752 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



department and hired back the man who created it, 

 giving him facilities for enlarging his staflF and equip- 

 ment. This was in 1912. 



Lansing and Ann Arbor were now hardly on speaking 

 terms. After having been well slapped by its thank- 

 less progeny, 

 the Associa- 

 tion decided to 

 wait watchful- 

 ly. Besides, it 

 had strained 

 itself in its 

 attack on the 

 legislature and 

 a secretary 

 had been care- 

 less in ac- 

 k n o wledging 

 receipts. Ann 

 Arbor was 

 writing books 

 and teaching. 

 Grand Rapids 

 was banking. 

 Detroit was 

 practicing law. 

 The Associa- 

 tion flag re- 

 m a i n e d at 

 half-mast. 

 Things seemed to have gone to pot. To the conster- 

 nation of the regulars, the Commission employed a 

 Biltmore graduate, called him State Forester, set him 

 well out in the Roscommon sands and pretty much 

 forgot him. To the horror of the faithful the Com- 

 mission had taken as its secretary and active executive 

 an ex- State Land Commissioner, the law setting up no 

 specifications as to this officer, save that he should 

 have "a good general knowledge of Michigan land 

 laws." 



The Dark Age In Michigan Forestry 



The dark age of Michigan forestry lies between 1910 

 and 1915. Of it little is to be recorded, save that the 

 Public Domain Commission appears to have given 

 adequate attention to the leasing of the St. Claire flats, 

 and discharged its obligation in re agricultural de- 

 velopment by printing an ornate bulletin called "Michi- 

 gan The Land of Plenty." Whenever the Commission 

 tried to get a little more money Out of the legislature, 

 the Association started its hammer again, and with 

 some effect. Once officers of the Association having 

 sent the legislators personal communications entitled 

 "Friends of Forestry Take Notice," Lansing moved 

 mysteriously and a University President requested a 

 Professor of Forestry to kindly lay off a spell at 

 least until the appropriation for the new science build- 

 ing might be safe. 



THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF HANDSET PINE SUCH AS THIS, AND DOING NICELY, ON 

 THE OLDEST STATE FOREST IN MICHIGAN. 



Finally the deadlock having become about complete, 

 in 1915, after delicate negotiations between Ann Arbor 

 and Lansing, the Commission and the Association came 

 into tentatively amicable contact. As the price of 

 burying the hammer the Association demanded that 



the Commis- 

 sion promul- 

 gate something 

 in the nature 

 of a general 

 plan or policy. 

 Hesitatingly 

 the Commis- 

 sion permitted 

 its State For- 

 ester to blue- 

 print a 60-year 

 planting plan 

 for the State 

 Forests, now 

 grown to some 

 400,000 acres. 

 This plan was 

 given the Uni- 

 versity forest- 

 ers for consid- 

 eration. Other 

 careful nego- 

 tiations having 

 been success- 

 ful, Lansing exchanges party calls with Ann Arbor 

 and presently dares invite Ann Arbor to inspect the 

 State Forests. The inspection disclosed a large and 

 excellent nursery, great blocks of successful plantations, 

 and the first real system of permanent fire-lines in 

 America. To all this Ann Arbor joyfully certified. 

 Thenceforth Ann Arbor was permitted mild suggestions 

 as to the conduct of state forest affairs. The Com- 

 mission presently did a radical thing and set a minimum 

 price on tax- reverted lands and refused to dispose of 

 them unless of somewhat agricultural character. 



The Fire Warden Makes Some Discoveries 



The legislature of 1914 had inadvertently advanced 

 the cause of land economics very materially. The 

 term of the Game, Fish and Fire Warden being about 

 to expire and the legislature being Republican, whereas 

 the Governor was a Democrat, there was great jeop- 

 ardy. By fast and clever work the Wardens had got- 

 ten themselves transferred to the jurisdiction of the 

 Public Domain Commission, thus getting land and 

 forest affairs into much sharper focus than before. 

 By 1916 the Game and Fire Warden had made and 

 published three discoveries: 1 That "brush" if un- 

 burned, often turned out to be young forest, and young 

 forest, if unburned, might become merchantable ; 2 

 That game and fur animals absolutely required green 

 forest covert ; 3 That a lookout tower had been 

 erected. 



