' 



THE MICHIGAN FORESTRY 

 ASSOCIATION 



Initial Meeting at Grand Rapids, Michigan. 



For some years the friends of the forestry movement 

 in Michigan have had in mind the organization of a 

 body of people who should utilize the Association in the 

 interests of reforestation in Michigan along the same 

 lines of work which have been accomplished in the 

 State by the Horticultural Society and which have re- 

 sulted in developing such a tremen- 

 Preparing dous commercial and amateur inter- 



the "Way est in horticultural progress. The 



work of the State Horticultural Soci- 

 ety had led up to this by inserting forestry subjects 

 into its programs from time to time, and even giving 

 up whole sessions of its conventions to forests and for- 

 est management. It remained for Mr. Thornton A. 

 Green, of Ontonagon, Michigan, to actually initiate the 

 movement which led to the formation of the Michigan 

 Forestry Association, on the 2gth and 3oth of Septem- 

 ber, 1905. Mr. Green, through correspondence, acting 

 as provisional secretary, had canvassed the State for 

 membership and secured something over 300 members 

 upon which the society should found its structural 

 work. The first thought was to hold the initial meet- 

 ing at Mackinac Island, so as to be 

 Place of convenient to both Peninsulas. It 



Meeting subsequently developed, however, that 



so large a portion of the membership 

 was in and about Grand Rapids, and the season of the 

 year at a time when it might be difficult to secure a 

 large attendance from outside the immediate locality 

 in which the meeting should be held, that Mr. Green 

 and his associates decided it was best to launch the 

 organization at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mr. Chas. 

 W. Garfield made local arrangements for holding the 

 day part of the meeting in Park Congregational Church ; 

 and upon invitation of the Grand Rapids Board of Li- 

 brary Commissioners, the evening session was held in 

 Ryerson Library. 



Prof. Filibert Roth, of Ann Arbor arranged the de- 

 tails of the provisional program, and it was printed and 

 sent out over the State. A literary bureau was opened 

 at Grand Rapids previous to the meeting, and circu- 

 lars and letters were sent out in large numbers, the 

 Grand Rapids newspapers taking hearty interest in the 

 undertaking and devoting a good deal 

 A of space in their columns to the work 



Literary of advertising the convention. The 



Bureau Michigan Tradesman which has a large 



circulation in the State, published for 

 several weeks previous to the Convention articles upon 

 the subjects which would naturally come before the 

 Convention, which were prepared by Prof. Roth and 

 Mr. Garfield. 



Mr. Sargent, curator of the Kent Scientific Museum, 

 kindly consented to make a forest exhibit in adornment 

 of the vestry at Park Church, with material which had 



