The Management of Mining Lands 

 for Forest Purposes 



Extracts from speech made by A. C. Le Due, Supt. of 

 Oliver Iron Mining Co., Duluth. 



IN the iron ore regions there are two methods of conduct- 

 ing mining operations, underground mining and open pit 

 mining. In each of these methods, timber is used in a 

 different manner. 



Up to a short time since it has been largely the custom to 

 leave unburned from year to year the slashings incident to 

 logging operations in the Great Lakes region. The necessity 

 of burning such slashings has increased yearly for the past 

 fifteen or twenty years, until today it is an absolute require- 

 ment for the protection of life and property. There has been 

 and is now a difference of opinion among timber operators of 

 this state as to the proper disposal of slashings. We are of 

 the opinion that instead of in any way hampering the efforts 

 of our forestry service in the work of proper slash disposal, 

 and in the patrolling of our forests during the summer sea- 

 son, we should give it our hearty and undivided co-operation 

 and support. 



Our company maintains a forest patrol service for the pro- 

 tection of its timber reserves against forest fires, and splen- 

 did results have been secured by hearty co-operation with 

 both the federal and state corps established for this purpose. 

 We also have given our state forester our best efforts in the 

 matter of slash disposal. In this work, our efforts date back 

 before the enactment of the slash disposal laws. For a jus- 

 tification of the proper disposal of slashings, we only need 

 to point to the great forest fires that have occurred in the 

 Great Lakes region. 



These fires were not confined to one locality, but in a sense 

 they extended from coast to coast. Within the confines of 

 our own state, slashings incident to logging operations were 

 a great factor in adding to their fierceness. If these fires 

 and the lesser fires had not been allowed to run, and some- 

 times repeatedly, over the slash left in logging the original 

 stands of timber in a large part of Michigan, Northern Wis- 



