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. Chas. \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. Hubbnrd, Houghton; Mrs 

 John C. Sharp, Jackson. 



THE SECRETARY'S CORNER. 



CONSERVATION CONGRESS. 



The week ending September 10th was made 

 notable by the action of the conservation con- 

 gress, held at St. Paul, in which prominent 

 men of the nation took part. President Taft 

 and ex-President Roosevelt figured among the 

 distinguished speakers. Conservation was the 

 the me <>f senatrrs, representatives and gover- 

 nors, and practically every phase of the sub- 

 ject was exploited from botli its national and 

 state relations to the general welfare. 



Much of the argument was eminently prac- 

 tical, but same of the ideas championed were 

 radical and visionary. The policy of the pres- 

 ident/ in a large degree is practical and should 

 lead to indorsement by state and national gov- 

 ernment. What particularly impressed the 

 delegates to the congress is the rapid crystal- 

 lization of the movement to ccnserve but not 

 sequester national resources. 



The common resources of coal, oil, phos- 

 phate, forest and mineral lands belong equally 

 tn this as well as future generations and the 

 present would suffer a great injustice to be 

 deprived of the benefits of natural resources 

 of coal, oil, forests and minerals for the ad- 

 vantage of unborn posterity. The living pres- 

 ent is entitled to the advantages of national or 

 state natural resources which should be de- 

 veloped under government license or super- 

 vision. 



The immense undeveloped resources of the 

 forests and coal and copper deposits of Alaska 

 'await development for the benefit of the ter- 

 ritory. The policy championed by the presi- 

 dent to impose a reasonable charge for de- 

 veloping these resources would greatly in- 

 crease the public revenue. The rich coal fields 

 are withdrawn from private entry and under 

 government license could not be exploited as 

 a monopoly and impose a burdensome tax on 

 consumers. Congress has reserved the min- 

 eral and coal deposits below the surface in 

 the revised public land laws. 



It is only since 1902 that conservation of 

 national resources was recognized by congress 

 in withdrawal of land acts and approval of 

 irrigation legislation that is reclaiming an em- 

 pire of fruitful agrcultural lands in the arid 

 regons west of the Mississippi. Already vast 

 areas have been reclaimed and resources in- 

 creased to support an added population of 

 15,000,000 people. With the improvement of 

 great natural water powers, the reclamation 

 of millions of acres of arid land, the conser- 

 ii of forests from spoilation and the de- 

 velopment of the coal and oil resources in the 

 interests of all the people, then will conserva- 

 iioni^K have achieved their laudable purpose 

 as proclaimed in the conservation congress at 

 Si I'aul. 



MORE FOREST RANGES NEEDED. 



Gifford Pinchot's angry blast against west- 

 ern statesmen like Senator Heyburn and Car- 

 ter for not fighting forest fires instead of the 

 people renews attention to the situation in 

 every state in the union where trees grow. 

 The states of course have done something in 

 this line, but the experts say that the weakness 

 of the states system is that while as a rule 

 it provides for the employment of men who 

 fight fires after they have started, little or no 

 provision is made for a permanent fire patrol. 



One of the strong points of the Weeks for- 



est reserve bill, which probably will pass the 

 senate next winter, is that it starts off with a 

 provision for forest fire protection. The sum 

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

 able the secretary of agriculture to co-operate 

 with any state or group of states, when re- 

 quested to do so, in the protection from fire 

 of the forested water-sheds of navigable 

 streams. He is authorized, on such conditions 

 as he deems wise, to agree with any state or 

 states to co-operate in the organization and 

 maintenance of a fire protection system on 

 any private or state forest lands within the 

 state and situated upon the watershed of a 

 navigable river. It will be necessary first, 

 however, that the state shall establish a pro- 

 tective system of its own, for the bill ex- 

 pressly provides that no arrangement shall 

 be made with any state that has done nothing 

 for itself. 



An example in New Hampshire shows the 

 value of a fire patrol and the unfortunate re- 

 sults of having none. In Bethlehem, N. H., on 

 the slope of Mt. Theodore Thomas on the 

 road to Franconia, is the summer home of 

 the widow of the great musician. The place 

 is a few hundred yards off the main traveled 

 road, and while not elaborate, is a mecca for 

 summer visitors because of the charming 

 "German garden" which Mrs. Thomas tends 

 with such loving care, and because also the 

 little shelf of land over which the lawn ex- 

 tends affords one of the finest views of the 

 Franconia range to be had in the mountains. 

 The noble Lafayette and castellated Mt. Gar- 

 field are directly opposite, while the entire 

 sweep of the vista across the valley of the 

 Gale river extends from Moosilauke on the 

 west to the North and South Twin, and even 

 beyond to the base of the Presidential range. 



