368 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



municipalities, also, have acquired lands on the watersheds from which 

 they obtain their water supplies and planted them with trees. At 

 the rate at which public ownership and management are now progres- 

 sing, however, many years would be required to bring about good 

 forest cover conditions on all the abandoned agricultural lands in this 

 drainage that have watershed-protection value. 



In the western part of the St. Lawrence drainage, although forest 

 depletion is extensive, no serious erosion or watershed troubles have 

 been reported. In the upper peninsula of Michigan and along the 

 north shore of Lake Superior a complete forest cover prevents erosion. 

 Here the slopes are steeper than in many other sections of the Great 

 Lakes region and deforestation would lead to rapid run-off and severe 

 erosion. 



SUMMARY 



Although the forest lands of the St. Lawrence drainage, except in 

 the Adirondack State Park, are in poor shape from the standpoint of 

 commercial forestry, because of cutting and fire in the past, yet these 

 forest lands are not in a serious condition from the standpoint of water- 

 shed protection. Some areas, such as the sand dunes, will require 

 special treatment if erosion is to be stopped, but in general rather 

 simple measures of forest management and fire control will meet the 

 objectives of watershed protection. Estimates indicate that about 

 500,000 acres are in need of planting, and about 50,000 acres are in 

 need of some special form of treatment to help stabilize the soil. 



The present survey of existing conditions shows that in the region of 

 major influence, an additional area of about 1 million acres should be 

 in some form of public ownership. About 300,000 acres of the total 

 are the abandoned agricultural lands, and 700,000 acres are other forest 

 lands. Just what form this ownership should take, whether national, 

 State, or local, depends upon the interest and ability of the agency 

 involved. 



HUDSON BAY DRAINAGES 



The drainage to Hudson Bay includes some 40,000 square miles of 

 land in northern Minnesota and North and South Dakota, practically 

 all of which is drained by the Red River of the North and its tributaries 

 (fig. 10). The Red River is a lazy, meandering prairie stream that 

 winds through a broad agricultural valley, the terrain of which is 

 without notable relief. 



About 25 percent of the Hudson Bay drainage can be considered 

 forest land. By far the larger part of this is in Minnesota, where the 

 prairie transition forest appears at a distance of from 30 to 50 miles 

 from the river, on the first important rise of ground. The outer fringe 

 of the transition forest is of bur oak and associated prairie tree species. 

 At greater distances from the river occur swamp forests, once 

 principally of spruce. By reason of cutting and fires, the spruce 

 has largely given way to aspen. Not much pine is present except 

 on the better-drained soils toward the eastern edge of the drainage. 

 Open oak forests again appear on the Pembina and Turtle Mountains 

 in North Dakota, on the international boundary. On the sandier 

 soils of North Dakota, such as the uplands about Devils Lake, and 

 along the streams, occur some severely culled small forests. 



