year'? use will be about $10,000. 

 T f is stated howecer, that timber owners whose 

 aggregate i!Jr.. s _re as much more are on.y 

 waiting untl th plans of the association iAe 

 definite shap-, when they will become members. 

 This addition w. uld b-m- the to'.il ac-iaje of 

 the aJO-i.-.ttion up t; 4, f-0,000 and the amount 

 of the assessment for 1911 would be $20,000, a 

 sum "vh-ch should at least be sufficient to make 

 a big start in this work 



Acror 'ing to T. A. Green, president of <hc 

 assoc-qtnn, an acreage of 4,000,000 is larger 

 than that of any private forest prote -live a c sr- 

 ciation in this country. Fortunately, it happens 

 that the holdings of the present members of the 

 association are fairly contiguous, being located 

 principally in Alger, Marquette, Baraga, 

 Houghton and Ontonagon counties, which fact 

 makes the patrol proposition much more feas- 

 ible and less expensive than were the lands 

 widely scattered. Most of the lands that it is 

 expected shortly to enroll in the association are 

 either adjoining or adjacent to land already 

 signed up. 



Mr. Wyman will at once get busy on his plans 

 for work the coming summer. As fires broke 

 out in March last year, an effort will be made 

 to get things in readiness for actual work as 

 soon as possible. The chief forester will en- 

 gage a number of assistant foresters and pa- 

 trols, but where they will be stationed or the 

 exact nature of their employment have not yet 

 been determined. As the association will be one 

 of the largest of the kind in the United States 

 (and perhaps the largest) his will be a gigantic 

 task, but the directors of the association be- 

 lieve that he is equal to it and that by another 

 year all of the forest interests of the upper 

 country will be clamoring for admission to the 

 association. 



Protection from and precautions against for- 

 est fires, however, will not be the sole purpose 

 of the association. A campaign of education 

 will be conducted to impress upon the public 

 the value of forest protection and conservation, 

 not only to timber owners but to the public at 

 large. Homesteaders and campers will be 

 taught to take precautions that will prevent 

 fires, and the necessity of prompt action to 

 quench them when once they get a start No 



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effort will be made to keep hunters and fisher- 

 men off, but the patrols will see to it that all 

 trespassers take due and timely precautions 

 regarding fire and will endeavor to enforce the 

 state laws pertaining thereto. 



The Northern Forest Protective Association 

 was organized in Marquette some time ago and 

 cr.mprises among its members most of the 

 large timber owners in that part of the upper 

 peninsula, among them being the Cleveland 

 Ciffs Iron Company and the Ayer & Long- 

 year interests, the latter of Boston, Mass. All 

 owners of timber lands, whether of 40 or 40,000 

 or more acres, are invited to join the associa- 

 tron, and all the lands enrolled will receive as 

 nearly equ.l protection and benefit from mem- 

 bership as their location will permit. 



FORESTRY, NATURAL AND ARTIFI- 

 CIAL. 



It would, perhaps, be too much to expect at 

 this time that there should be perfect agreement 

 a? to the wisdom of the policy adopted by the 

 government for the preservation of the remain- 

 ii ? forests and the promotion of tree growth on 

 public lands. All thinking people will continue 

 ti- sympathize with the Roosevelt and Pinchot 

 view that waste in the timbered areas is de 

 piorable and that conservation of the forests is 

 absolutely necessary to the well-being of the 

 i ation. But there seems bound to be a dif- 

 ference of opinion with regard to the methods 

 to be employed in carrying on the work of res- 

 i oration. 



Hundreds of thousands of acres have been 

 burned over in the public woodlands since the 

 establishment of the forest service, and this has 

 meant the destruction of millions of valuable 

 tries. These fire losses recur annually with 

 striking regularity. It is held in some quarters 

 that fires would not be of such common occur- 

 rence, and would not spread so rapidly when 

 s:arted, if the government rangers were left to 

 pvrform thiir p^op^r dnties It is charged tha- 

 when thev should be engaged in patroling the 

 forest reserves durng the fire season they are 

 employed upon wi.at is ca'led "improvement 

 v.crk." su:h as fence building in the interest of 

 the sheep-grazing industry, which, it is claimed, 

 so far as its contribution to the government is 

 concerned, does not pay. However this may be, 

 the fact that hundreds of thousands of acres of 

 burned-over timberland are now enclosed in the 

 forest reserve is admitted. The forest service 

 recently, it seems, has determined on the plant- 

 ing of these burned areas with black walnut 



and red oak seeds from Arkansas, and the pre- 

 diction is credited to that bureau that inside of 

 25 years, as a result of this planting, commer- 

 cial black walnut and red oak lumber can be 

 marketed. 



Here is where a correspondent of the Port- 

 land Oregonian, who claims to be a practical 

 forester, takes issue with the forest service 

 Mature, he insists, will do its own planting, and 

 dp it better than man can do it if left alone. 

 Nature will grow the right kind of trees in the 

 far northwestern forests. "They go away south 

 into Arkansas," this writer says, "and ship into 

 Oregon, Washington and Idaho hundreds of 

 pounds of black walnut and red oak seeds to 

 plant and restock our burned areas, when com- 

 mon sense knows that commercial success can 

 never come from such a venture. Any lumber- 

 jack knows that trees taken from a warm cli- 

 mate and moved to the far north and out of 

 their natural range cannot possibly do well. 



The answer likely to be made to this by the 

 forest service is that any lumberjack does not 

 know anything about it, unless he has experi- 

 mented along this line. It is a fact within the 

 ken of people who lay no claim to the posses- 

 sion of special knowledge in this particular that 

 trees of other lands and other climates have 

 been successfully grown in the United States. 

 Trees of foreign origin are plentiful in the 

 eastern states, and are becoming quite common 

 in the middle west. Why not in the Pacific 

 northwest? 



If this is a weak point in the criticism di- 

 rected against the forest service by the practi- 

 cal forester, it does not detract from the force 

 of his argument that if the forests as they are 

 today were carefully protected they would soon 

 restock the burned districts. The destruction 

 of millions of young trees annually by unneces- 

 sary fires is the thing calling for first attention. 

 If this destruction can be checked or wholly 

 prevented, the logical thing to do is to take 

 every possible measure to that end. 



While this is going on it is hard to see an> 

 valid reason why tree planting should not pro- 

 ,.eed. There are vast denuded districts from 

 which no natural growth can be reasonably ex- 

 pected. The forest service is justified in experi- 

 menting with seed in those areas, whether it 

 comes from Arkansas or Argentina. Monitor. 



The Standard Oil Company wijl probably 

 spent several thousand of dollars in Michi- 

 gan next spring and summer, in the interests 

 of good roads. 



