FORESTRY IN WISCONSIN 



561 



500 and 1,000 acres. When it is 

 remembered that these sales covered 

 only 13 months, that the same men and 

 others had the same opportunities in 

 other years, and that certain classes of 

 these lands were sold on contracts with 

 an initial payment of only 25 per cent 

 of the appraised value and that the 

 balance could run 10 years and as a 

 matter of fact did run 20 and 30, and 

 even more years at 7 per cent interest, 

 we are aghast at the free-handed 

 methods employed of enriching private 

 interests at a frightful sacrifice to the 

 great public interest, and cease to be 

 surprised at the slaughter of the State 

 Park, the one bit of earth that had been 

 held for public use. 



It was legislative action that made 

 possible this condition of affairs. The 

 public interest, voiced in the news- 

 papers of the State, and to some extent 

 in the legislature, had no weight against 

 private demands. An employee of the 

 State Land Office obtained a request 

 from the State Senate for a report of 

 the land sales of 1882 and the legisla- 

 ture was put in possession of the facts, 

 but no action resulted at that time. 



The very legislature that put the 

 State Park lands on the market in 

 1897, had already passed a law providing 

 for the appointment of a Forestry 

 Commission of three members, who were 

 to draw up a plan for the protection 

 and utilization of the forest resources 

 of the State, and for the organization 

 of a forestry department and the 

 creation of a forest reserve. Thus it 

 is evident that the legislature was fully 

 enlightened as to the public needs at 

 the very moment that it yielded to 

 private demands and gave over the 

 beautiful forest park to be stripped of 

 its timber and left to the ravages of 

 forest fires. The chief argument which 

 was used by the lumbermen and land 

 speculators to induce the legislature 

 to throw the 50,000 acres of park 

 lands on the market was that settlers 

 were needed to help build up that 

 portion of the State. Today, eighteen 

 years after the sale was made, the 

 records show that in twenty-two town- 

 ships, an area of 500 square miles, there 

 are only twenty-one farmers. 



Six years elapsed before a forestry 

 department was actually created and a 

 forest reserve established. It was not 

 until the State had given up to private 

 enterprise about all it had to give, that 

 it was allowed to start a forest reserve 

 with the fragments that were left. 

 The timber was gone from much of the 

 land and private interests now had an 

 opportunity to sell back to the State the 

 cut-over, burned-over tracts that had 

 served their purpose. The reserve was 

 established. 



For about 8 years work was prose- 

 cuted diligently by the Forestry Depart- 

 ment. The region of the old State Park 

 was on the headwaters of the important 

 rivers of the State and included a great 

 natural reservoir of numerous lakes 

 and swamps. Here the reserve was 

 started with the remnants of the old 

 State Park lands as a nucleus. Cut- 

 over tracts were purchased and pro- 

 tected from fire. Young forest growth 

 thrived and in a few years there was a 

 marked change in the face of nature. 

 Then came the protest of private 

 interests again. 



The relation of the forest reserve to 

 the general welfare of the State may be 

 summarized as follows: There are 

 13,000,000 acres of undeveloped land 

 available for settlement in the State; 

 hence the retention of the relatively 

 poor lands in the forest reserve is not 

 retarding general agricultural develop- 

 ment. The rivers of the State furnish 

 water power to the extent of 1,000,000 

 horse power and the region of their 

 headwaters should be kept under forest 

 cover to maintain a more uniform 

 streamflow. The wood -using industries 

 in the State, aside from lumber or paper 

 and pulp manufacture, use more than 

 930 million feet of timber annually, 

 worth about $20,000,000, employ many 

 men, and turn wood into products 

 of greatly increased values. They now 

 get 50 per cent of their raw material 

 outside of the State, and if a supply of 

 raw material is not maintained, they 

 will remove to new fields in other 

 States. The forest reserve region, full 

 of lakes and streams, is a natural resort 

 region. Ninety-one public resorts are 

 now in operation there. The preserva- 

 tion of the forests here will, incidentally, 



