CREATION AND ORGANIZATION 7 



Pacific, was completed in 1869. Others soon fol- 

 lowed. To encourage construction and settlement 

 vast tracts of land were granted to the railroad 

 companies by the Government, and with the land 

 much valuable timber passed from government 

 ownership. After the construction of the railroads 

 towns and villages sprang up like mushrooms. As 

 was to be expected with this increased development 

 the destruction of our forests received an added 

 impetus. The Lake States, then the center of 

 the lumber industry, began to take alarm at the 

 rapidity with which their hillsides were being de- 

 nuded. Destructive lumbering, usually followed 

 by devastating forest fires, was fast decimating the 

 virgin pine forests. The young growth that had 

 escaped the lumberman's ax fell a prey to forest 

 fires which soon took the form of annual conflagra- 

 tions. As the population increased the new sec- 

 tions of the country were settled, and as manufac- 

 turing operations were extended timber was getting 

 higher in price. 



The Lake States First to Act. The first at- 

 tempt to remedy the situation was made by the 

 State of Wisconsin. In 1867 the Wisconsin legis- 

 lature suggested a committee who should report 



