MICHIGAN 



^FORESTS 



DETROIT, MICH., SEPTEMBER, 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; 

 Vice-President, 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; Thos. B. Wyman, Munising; E. C. Nichols, Battle Creek; R. Hanson, Gray- 

 ling; Geo. N. Brady, Detroit. 



CONTROVERSY STIRS cient yung growth to produce in the course and as good, or better, forest soil if we pro- 



nviTC-oroT IKI c-/~vr>i7OTr-\/ f ilme a merchantable, but not a full crop of tect it. . 



UN 1 .Kto 1 IIN r UKto 1 K I , . . . 



timber; and 100,000,000 acres or more severely The necessity tor more farm land may 



cut and burned over forests, on which there eventually reduce our total forest area to 



Officials of the forestry service, while re- is not su ffi c j en t young growth to produce an- 100,000,000 acres less than it is at present. It 



Kri-lting the controversy between Secretary other crop of much va ] ue- Taken as a whole, is entirely possible, however, to produce on 



Ballinger of the interior department and Gif- the annua i growth of the forests under these 450,000,000 acres as much wood as a popula- 



ford Pinchot, chief forester, over the question COI1 ditions does not exceed twelve cubic feet t' 011 mucn greater than we have now will need 



of conservation, say that the controversy will acrC) a tota , of less than 7)00 0,000,000 if a11 the forest land is br Ught tO itS higheSt 



not be without good results in this: It will cubic feet producing capacity, and if the product is eco- 

 nomically and completely utilized. But to 



R. S. Kellogg, assistant forester, in charge reach the necessary equilibrium between tim- 



service has done, and is doing, in preventing Q{ thg office of {orest statisticSi spe aking on ber production and consumption, it will take 



the wanton waste of the great forests of the ^ . . s ,jj. many years of vigorous effort by individual 



west, and in preserving them for generations forest owners, by the states, and by the na- 



to come Three Times as Fast as They Grow. tional government. All must work together." 



The work of conserving the national forests "We are cutting our forests three times as Work the Bureau Is Doing. 



, . . , . . No bureau of the government has developed 



only begun a few years ago, and it was last as they are growing. There is menace in 



. so rapidly as that of forestry. From an appro- 



om the continuance of such conditions. While we priation of $25;000 annua ii yj it has grown to 



Germany showing what that country was do- n] j g ht never reach absolute timber exhaustion, such proportions that it now requires $6,000,- 



ing to preserve her forests, which had suffered tne unrestricted exploitation of our forests in 000 a year to pay its expenses. And the 



through neglect. This report attracted the ' the past has already had ser i O us effects, and friends and advocates of forest conservation 



ecretary Wilson of the agric.l- it will have much force if it is allowed to con . *. J^ ? ^^ J r ^ 



tural department, who took up the subject tinue uncheck ed." may be said that trained foresters are em- 



with President Roosevelt, with the result that Mf _ Ke]]ogg cal]ed attention to whke pinei ployed to look after 194,500,000 acres of na- 



,he president became enthusiastic, and at once ^ ^ once considered inexhaustible; tional forest land, and this vast territory 



added forest conservation to his list of poli- charge of a forest supervisor. These forests 



cies. It appealed with much force to the peo- ^ fa " en f 7 P " "* '" . CUtS '"'" """' * in the western country, which is divided 



and more than 45 per cent since 1900. The j nto six forest districts, each in charge of a 



cut of oak, he said, which produced our most district forester. Every employe connected 



Our Forestry Area. valuable hardwood lumber had decreased 1 with the forestry service is experienced in 



, ., . raising and caring for young trees. The lum- 



Sinr-p thf niithroal- nf thp R'jllincrpr Pinrhnt PCT Cent SinCC 1900, and that Ot yellOW poplar . . . 



berman who estimates timber, helps to plan 



depute the correspondence of the agricultural P er cent - The same stor y, he added, would logging operations, and sees that the scaling 



department has more than trebled, nearly a be tolcl of other woods if they were not con- ; s correctly done, and that the rules of logging 



third of the correspondents writing for infor- served. are properly observed, is an experienced and 



mation relating to the national forests. It is "The fact that timber has been cheap and ca P able woodsman. 



, >j i tr 11 Another important employe is the forest 



stated that the total yearly dram upon the for- abundant, said Mr. Kellogg, has made us , , . , 



ranger. His duties require a careful patrol of 



ests. not counting losses from fires, storms careless of its production and reckless in its the forest to see that fj re and trespass are 



and insects, is some twenty billion cubic feet. use. We take 250 cubic feet of wood per prevented; that the range is not over grazed; 



The present forest area of 550,000,000 acres capita annually from our forests, while Ger- that logging regulations are enforced, and that 



may be roughly estimated to consist of 200,- many uses only 37 cubic feet, and France but privileges granted by permit for the use of the 



000.000 acres of mature forests, in which the 2. Germany, having learned her lesson, various forest "sources are not abused. 



is generally a hard-headed, practical, thor- 



annual growth is balanced by death and decay; makes her state forests produce an average of ough]y honest alld an able-bodied citizen of 



250.000,000 acres partially cut or burned over, 48 cubic feet of wood per acre. We have as tne wes t ; w jth plenty of experience in all the 



on which, with reasonable care, there is suffi- fast growing species as Germany, or faster, problems with which he may have to deal. 



