Evolution of Management on Chippewa 



have given way to cooperation among 

 residents in other phases of forest ad- 

 ministration, such as forest-fire control. 



Because most of the timber has been 

 cut from national forest lands, encour- 

 agement is given to adding output from 

 privately owned wood lots and other 

 timberlands. Because the contracts re- 

 quire the use of good forest practices as 

 a condition of marketing, productivity 

 of the forested acreage is improving. 

 A further requirement is that the par- 

 ticipants cannot employ others to work 

 for them; members of a family or 

 neighbors, therefore, usually work to- 

 gether on a partnership basis, and no- 

 body can form a group of undesirable 

 "gyppo" operators that could circum- 

 vent the primary purpose. 



The area is fortunate in that the only 

 equipment necessary for cutting is an 

 ax and a buck saw. 



The AuSable Forest Products Asso- 



ciation has proved to be good business 

 for its members, companies that buy 

 its products, and the public agencies 

 whose work it furthers. Similar coop- 

 eratives possibly can be successful in 

 places where the following conditions 

 exist: The product to be harvested is 

 of low value with little margin for 

 profit and risk; the annual cut is rela- 

 tively small, so that the total margin 

 does not attract large operators; some 

 agency is at hand to aid the organiza- 

 tion during its formative years; local 

 experienced wood cutters are avail- 

 able; only a small investment per per- 

 son is required; and a local individual 

 or organization is willing to lend money 

 under strict supervision at 5 or 6 per- 

 cent interest. 



JOHN E. FRANSON is forest ranger 

 on the Lower Michigan National For- 

 est, with headquarters at East Tawas. 



EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT ON CHIPPEWA 



H. BASIL WALES 



The great pineries of the Lake 

 States helped tremendously in the in- 

 dustrial and agricultural development 

 of the Midwest. But because sawmills 

 were operated on the basis of cut-out- 

 and-quit, timber was harvested with- 

 out thought of the future ; stands were 

 cut over and burned without giving 

 heed to the new crop that otherwise 

 would have followed. The sawmills on 

 the pine stands in the Lake States were 

 on their way out by 1900, with little 

 prospects of future production of the 

 prized pine construction lumber. 



The story of the Chippewa National 

 Forest illustrates what could have been 

 done throughout the Lake States to in- 

 sure future productivity and how the 

 crude measures to secure a new forest 

 developed into extensive management 

 and then intensive management. 



At the close of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury some of the best pine timber that 

 remained in the Lake States was on 



Indian reservations in Minnesota. Pres- 

 sure by lumbermen for more timber to 

 clear cut and the pressure by women's 

 clubs and other organizations to save 

 the timber by placing it in a national 

 park finally led to a compromise. Con- 



fress instructed the Secretary of the 

 nterior to sell timber on Indian reser- 

 vations and hold the money for the 

 benefit of the Indians. 



The Morris Act of 1902 included a 

 feature unique among land laws in 

 that 5 percent of the timber stand on 

 certain lands in north-central Minne- 

 sota was to be reserved from cutting 

 and held for seed-tree purposes as the 

 pinelands were cut over, they were to 

 be dedicated to forestry. Thus, one of 

 the first large-scale efforts in forest 

 management in this country was a har- 

 vest of virgin white pine and red pine, 

 with a provision for regeneration of the 

 stand. Nearly 200,000 acres of such 

 forestry lands were to be selected and 



