108 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the forests, for it was believed that the region would develop as had 

 the country farther south and that forests and forest industries would 

 no longer be needed. 



After a few decades logging and subsequent fires had wiped out all 

 but a few remnants of the forests. The sawmills and logging camps 

 which employed many thousands of men in 1889, employed only a 

 few hundred in 1929. The railroads, no longer having timber to 

 haul or anything to take its place, pulled out many of the branch 

 lines and left the settlers without adequate transportation facilities. 

 Costs of building and maintaining roads mounted, as did costs of 

 schools and other public services. Real-estate values declined. 

 Taxes were increased. The more prosperous portions of the State 

 were called upon more and more to help support schools and highways. 

 Farmers, no longer able to earn wages in winter work in woods or 

 mills, with no local market for their produce, and burdened with 

 rising taxes, found that they could no longer make a living and grad- 

 ually drifted away. Between 1910 and 1930 the number of farms in 

 the cut-over northern counties of lower Michigan decreased by more 

 than 12,000, or 27 percent. 



When the camps and mills ceased to operate, many villages and 

 towns lost their principal or only industries and no longer had any 

 reason for existence. Population fell off rapidly. Many mill villages 

 that had had a population of several hundreds or even thousands joined 

 the swelling list of " ghost " towns. One of the most striking instances 

 is the twin towns of Au Sable-Oscoda, on the shore of Lake Huron. 

 In 1890 these towns had a combined population of 8,346, with fine 

 buildings, paved sidewalks, and all the conveniences of an enterpris- 

 ing small city. During the sawing season the population was much 

 larger. In 1930 the combined population was only 903, of whom 

 61 lived in Au Sable city, which had 4,328 inhabitants 40 years before. 



Of 31 counties in this region, 29 had fewer inhabitants in 1930 than 

 in 1910 and 24 had fewer than in 1900. The region as a whole lost 

 83,000 people between 1910 and 1930, or 21 percent. During the 

 same period the southern agricultural and industrial counties (not 

 including Wayne) gained 765,000 inhabitants, or 50 percent, and 

 Wayne County alone (Detroit and vicinity) gained 1,357,000, or 

 256 percent. 



This state of affairs is not peculiar to Michigan. The same thing 

 has happened in the other Lake States, in the Appalachian region, 

 in the South, and already in some localities in the far West. 



This entire boom cycle, starting with untouched virgin-timber 

 areas and ending with local impoverishment and parasitism, has 

 varied in length in different regions. But in the main the life of the 

 cycle seldom lasts more than 25 to 40 years. It is disastrous alike 

 to the lumbering business and to local communities, local govern- 

 ment, and local business. To prevent booms, with their inevitable 

 consequences of local impoverishment, overproduction, and migratory 

 lumbering is one of the obligations of American forestry. 



PERMANENT FORESTS SUPPORT PERMANENT COMMUNITIES 



One of the most important contributions that continuously pro- 

 ductive forests can make toward the general welfare is through the 

 stabilization of centers or nuclei around which various economic and 

 social institutions can group themselves. In these centers the workers 



