PARKS FOR FOREST PRESERVATION. 



CHARLES CHRISTADORO. 



Had the buffalo remained with us to-day 

 in appreciable, though fast diminishing 

 numbers, unquestionably we would now 

 have a Society for the Preservation of the 

 Buffalo. The rapid extermination of the 

 game birds throughout the country has 

 stimulated hundreds of game protective so- 

 cieties leading to much beneficial legisla- 

 tion on the subject. The preservation of 

 song birds has been generally taken up 

 and the discouragement of the use of feath- 

 ers as decorations for women's hats has 

 resulted in destroying to a degree the mar- 

 ket of the plume hunter. 



The preservation of fish has been a study 

 for years, and the line is pretty closely 

 drawn in the Adirondack woods to-day be- 

 tween the question of whether paper mak- 

 ing with the consequent polluting of the 

 streams from the factories is more import- 

 ant than fish preservation. The great Se- 

 quoias of California, unmatched timber 

 giants, are threatened by the lumbermen's- 

 axe and saw, and a society is being formed 

 for their preservation. But recently the 

 Pinchot family of Washington donated 

 $150,000 to establish a Chair of Forestry at 

 Yale College; more work in the line of 

 preserving and perpetuating our fast dis- 

 appearing forests. 



The pine forests of the great Northwest 

 have been looked on for years as inex- 

 haustible, as was the buffalo when the lat- 

 ter dotted the plains in countless thou- 

 sands. Forty years ago the man who had 

 the temerity to raise his voice in favor of 

 preserving the buffalo from extermination 

 was laughed to scorn. The animals were 

 almost as plentiful as the sands of the 

 desert that they roamed, and to extermi- 

 nate them was seemingly beyond the power 

 of man. But the railroads came, and in 

 their wake the skin hunter, with his re- 

 peating rifle, and in time the bone hunter 

 finished the job as he piled the prairies 

 high with mountains of glisteniner bones 

 to be shipped East, calcined, and used for 

 purifving the sugar we eat. 



So was it with the forests. The tower- 

 ing groves of black walnut in the Middle 

 States first left the exterminating hand, 

 until a black walnut grove _ has become 

 only a memory. The magnificent bodies 

 of soft white nine, that queen of all woods, 

 in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, at- 

 tracted the lumberman. To listen to an 

 old-time logger describe the wastefulness 

 of the early timbering davs would be suffi- 

 cient to satisfy one that the pine was then 

 looked upon as inexhaustible. But under 

 the blows of millions of axes the trees be- 



gan to disappear, forest fires helping on 

 the work of destruction. Thirty years ago 

 far-seeing men stopped to figure, and 

 argued that the lumberman and settler 

 combined would wipe out the pine forests 

 in 10 years. Year after year was this 

 prophecy made, for 30 years back, until the 

 cry of "wolf" is beginning to come true. 

 Michigan is actually cut over. The great 

 State of Wisconsin, that has sent billions 

 of feet of merchantable pine and other 

 woods to the markets, is nearing the end 

 of its standing timber. 



In the old logging days only timber ad- 

 jacent to the streams which were within 

 reasonable hauling distance by oxen was 

 cut. Now they construct logging rail- 

 roads, cut the timber winter and summer, 

 and haul the logs in train loads to the 

 mills. 



Minnesota may be said to have more 

 standing white pine timber within her 

 boundaries than any other State, yet it is 

 only too rapidly disappearing. There are 

 those who speak of a 5 year limit now, in- 

 stead of the former 10 year estimate. One 

 of the surest signs of the cominqr of the 

 end is the fact that the heavy operators 

 in pine are looking to the spruce and fir 

 forests of the Pacific Coast, and have re- 

 cently invested millions of dollars in coast 

 lumber lands. 



In the Northern part of Minnesota, mid- 

 way of a straight line drawn from Duluth 

 to Crookston, is what is known as the 

 Chippewa Indian reservation. On this land 

 is to be found the greatest body of virgin 

 pine in the State of Minnesota. Here are 

 the 3 great ^kes, Leech, with 540 miles 

 of shore line, Cass, and Winnebegoshish. 

 Through this tract the infant Mississippi, 

 fresh from Lake Itasca, meanders, con- 

 necting these 3 great bodies of water with 

 70 smaller lakes. The woods teem with 

 deer and moose, as did the forest stretches 

 of New Yrk 200 years ago. The lakes and 

 streams abound in voracious muskalonge, 

 wily bass of gigantic size, and toothsome 

 wall-eyed pike. To fish in these waters is 

 to spoil one's self for like fishing in any 

 other section. There is a constant tempta- 

 tion to over fish, and load the boat with 

 more than one needs to catch. 



The scenery on these forest-encircled 

 lakes is second to none in this country. 

 The wildest and most scenic tracts in 

 Maine do not cmpare with it. The m- 

 terweaving streams and ever changing 

 scenery make this an ideal country for the 

 man or woman who loves nature in her 

 primeval state, The soil of this reserva- 



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