742 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A Colony of Blue Herons 



Loons and blue herons are the most conspicuous 

 large water birds, and the herons have at least one 

 large colony of sixty nests. It is the intention of the 

 Forest Service to place a number of wood duck boxes 

 around the lakes, because hollow trees are scarce in 

 the park. One year a family of black ducks lived on 

 a secluded beaver pond all summer. 



The greatest need of the park is adequate fire pro- 

 tection. The region lies near to the western limit of 

 foirests, and is subject to occasional drouths in late 

 summer and fall. The forest is of the mixed northern 



character, consisting of white pine, Norway pine, jack 

 pine, balsam fir, spruce, tamarack, white cedar, paper 

 birch, poplar, and a mixture of other broad-leafed 

 species. 



Bradford Torrey might well have had Itasca State 

 Park in mind when he wrote 



"Ten thousand things we may have fretted ourselves 

 about, uselessly or worse. But to have lived in the 

 sun, to have loved natural beauty, to have felt the 

 majesty of trees, to have enjoyed the sweetness of 

 flowers and the music of birds so much, at least, is 

 not vanity or vexation of spirit." 



FOREST POSSIBILITIES OF NORTHERN MINNESOTA 



AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF SOME STARTLING THINGS WHICH A FORESTER IS FINDING 



IN HIS STUDY OF CUT-OVER LANDS 



By T. Schantz Hansen, Cloquet Experiment Station 



/^NE evening as we sat eating our supi^er in front of 

 ^-^ our camp tents, a big touring car pulled up along 

 side the road and stopped. A heavy-set man, whose 

 eyes were hidden behind brown-colored glasses but whose 

 fleshy face was highly colored from many days driving, 

 climbed out and came over to us. He was from Chicago, 

 he said, and was touring northern Minnesota with his 

 family. He was puzzled about the country. He couldn't 

 seem to make it out. It was too big. There were too 

 many great stretches of barren land. To his eye, un- 

 accustomed to the northern cut-overs, it looked like 

 something had stopped functioning somewhere. 



He had become so curious that he wanted to ask some 

 questions. He asked many questions and we told him 

 the story of the land. When we had finished and he 

 could think of nothing more to ask, he took off his brown 

 goggles and wiping them reflectively remarked: 



"Well, sir, I thought I ran a pretty big business down 

 in Chicago, but this country up here ! I'll say it's a man- 

 sized job." 



Bigness of country! Barrenness of large areas of 

 land ! These two things above all others impress them- 

 selves upon the traveler through northern Minnesota. 



TO THE TRAVELER SPEEDING THROUGH BY AUTO.MOBILE OR TRAIN THE COUNTRY LOOKED LIKE BRUSH LAND, 

 BUT AN EXAMINATION OF CUT-OVEE AREAS SHOWED THAT WHERE FIRES HAVE BEEN KEPT OUT A VOLUNTEER 



FOREST IS SPRINGING UP. 



