22 STATE OF MICHIGAN. 



YEAKLY REPOirr OF THE WARDEN OF FOREST RESERVES. 



To the Michigan Forestry Commission: 



Gentlemen — The lands set aside by the act 1903 as forest reserves are 

 all the State lands in Town 21 north, ranges 3 and 4 west, and the lands 

 in the north half of Town 24 north, and the south half of Town 25 north, 

 both in range 4 west, the lands of the last mentioned half town being in 

 Crawford county, the rest in Roscommon county, of this State. The 

 two bodies of lands being widely separated, those of Towns 24 and 25 

 Icoated north and west of Higgins l^ake will be spoken of as district 

 1^0. 1, anjd those in Town 21 north, located south of Houghton Lake, 

 will be mentioned as district No. 2 of the Roscommon reserves. 



The lands forming these reserves are not in contiguous, solid bodies, 

 but are interrupted by other holdings. The total area of the reserves of 

 both districts amounts to about 34,000 acres, or about half of the entire 

 area of the towns in which they are located. Of this 34,000, about 7,300 

 acres belong to district Xo. 1. and 26,700 acres to district No. 2. To this 

 area must be added about 3,700 acres of United States lands, which have 

 been withdraivn from settlement and entry, and may be regarded as part 

 of the reserves. 



In respect to distribution of reserve lands, the different towns differ. 

 In the western half of district No. 2 (south of Houghton Lake) the re- 

 serve lands occupy about 70%, in the eastern half about 50%, while in 

 district No. 1 they occupy only about 30% of the entire area. Similarly, 

 there are but few entire, regular sections belonging to the reserves, the 

 majority of tracts being fractional sections or irregular aggregates of 

 such. 



Practically all of the reserve lands are drained by the Muskegon river, 

 and form quite an important portion of the upper watershed of this 

 strea)n. As seen from the map, Muskegon river runs through a. portion 

 of the reserve in district No. 2, and a small part of district No. 1 touches 

 on Higgins Lake. 



While a detailed forest and land survey is now in progress, and- the 

 following statement will, naturally, have to be modified considerably in 

 accordance with the findings of this survey, a brief general description in 

 this connection appears desirable. 



The lands of the reserve are a typical portion of the broad, flat rise of 

 land from which the Manistee, Muskegon, Au Sable and Tittabawassee 

 carry their large volumes of water west and east to the Great Lakes. As 

 is well known, this rise of land bears the character of a low plain, and 

 lacks entirely the well defined valleys and ridgelike backbone of the 



