RAILWAYS AND FOREST PROTECTION 



Bv R. H. AISHTON, 



Vice-President of the Chicago & Noethwestern Railway. 

 (An address delivered at the Lake States Conference, St. Paul, December 6.) 



XHAVE been ai^ked to prepare a paper on the interests of the railways in 

 protecting forests. First, let us consider what are the interests of the 

 mil ways in these three states represented in the conference, and through 

 which these railways pass. In Minnesota there are, approximately, 33,400,()()() 

 acres of forest area; in Wisconsin, approximately, 20,300,000 acres of forest 

 area, and in Michigan, approximately, 24,800,000, making a total in the three 

 great states of 78,()00,000 acres of forest that we are here to try to protect. 



In Minnesota, located within the forest area alone, there are 2,000 miles 

 of railway; in Wisconsin there are 2,300 miles, and in Michigan there are 

 3,200 miles, or in the three great states 7.500 miles, lying wholly within the 

 foi-est area, and this does not include logging roads, double tracks, sidings, 

 spurs or anything but main tracks. 



In the operation of these railways, and used exclusively within this for- 

 ested area, there are, in the state of Minnesota, in regular service, 350 loco- 

 motives; in Wisconsin, 450, and in Michigan, 530, or an approximate total of 

 1,330, employed regularly, and this does not take into account extra locomo- 

 tives required for relief, shopping, or to meet emergencies or exigencies in 

 business ; and it is safe to say that to perform the service in the forested area 

 in these states tliere are employed each year at some period of the year or 

 other approximately 1,800 locomotives. 



The magnitude of the traffic through these districts can probably be best 

 indicated by the statements that in the forest area of Minnesota there are 

 moving daily 126 passenger trains; in Wisconsin, 240, and in Michigan, 230, 

 or a total of 596 passenger trains daily moving through some part or other of 

 this forest area. 



There are also operated daily through this forest area, in Minnesota, 250 

 freight trains; in Wisconsin, 340, and in Michigan, 350, or a total of 940 

 freight trains daily, all of which move through this forest district. 



It is hardly necessary for me to call your attention to the fact that the 

 railways are, and will be for years to come, the greatest single consumers of 

 the products of this timber country, and furnish a ready market for the set- 

 tlers, lumbermen, and for other interests, and they realize fully, I think, the 

 benefits accruing to them through conservation of the remaining forest areas 

 in these states lying right at their doors, and they also realize fully that for 

 every dollar they pay for piling, posts, lumber or ties throughout this district 

 a certain portion of it comes back to them necessarily through the cleaning 

 up and cultivation of the country; the bringing in of an additional number 

 of people who are capable of earning a livelihood, and for whom they must 

 transjiort the necessaries of life, and to whom they must look for their support. 



From another standpoint : Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan 



forest country is today the most attractive fishing, hunting and summer resort 



territory left in this great country of ours and is tributary to the greatest 



centers of population in the country with the single exception of the Atlantic 



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