Report of the Forest Commission. 229 



MICHIGAN. 



Public Acts of Michigan, 1887 — Act No. 259. 



AN ACT to provide for an independent forestry commission of 

 the state of Michigan and to define^its duties and powers and 

 to provide for the expense thereof. 



Section I. The People of the State of Michigan enact. That the 

 members of the State Board of Agriculture are hereby constituted a 

 commission to be known as an independent forestry commission . 



§ 2. It shall be the duty of said forestry commission to institute an 

 inquiry into the extent to which the forests of Michigan are being 

 destroyed by fires, used by wasteful cutting for consumption or for the 

 purpose of clearing lands for tillage or pasturage; also as to the effect 

 of the diminution of the wooded surface of the land upon ponds, rivers 

 and water power of the State, and in disturbing and deteriorating the 

 natural conditions of the climate. Also as to the protection of denuded 

 regions, stump and swamp lands. 



§ 3. Said commission shall make report of the results of their inqui- 

 ries to the Governor of the State, together with such legislation as 

 seems. to them expedient to propose to preserve and restore the forest 

 wealth of the State, sixty days before the assembling of the legislature 

 for the year eighteen hundred and eighty nine, and the State printer, 

 under the direction of said commission, shall cause to be printed as 

 many copies of said report for distribution as they may deem expedient. 



§ 4. It shall be the duty of the supervisor of each township, on or 

 before the first Monday of June, eighteen hundred and eighty -eight, to 

 make a careful estimate of the area and condition as to the stage of 

 growth, density and character of forest land in their several towns; 

 also the area and waste of barren land on which valuable forest trees 

 might be grown, and report the same to the forestry commission. A 

 consolidated summary of these returns by counties, and of the informa- 

 tion as to the same matter otherwise gathered by said commission, shall 

 be included in the annual report. 



§ 5. The supervisor of every township as aforesaid and in which a 

 forest fire of more than one acre in extent has occurred within a year 

 shall report to the forestry commission the extent of area burned over, 

 to the best of his information, together with the probable amount of 

 property destroyed, specifying the value of timber, as near as may be, 

 and amount of cord- wood, logs, bark or other forest product; also 

 fencing, bridges and buildings that have been burned. They shall also 



