1 899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



161 



Conservation and Restoration. 



The Proposed Leech Lake Forest Re= 

 serve, JTinnesota. 



With the idea of providing the State 

 of Minnesota with a public park reserve, 

 larger, more easily accessible, and almost 

 as beautiful as the Yellowstone National 

 Park, a plan is being formulated, for in- 

 tended legislative action, regarding the 

 Leech Lake country in Minnesota. 



The balsamic forests of that region are 

 said to have healing powers not found 

 elsewhere, on account of which the lo- 

 cality has been suggested as the site for 

 a large sanitarium for wounded and dis- 

 abled soldiers, for whose support the 

 Government spends a large sum annu- 

 ally, in various States. 



The suggestion is made that these in- 

 valids, besides being greatly benefited 

 in health, could act as guards in the pro- 

 posed forest reservation, making the plan 

 not only feasible, but extremely practi- 

 cable from a financial view-point. 



The plan was originally suggested by 

 Colonel John S. Cooper, of Chicago, who 

 has been enthusiastically advocating the 

 movement until its success now seems 

 more than a mere possibility. 



Lumbermen and Charcoal /lakers 

 Next? 



The growth of popular interest in for- 

 est conservation has been very marked 

 during the past year, but even the most 

 enthusiastic advocates were hardly pre- 

 pared to hear that lumbermen and char- 

 coal makers the destroyers of the for- 

 estsare now taking steps to administer 

 their forests as permanent investments. 



A Minnesota lumberman, E. L. Reed, 

 of Anako, has determined to apply forest 

 principles to a tract of one thousand acres 

 of Pine lands in Mille Lacs County, ac- 

 cording to a recent article in the Minne- 

 apolis Journal. Other owners of forest 

 tracts in the same State have also deter- 

 mined to adopt conservative methods, 

 and are taking advantage of the offer 



made some time ago by the Division of 

 Forestry of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture. This plan provides, as heretofore 

 announced, for examining forest and 

 woodlands, and outlining a scheme of 

 scientific administration with a view to 

 the preservation of the forest as a whole, 

 while yielding an annual revenue. 



The preliminary examination of these 

 tracts has already been made under the 

 direction of Horace B. Ayres, special 

 agent of the Division of Forestry. 



Even more significant are the applica- 

 tions which have come from charcoal 

 makers in the upper peninsula of Michi- 

 gan, who desire to begin a system of 

 economical management of woodlands 

 from which they procure wood for the 

 charcoal kilns. After years of burning 

 without thought of preserving the source 

 of supply, they have become alarmed, 

 and want to make the remaining lands 

 furnish annual crops. 



The Enthusiasm of Conviction. 



Former Mayor T. P. Lukens, of Pasa- 

 dena, Cal., an evergreen seed-grower of 

 twenty-five years experience, intends to 

 spend the greater part of the Summer in 

 the mountains at Pine Lake, where he 

 has built a log cabin, and will devote his 

 time to forest investigation. He will col- 

 lect seeds of the Pinus tuberculata, take 

 them out by fire, and plant them in the 

 Fall in the burned districts above Pasa- 

 dena. In the absence of Government 

 aid, Mr. Lukens intends to give a per- 

 sonal object lesson in support of his 

 views. 



A Significant Showing. 



The applications from private land- 

 owners to the Division of Forestry of 

 the Department of Agriculture for a 

 scientific administration of their wood- 

 lands, under the recent offer of the De- 

 partment, represent a total of one and 

 one-half million acres. 



