MICHIGAN 



ROADS ^FORESTS 



DETROIT, MICH., JUNE, 1909. 



~ MICHIGAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



The Michigan Forestry Association was organized in Grand Rapids August .10, 1903, having for its object the promotion of a ra- 

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

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

 Directors S. M. Lemon, Grand Rapids; H. N. Loud, Au Sable; Tlios. 1). 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 forest service 

 estimated that Michigan's losses from forest 

 fires last year would reach a total of 

 $44,000.000. of which $10.000,000 was non- 

 nierchantable young growth. 



The accuracy of this estimate was ques- 

 tioned by the state game, fish and forest war- 

 den, who published an estimate of his own, 

 putting the total loss at about $:>.. '.70.000. 



The state warden gives as the basis of his 

 estimate "the supervisors in organized town- 

 ships, the fire wardens in surveyed townships, 

 and the timber owners throughout northern 

 Michigan." lie tabulates the losses by conn 

 ties, and challenges the forest service to 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 

 good hotels, went back to Washington, and 

 from there told the people of Michigan that 

 the forest lire losses amounted to something 

 over $4-1.000.000." 



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 (In- 

 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 



limber cruisers, yet as far as c-'.uld be a 

 tained they relied principally rpcn their own 

 estimates of the damage done. 



In the northern peninsula the timber is 

 owned mainly by large holders, who for busi- 

 ness reasons do not care to make public the 

 figures of their own losses. On this account 

 the information received by the forest service 

 was confidential. In many cases the owners 

 informed the members of the forest service to 

 whom they opened their records that they 

 would not give the same information to the 

 state authorities. The forest service has re- 

 liable estimates of the 1 >sses by comities, but 

 it could in t make these public in full without 

 breaking faith with some of those from whom 

 information was received, since large parts of 

 single counties are embraced iiv the holdings 

 of individual concerns. 



A test, however, of the relative accuracy 

 of the two estimates can readily be made by 

 considering the l"> rest service estimate of the 

 less in a single item. The am >! l i:l of saw log 

 timber, which will be a total loss, was .}[ 

 by the forest service ,-'t ab ;tlt 2.000,00 

 feet, with a value of $12.000.000. The actual 

 records of owners and their averts, which 

 were examined by the forest service, reported 

 tosses i f more than tlm < - I tils of ih'-- 

 amount, with much of the burned-over tin: h v 

 land of the state net included. In ' I 

 the forest service has authentic informat'on 

 showing that in the ore item < f merchantable 

 limber which will be a total loss, specific ' wn- 

 ( vs are (lit over $0.000.000 as a result t f the 

 fires. 



The state warden's figures for the h> e 

 from all sources are less than one-third of 

 what the actual records of ;ui incomplete list 

 oi owners show for saw log irnlu-r. which 

 will never get to market at all. besides tV' 

 heavy further looses from damaged merchant- 

 able timber, increased c>-st of loi.vin; T . dam- 

 age to growth not yet merchantable, destruc- 

 tion of other forms of property and expendi- 

 tures for fighting fires. 



DID SPLENDID SERVICE. 



Hon. Charles W. Garfield. president of the 

 State Forestry Commission of Michigan, who 

 was legislated out of office by the creation of 

 the Public Domain Commission, has been 

 noted not alone in Michigan, but throughout 

 ihe country as an enthusiastic champion nf the 

 forest interests of his state ard of the nation, 

 lie has given generously of bis tinv and abil- 

 ity in advancing the cause of reforestaiion and 

 Conservation of forestry resources and <--:c\i 

 . '\ -i, cement as has been made in this state 

 has been largely due to his untiring efforts 

 and his thorough understanding of the subject. 

 Only to those who have been intimately iden- 

 tified with this work has there come any con- 



ception of the obstacles with which he and his 

 associates have had to contend in securing 

 i vi n such meager reforms as have been 

 brought about in the adoption of forestry laws 

 and lire protection of the state reserves and 

 timber tracts in general. 



lie was largely instrumental several years 

 ago in bringing about the formation of the 

 Michigan Forestry Association, which is 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 conser- 

 vation of the forests and reforestation. He 

 also was a leading factor in the conference 

 bit ween forest experts of Canada and the 

 slates b. rdcring Michigan a few years ago. at 

 which time a uniform policy was outlined 

 among these states and the Dominion where 

 ihc forestry problem is very similar. 



'3AGINAW FOREST FARM AT U. OF M. 



Special facilities for the study of forestry 

 are supplied to students at the University of 

 Michigan by the Saginaw forest farm, a tract 

 . r !a;-(! .-.bor.i one mile west o," ihe city of 

 Ann Arbor, presented to the university by the 

 Hen. Arthur Hill, of Saginaw. The farm, 

 comprising eighty acres, is a typical example 

 of the I'.w. hilly land of the drift district, and 

 contains as great a variety of topographical 

 and soil conditions as could be expected in an 

 area of this extent. Its si ils 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. Upon it provision is to be made for 

 ( 1 ) an arboretum of all .useful forest trees that 

 can grow in Michigan; (2) demonstrative 

 areas for sed-bed and nursery work; (:!') mode] 

 plantations of forest trees, and (4) 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 .'5,492 

 acres of denuded timber land in Lincoln, Jef- 

 ferson 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. 



