On account of the good market for spruce and 
jack pine pulpwood, and the steady demand for 
red and white pine for lumber, piling, mine tim- 
bers, etc., there is a tendency to cut these species 
as soon as they reach minimum merchantable size. 
Young hardwoods are also being cut on many 
areas for chemical wood, ties, posts, and fuel. 
Farmers and small operators on lands close to 
larger cities are the worst offenders in this respect. 
Wastes and Losses Unnecessarily Large 
A system of high-grading in which the most 
valuable species are removed, but large volumes 
of soft maple, elm, black ash, hemlock, aspen, and 
paper birch, and cull trees of other species, are left 
standing, is a rather common method of logging in 
districts far removed from consuming centers. 
No part of the Upper Peninsula can be considered 
wholly inaccessible, but many parts are sufficiently 
distant from markets or are so lacking in transpor- 
tation facilities that they present serious marketing 
problems. The trees left standing in these locali- 
ties retard the establishment and growth of valua- 
ble reproduction and invite the spread of insects 
and disease. 
Accumulations of slash from logging operations 
and the presence of numerous defective and in- 
fested trees on such large areas of land are contri- 
buting factors in an annual loss by forest fires and 
other destructive agencies of 60 million feet of 
saw timber, and 1% million cords of other poten- 
tially merchantable wood. 
Serious fire hazards are created wherever large 
contiguous blocks of timber are logged by the 
prevalent clear-cutting or heavy partial-cutting 
methods. Operators are required by law to take 
certain precautions to prevent spread of fire, and 
some go considerably beyond legal requirements 
in safeguarding operations. Nevertheless, the spe- 
cial hazard which remains for two or three years 
in hardwoods and up to eight or ten years in some 
of the softwood types puts an added burden on the 
State protective organizations which are already 
fully occupied in bad fire periods. 
The 1,204,000 acres of deforested land and 2,082,- 
000 acres of aspen in their present condition are 
doubtful assets to the Upper Peninsula. The 
aspen forests are producing large volumes of wood 
but of such small size and poor quality that only 
24 
a small fraction can be utilized for commercial 
purposes. The deforested lands, unless helped by 
improved fire protection and in part by planting, 
will remain nonproductive for the rest of the 
century. 
Outlook Unfavorable With Present Trends 
Continued clear-cutting of old-growth forests and 
failure to protect and stimulate regrowth during 
the next two decades will unquestionably reduce the 
productivity of the Upper Peninsula forests to the 
extent that one-half to three-fourths of the present 
industries will have to close, and the dependent 
industries in the Lower Peninsula and Wisconsin 
will suffer proportionately. 
With as many as 47,000 employable persons 
unable to obtain regular work in recent years, 
and with activity in mining and other industries 
static or tending to decline, every effort is being 
made to maintain forestry work at a high level. 
Unfortunately much of the present work is of a 
destructive rather than a constructive nature. 
Liquidation of forest resources will unavoidably 
add to the unemployment problem 10 to 15 years 
hence. The eastern counties, and those of the 
Keweenaw Peninsula, are already feeling the 
pinch of depleted resources. 
Every mill that closes and every tract of timber- 
land logged off and allowed to go tax delinquent 
adds to the tax burden on remaining property. 
When it is realized that Upper Peninsula counties 
are already facing serious difficulties in local 
finances, and, furthermore, that the bulk of the 
taxable resources in many townships consists of 
forest industries and standing timber, the reality 
of the danger becomes apparent. 
Exhaustion of timber resources and decreases in 
opportunities for part-time work in the woods and 
mills will have a most adverse effect upon farming, 
particularly in those districts where full-time 
commercial agriculture has not proved practicable. 
Destruction of timber and practices which increase 
the fire danger are naturally detrimental to the 
tourist trade. It is not necessary to have vast areas 
of virgin timber to bring tourists into the district, 
but a thrifty and growing forest is necessary to 
maintain the attractiveness of the landscape. 
If the remaining timber resources are destroyed, 
it will require most of another century to restore 
