8 MICHIGAN FORESTRY. 



Wild animals were driven by the fierce pursuing flames into the clear- 

 ings and even into the very heart of the town where I saw a fine black bear 

 treed and captured by Mr. Thomas Merrill whose courage and resolution 

 filled my heart with an admiration, which in his ninetieth year, with his noble 

 life and sturdy bearing, he still commands. 



Immense conflagrations followed in 1871 and 1881 overrunning vast regions 

 of the state with such destruction of life and property as to evoke the charity 

 of the state and the nation. 



These fires originated in and were mainly confined to the pine bearing 

 areas, spreading either in the standing timber or over the debris left by our 

 lumbermen. 



Today with our pine forests gone and the old slashings generally burned 

 over again and again, consuming the combustible material, the fire perils of 

 these earlier days no longer seriously threaten us. The larger proportion of 

 the territory which bore pine is now devoted to agriculture and this will be 

 greatly increased. 



It is now the aim and end of the State Forestry Commission, acting 

 in obedience to a great and enlightened public demand to bring about a 

 renewal of the forest growth over areas unfitted for profitable farming, and 

 if forest fires can be prevented or controlled, this result can be easily obtained. 

 There are scarcely any of our northern pine plains that will not produce tim- 

 ber of some variety and value. Experiments now being made will determine 

 the varieties best suited to soil, climate conditions and ultimate benefit and 

 money profit. 



When plantings are made fine lanes can be established and there can be 

 alternations or bands of coniferous and deciduous trees to diminish the fire 

 risk. 



When the timber is self seeding in pine, as in the case with the greater por- 

 tion of the reserve, these fire lanes must be established and outlined with a 

 double line of plowed furrows, each year burned between. 



With these preparations and proper diligence on the part of the fire wardens 

 the fire danger would be small, except for the gross carelessness of those who 

 •most enjoy the varied pleasures which the forest yields. 



The hunter, the camper, the fisherman, the berry picker, build fires, which 

 they wantonly permit to spread over the country before their eyes on their 

 mission of destruction. 



Camp fires unextinguished, burning smudges, carelessly thrown cigar stubs, 

 are the cause of hundreds of forest fires each one preventable — unnecessary — • 

 criminal, because the property of another is destroyed. 



All this in disobedience of present laws and until these laws are respected the 

 fire hazard is great and the cost of the fire patrol proportional thereto. 



Rather than rely too strongly upon the enforcement of the laws we must 

 arouse in our people a sense of responsibihty for their acts. For reasons 

 which go back into our early history forest ownership has never had the 

 general respect and sanctity that was accorded improved property. A citizen 

 who sitting on a jury would send a man to prison for burning a $200 building, 

 hghtly and without conscience fires and destroys $2,000 worth of standing 

 timber. 



But when a state or individual is growing or virtually creating a forest, the 

 sentiment of exclusive ownership and right to protection is bound sooner 

 or later to be awakened, and the main obstacle to forest propagation removed. 



Meantime, through the ever helpful press as our best ally, and the aid of 

 the many friends who are uphold!" r ;-::- ':.-r:l: l:± , '..,_, "i ' ,, 



