Annual Report of the Commission. 



To His EXCELLENCY, AARON T. BLISS, Governor of Michigan: 

 SIR Act 227 of the Public Acts of 1899, approved June 

 7, 1899, provides for the organization of the Michigan 

 Forestry Commission, and a provision of this act requires 

 from the Commission an annual report to the Governor. 



The fact that there is no session of the legislature this 

 winter is our excuse for not making a very full report of 

 the correspondence and papers which have been written 

 upon the subject of forestry in our State during the year, 

 but we desire to keep you informed with regard to our move- 

 ments, and through you to let the public know of the progress 

 made in the development of public interest in the work 

 which the legislature gave the Commission to perform. 



The last session of the Michigan legislature did not broaden 

 the work of the Commission nor give it any additional power 

 or authority, so we are still in the epoch of agitation and 

 education, with the principal duty upon us of disseminating 

 information by addresses and lectures, by communications to 

 the press and discussions before public bodies of the facts 

 connected with the forestry problem in Michigan, having the 

 hope constantly before us that in the near future a plan will 

 be evolved which can be prosecuted earnestly in the interest 

 of maintaining the standing of our commonwealth as a 

 lumbering as well as an agricultural state. The legislature, 



by concurrent resolution, turned "pvjsr (cj 'he> TFbr^strx pom- 

 mission fifty-seven thousand 'aore3 : of Sand''iA'''lidJcominon 

 and Crawford counties as a nucleus for a future forestry 

 preserve to be located about the sources of the great rivers 

 that rise in this part of the State. This action of the legis- 

 lature was based upon the recommendation of the Com- 

 mission that the most promising locality in which to build 

 up a permanent forest and game preserve is in that region 

 in which the Muskegon, Manistee, Big Thunder, Au Sable 

 and Titabavvassee rivers find their sources, and includes 

 portions of Roscommon, Crawford, Kalkaska and Clare coun- 

 ties. While prosecuting the general purposes of the Com- 

 mission it seemed wise to centralize our efforts upon some 

 definite plan for the future at as early a date as possible, 

 and this was the most promising place to work. 



Immediately after the concurrent resolution above men- 

 tioned became operative, the Commission began to investigate 

 the conditions and possibilities of the region in which this 

 area of land lies. After some correspondence with the 

 Forestry Bureau of the United States government by members 

 of the Commission, a promise was given by the bureau 

 to render us such help as it could in our initial investigation. 

 Mr. T. H. Sherrard, an expert from the bureau, was detailed 

 to spend some time in Roscommon county and vicinity, make 

 observations and advise the Commission as to the promises 

 for the future of a vast area of country of which these lands 

 turned over to the Forestry Commission were a type. 



