1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



259 



THE LEGISLATIVE OUTLOOK FOR FORESTRY IN 



WISCONSIN.* 



BY ERNEST BRUNKEN. 



Although the problem of legislation for 

 the establishment of an adequate forestry 

 policy differs in detail in the various States 

 of the Union, yet the essential conditions 

 are so nearly alike in all parts of the coun- 

 try, that an outline of the present state of 

 affairs in Wisconsin will not be without 

 interest to citizens of other common- 

 wealths. It is with this confidence that I 

 have accepted the invitation to present to 

 the Association a bird's-eye view of the 

 outlook for forestry legislation in my home 

 State. 



It is a little humiliating to confess, at 

 the very outset, that a State like Wiscon- 

 sin, which is second to none in regard to 

 the economic importance of its forest in- 

 terests, is far behind several other States 

 equally situated, as far as their legislative 

 recognition is concerned. Although it was 

 one of the earliest to appoint a commis- 

 sion with purely advisory powers, no defi- 

 nite step to protect its forests was ever 

 taken beyond the enactment of a wholly 

 insufficient fire warden law. The first 

 commission of inquiry submitted a report 

 i.o the Legislature as early as 1867. It 

 consisted of a somewhat amateurish dis- 

 cussion of the climatic and physical effects 

 of forest destruction, some well-meant ad- 

 vice on the subject of planting shade trees, 

 and a description of the principal native 

 forest trees. It made no propositions for 

 legislative action. For nearly thirty years 

 thereafter, no laws relating to forest mat- 

 ters were passed, except those designed to 

 further the ordinary destructive lumbering. 

 But in 1895 a law was adopted making 

 town supervisors and road superintendents 

 fire wardens ex-officio. The towns were 



fci/ 



restricted, however, from expending more 

 than $100.00 a year in fighting forest fires. 

 Even in this first attempt at legislation, 

 the important principle was recognized 



*Read at the meeting of the American For- 

 estry Association in New York on June 26. 



that there must be a central authority to 

 supervise the execution of this law. But 

 the means taken for this purpose were 

 utterly inadequate. The chief clerk of the 

 Land Office was made the State Forest 

 Warden, and all local fire wardens were to 

 report to him on fires in their districts. As 

 a matter of fact, few ever did report, and 

 not many more of these ex-officio fire war- 

 dens ever paid the slightest attention to 

 forest fires, unless these burned up their 

 own premises, and not always then. 



The Legislature of 1897 took a few very 

 small steps in advance. It provided for 

 the appointment of special fire wardens, 

 instead of conferring the duties of that 

 office on officers elected for entirely differ- 

 ent purposes; and it authorized the chief 

 clerk to spend a small amount for the post- 

 ing up of warning signs. Still, the chief 

 clerk, being kept very busy with other 

 duties, was unable to exercise even a faint 

 supervision, and a majority of the fire 

 wardens paid no more attention to prevent- 

 ing or extinguishing fires than the ex-officio 

 wardens had done before them. This state 

 of a desuetude by no means innocuous still 

 prevails with regard to the forest fire law 

 of Wisconsin. 



At the same session of the Legislature, a 

 law directing the appointment of another 

 commission of inquiry was adopted. The 

 new commission obtained the advice and 

 cooperation of the United States Forestry 

 Division. One of the results of this co- 

 operation was the excellent account of the 

 forest condition of the northern half of tin- 

 State, by Prof. Filibert Roth, with which 

 most members of this Association are iu> 

 doubt familiar. To the Legislature of i 

 this commission submitted a bill which, if 

 adopted, would have put \Viscon--in in 

 advance of every other State in regard to 

 the treatment of its forest resource*. A 

 determined effort was made to push the 

 bill through the two Houses, Init it failed 