A few years ago Mrs. Thomas, busily tend- 

 ing her flowers, noticed a slight curl of smoke 

 in the woods near the base of Lafayette. It 

 burned doggedly, but not increasingly, for 

 several hours and, as Mrs. Thomas in describ- 

 ing the incident, said recently to a party of 

 friends, "A man might have put it out with a 

 bucket of water or the sweep of a brush.'' But 

 the man to do this simple thing evidently was 

 not at hand. The fire was burning the next 

 morning: and, for eight days, sweeping bare 

 and wholly denuding of their fresh beauty the 

 northern slopes of Lafayette and Garfield. A 

 few moments of atft-rtion in the early stages 

 of the fire, had it been seen by the keen eye 

 of a mountain ranger, would have saved this 

 devastation and preserved from unsig'nt'iness 

 one of the most magnificent stretches of coun- 

 try in the White Mountain region. 



Unfortunately when the evergreen? are 

 burned out they do not readily replace them- 

 selves. The young trees do not fare well in 

 the open sun, and as a rule the second growth 

 is cherry and poplar, which lose their leaves 

 in the fall and leave the slopes naked for 

 months. Mr. Pinchot states that eventually 

 the White Mountain slopes, which have been 

 devastated as much by the rapacious lumber- 

 man as by fire, will reforestate themselves 

 with evergreens, but the process is a very 

 <low one. The White Mountain region is 

 one of the great recreatirn spots of the world, 

 but the mountains have been cut as far up as 

 the lumbermen could go, with no regard for 

 anything but the few dollars to be made by 

 the single cutting. The government soon, 

 it is to be hoped, will take over the White 

 Mountains, and thus insure to future genera- 



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tions a breathing space which in poii,, 

 refined beauty, helpfulness and accessibility i> 

 without superior in the world. 



FIRE LOSS NOT SO HEAVY. 



Declaring that while the forest fire loss i 

 this state would be as heavy as it was a ye, 

 ago, it could not approach the damage do 

 in 1908, M. Schaffe, state forester from the 

 Roscommon district, talked entertainingly 

 the situation in the northern peninsula 

 cently. 



The Michgan forest reserve in the Rose 

 mon district escaped entirely this year. 

 several occasions fires ran up almost to the 

 edge of the reserve tract, but it was beat 

 out without serious loss. 



According to Mr. Schaffe the effort whi 

 the forestry department is making to prevent 

 tires, the prosecution of those who have 

 started them through carelessness and the 

 prompt manner in which fire fighters are or- 

 ganized under experienced leaders wheneve 

 necessary, has done much to cut down the 

 damage in what might have been a disastrous 

 season. The season has been an exceptionally 

 dry one in the north, and only the greatet 

 precautions have enabled the state to escape a 

 loss similar to that of two years ago. 



POPULARITY OF NATIONAL FOREST. 



Before the year's outing season is over 

 nearly half a million persons will have sought 

 recreation and health in the national forests 

 of the United States. According to the record 

 of the department of agriculture, the total 

 last year was in close figures 406,775. With 

 the finest mountain scenery and much of the 

 best fishing and big-game hunting in the 

 United States, the national forests, made more 

 and more accessible each year through pro- 

 tection and development by the government, 

 are fast becoming great national playgrounds 

 for the people. The use of the forests for 

 recreation is as yet in its beginning, but r 

 growing steadily and rapidly in some of the 

 forests at the rate of a hundred per cent per 

 annum. The days seem not far distant v/hen 

 a million persons will annually visit them. 



The sportsman finds his paradise in thf 

 national forests. In many of them big game 

 abounds. A record of '9,218 miles of trail cut. 

 1,236 miles of road laid out, and 4,851 miles of 

 telephone line strung tells what the govern- 

 ment has done in the way of pushing the con- 

 veniences of civilization into the primeval for- 

 est. The day of the wilderness of the savage 

 and the pioneer is swiftly passing; t'le day of 

 the national f r rests as productive resouro 

 and as national parks approaches. 



THE FOREST RANGER HAS EXCITING 

 LIFE. 



A great deal has been printed about the 

 "new profession of forestry." To the casual 

 reader it has come to mean a sort of ci 

 between a botanical excursion nnd a Sunday 

 school picnic in the woods. The chief duty 

 of a forest ranger is conceived to be to act 

 as wet nurse to a lot of pine saplings. Am! 

 because it is so contrary to American tradi- 

 tions to make a business of savintr rather 

 than making and spending the man in thf 

 street has come to regard forestry as some- 

 thing amateurish and foreign a newly im- 

 ported fad, ranking with polo and the rai 



