A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 961 



more information and to set up definite demonstrations extra activity 

 is justified in localities where manufacturing plants provide a balanced 

 demand for forest products. Effort should be directed toward still 

 further improvement of manufactured products through production 

 engineering, and toward modification of raw-material purchasing 

 methods to permit the best use of forest productivity. Cooperation 

 of manufacturers with forest owners would enable the latter to build 

 up growing stock and forest productivity through marketing forest 

 raw material of the kinds that it is most desirable to remove. 



FORESTS OF THE LAKE STATES REGION 



(Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota) 



PRESENT CONDITIONS AND MANAGEMENT POLICIES 



The Lake States were formerly a very important conifer region, of 

 which the most characteristic type was the northern white pine forest. 

 (North Dakota, which is here thrown in this group for statistical pur- 

 poses, has very little forest area). Early settlement did not lag far 

 behind that in the Central States, and the same practice of destroying 

 timber to clear land was in effect for some time. The use of timber in 

 industry was soon under way. Commercial production of forest 

 materials started first in the agricultural settlements in the southern 

 part of the region and was later extended into the forest areas to the 

 north. The white pine forests, as the most valuable, were the scene 

 of the earliest operations on a large scale. Commercial production of 

 northern white pine had begun to expand by the end of the Civil War, 

 and approached a maximum by 1882. At one time the annual 

 regional cut of northern white pine rose to nearly 9 billion feet. 

 Decline in production of white pine had set in by 1895 and has been 

 more or less continuous down to the present day. The northern white 

 pine type has now been almost entirely destroyed, and with the 

 exception of some spruce and Norway pine the remaining conifers are 

 of relatively inferior character. The coniferous forest has to a very 

 large extent been superseded by inferior broad-leafed species, of which 

 scrub oak and aspen are the most plentiful. In addition to the area 

 now or formerly occupied by coniferous forests there is a considerable 

 area of northern hardwoods (yellow birch, sugar maple, and beech) 

 with hemlock. These northern hardwood and hemlock forests are the 

 location of the principal remaining forest industry. 



By the time the white pine industry had begun to decline the pulp 

 and paper industry had begun to attain importance in the region. 

 Large plants are located in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. 

 These plants are able to use trees of species and sizes that as a rule 

 are of small value in the lumber industry. This provides conditions 

 for balanced production in continuously operated forest properties; 

 revenue from the sale of cordwood material to the pulp and paper 

 mills helps the landowners to meet production expenses and lowers 

 the cost of producing the more valuable saw-log material. Unfor- 

 tunately the stands have already deteriorated too far to provide the 

 saw-timber constituents of the cut on a current basis. It appears, 

 therefore, that the pulp and paper industry will have to rely largely 

 on forests operated, for the present at least, mostly for the production 

 of pulp wood. This means special capital investments in forests for 



