MICHIGAN S FIGHT FOR FORESTS 



By P. S. Lovejoy 



Secretary Michigan Forestry Association 



A REGULAR historian would have to begin at the 

 ^^ other end, but the fact is that Michigan is setting 

 the pace for the nation in matters of land economics. That 

 is curious, too, for decade after decade Michigan has 

 been the favorite hangout for the sand-land swindlers, 

 the boomer and the forest fire. But perhaps economic 

 diseases develop their own anti-toxins. If so, perhaps 

 Michigan's sudden change may be explained. A third 

 of Michigan is virtually or actually bankrupt. Many 

 other states are in like shape; but Michigan admits it. 



"No Hokum At All," Says Governor 



In any case, having listened to the heads of State 

 Departments and Bureau Chiefs, and having checked 

 through their detailed and interlocking plan for the 



stopping at every house to find out whether it was 

 occupied, and if so, how the occupants happened to be 

 there and how they were getting along; and how far 

 it was to school and water; and asking what had be- 

 come of the people who used to live in the empty 

 houses; and how long since fire had been on the hill; 

 and kicking old stumps to find out what sort of forest 

 had originally been on that land, and marking in on 

 the tally sheets what sort of forest was there now if 

 any at all, and what sort of forest was apt to be there 

 in fifty years; and comparing what they found on the 

 land with the records in the courthouse; taking in- 

 ventory of land affairs from deer sign and trout to 

 the area of farms in alfalfa and the assessed value of 

 virgin basswood. Perfectly real; in Michigan; just 



WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE PAillLIES WHO ONCE LIVED ON THESE FARMS, NOW DESEUTED' THERE WERE 

 THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF ABANDONED AND BANKRUPT LAND AND WITHIN TEN YEARS THE STATE HAD LOST 

 10,500 FARMS AND A BILLION FEET OP LUMBER WAS BEING LMPORTED EVERY YEAR 



reclamation of Michigan's idle lands, now amounting 

 to some 12,000,000 acres, it seemed too good to be true. 

 So I went in and asked Governor Groesbeck about it. 

 This was a campaign year, I said. And how much of 

 all this program stuff was real and bona fide adminis- 

 tration policy and how much of it was campaign 

 hokum ? 



No hokum at all, the Governor told me. And, yes, 

 it would be correct to state that the Governor would 

 take the essentials of the big idea out on the stump 

 this fall : Inventory-survey, fire control, farm and for- 

 est development. And, yes, the facts were uncomfort- 

 able but not to be denied. Time to go straight. 



Up in Charlevoix county I saw the crews of the 

 official Soil and Economic Survey quartering the 

 country, mapping soil and topography and cover; 



as the professors of the Michigan Academy of Science 

 had recommended in 1920. Astonishing. 



On the oldest State Forest where, in 1905, we stu- 

 dents had dragged our clothesline surveyor's chains 

 through the scattering brush for $20 a month, I saw 

 whole forests of popple and oak and pine, almost 

 merchantable already; saw a hundred miles of rod- 

 wide, tractor-made fire lines blocking the quarter and 

 forty lines, and lookout towers sticking up every few 

 miles; thousands of acres of hand-set pine, doing 

 nicely; one of the biggest forest nurseries in America, 

 with a seed-extracting house in one corner and a con- 

 crete reservoir, under ground, as big as a church and 

 filled by a hydraulic ram. 



In Lansing the Secretary of the Conservation De- 

 partment spread out a chart bigger than his desk and 



