In each of the States, a number of school districts, 

 villaoes, to^\•ns, and cities have established memorial 

 or other commnnity forests of one kind or another. 

 In Wisconsin, 200 districts have designated school 

 forests aggregating 14,000 acres. The city of Mer- 

 rill, the town of "Washington in Vilas County, the 

 county of Juneau, together with 22 other local units 

 of government, have created community forests, 

 having a total area of 23,000 acres. In Michigan, 

 local tmits have acquired sufficient land by gift or 

 purchase to create forests aggregating about 50,000 

 acres. Minnesota communities have followed a 

 similar course. 



FARM WOODS - 



Farmers own one-fourth of all forest land in the 

 Lake States. In spite of the large demand for wood 

 in the farming districts, and in spite of a recognized 

 need for trees for soil protection, game conservation 

 (5-/), and windbreaks (35), relatively few farmers are 

 piu-posefully extending or improving their wood- 

 lands {48). Especially in the dairy belt, they look 

 upon woodlands as auxiliary pasture. 



In Minnesota, farm ^voods differ greatly in sepa- 

 rate districts. In the western prairie belt, the 

 woodlands cover only about 5 percent of the total 

 farm land and consist mainly of narrow strips of 

 bottom-land hard^voods along streams, open groves 

 of scrubby aspen or oak on certain uplands, and 

 numerous (and mostly decadent) shelter belts of 

 Cottonwood, green ash, and boxelder. Southeast, 

 the farm woods are remnants of former solid forests 

 of oak, maple, basswood, and elm, and occupy nearly 

 20 percent of the average farm. They remain pri- 

 marily on steep or poorly drained lands, and as a 

 rule show the effects of improper cutting, pasturing, 

 and occasional burning. Farther north, woodlands 

 make up nearly half of the typical farm -which, in 

 most cases, was taken up after loggers had removed 

 the virgin timber. Present woods embrace all types, 

 but are mainly young aspen. 



In Wisconsin, like^vise, the farm woodlands differ 

 considerably by districts. Southwest, oak, maple, 

 and elm woods cover about 30 percent of the farm 



= The acreage of forest land in farms as determined by llie 

 Forest Survey was somewhat larger tlran the "woodland in 

 farms" reported in the 1945 Census of Agriculture. This 

 report has used the census figure (rounded off) as equivalent 

 to the commercial forest area, assuming that some additional 

 noncommercial forest (brush and lightly wooded land) is in- 

 cluded in the census classification of "other land." 



land and protect the rolling luiglaciated soil from 

 \vater erosion. In the central sandy area, woods of 

 jack pine and scrub oak cover about one-third of 

 the farm land. In the intensively farmed and heav- 

 ily industrialized southeast, A\'Oods remain on onlv 

 a little more than 10 percent of the land. In the 

 north, nearly half of the farm land is still -wooded 

 ^vith aspen, young hard-^voods, and various s^vamp 

 forests. 



In Michigan, a similar pattern exists. In the 

 heavily industrialized southern half of the LoAver 

 Peninsula, only about 10 percent of the farm land 

 is in woods, but these ^voods include some stands ' 

 of maple, beech, and elm of high potential value. 

 In the north half of the Lower Peninsula, about 

 one-third of the farm land is forested -^nth aspen. 

 jack pine, scrub oak, young maple, and some s^vamp 

 timber. In the Upper Peninsula, nearly half the 

 farm acreage is wooded. 



OTHER PRIVATELY OWNED FOREST LANDS 



Private owners, other than farmers, control aboiu 

 16.7 million acres of commercial forest land in the 

 region. In the aggregate, these owners have a 

 somewhat larger than average proportion of land 

 bearing saw timber and pole timber. 



Thirty-four owners of large holdings (50,000 acres 

 or more each) control one-fifth of the total or about 

 3.2 million acres. Ninety-one owners of medium- 

 sized holdings (5,000 to 49,999 acres each) control 

 about 1.3 million acres. Owners of small holdings 

 control the remaining 12.2 million acres (fig. 21). 



Of the owners of large and mediiun-sized holdings, 

 50 are lumber companies; 20 are pulp companies. 

 The rest include companies engaged in mining, 

 railroading, power development, agricultural de- 

 velopment, as well as hunting clubs, estates, and 

 some land spectilators. The lumber company and 

 the pulp company groups each control aboiu 1.6 

 million acres (fig. 22). Holdings of the former are 

 declining, while those of the pulp companies have 

 increased more than 33 percent dining the past 5 

 years {1, 5, 41). 



Private tinrberland OAvners cite high and un- 

 certain property taxes as a major obstacle to sus- 

 tained--s'ield forest management. Merchantable 

 timber, although usually appraised considerably 

 beloAv Its market value, nevertheless is taxed each 

 year at rates which may deter many o-\vners fron-i 

 holding timber for continuous selective logging. 



20 



Forest Resource Report No. 1, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



