8 ■ FORESTRY BULLETIN 



ing in trout, grayling and other fish that attest to the purity of the water, 

 and the deer and other wild animals of the lower peninsula are almost en- 

 tirely confined to this locality. 



This region then, because of its area, water and excellent topography, is 

 the place upon whiqh to rear up a new forest and in fact there is no other 

 location in the lower peninsula where the state can control an area of land 

 suflScient in extent for that purpose. 



The present condition of the original forests of Michigan is the same 

 as that of any other property that has passed into the hands of an 

 owner, who sees in it only the dollars and cents which the article will 

 return when put upon the market. Fully ninety per cent of all the 

 wooded lands in our state are owned by parties who will convert the 

 timber into merchantable forms as fast as the market will receive it. 

 This assertion can be verified by an inspection of the offices of the 

 numerous lumbermen who still operate in this State, and who display 

 maps showing lots, sections and in many instances, whole townships be- 

 longing to the company controlling the same. The forest lands so held 

 are doomed, and the length of time they will remain in their present con- 

 dition is dependent entirely upon tie caprice of the owner and no great 

 amount of good can come from any discussion of these lands. Nor is this 

 condition to be entirely deplored. Much of the timber in these forests 

 is already past its prime; especially is this true of the larger tracts of 

 white pine and the crop should be harvested before many years pass by. 

 Yet if we could interest some of these large owners, men who have be- 

 come millionaires by handling Michigan timber, to use some care in the 

 cutting of these forests, we should accomplish much. 



There is always a good strong undergrowth in these wooded tracts, 

 among which are many seedlings of the better sorts of timber, and if these 

 could be preserved the undergrowth around them would shade and pro- 

 tect until they would finally take care of themselves. It is not necessary 

 to remove the old tops and pieces of tree trunks that are always left as 

 debris after cleaning off for timber, no person who is familiar with the 

 woods and the conditions attending the lumbering of a tract of land, 

 would ever advocate the removal of this refuse in order to burn it in some 

 other location, and as a matter of fact, it is much better to let it lie and 

 decay, helping to retain moisture and produce shade and protection for the 

 remaining timber growth. But here we furnish fuel for the forest fire 

 and upon the proper control of this one element almost entirely depends 

 the future of Michigan forestry. Wherever we find stump lands that 

 have not been burned and burned over again, we there find that Nature 

 has done and is still doing her best to restore the conditions which ex- 

 isted before lumbering commenced. 



Our government surveyors in the original surveys of the State some 

 sixty years ago, noted numerous windfalls. The small mounds of earth 

 fallen from the roots of the trees which went down before the great 

 tornadoes still mark the route taken, but the valuable growth of timber 

 which has since sprung up is a more substantial tracing. 



Sections three, four and nine of Town 23 N., R. 13 W., in Manistee 

 county are good examples. The United States Survey in the early forties 

 noted an extensive windfall "grown up to brush." We find the early 

 settlers avoiding this tract, because of the light timber growth, which to'- 



