FORESTRY COMMISSIONS WISCONSIN. 181 



The latest legislation for a commission of inquiry was enacted in Wisconsin in 1897: 



AN ACT to provide for a committee to draw up a plan to protect and utilize the forest resources of the State of Wisconsin. 



The people of the State of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows: 



Section. 1. The governor is hereby authorized to appoint a commission consisting of three members who shall 

 devise and draw up a plan for the organization of a forestry department, which shall have the management of such 

 State lands as may be suitable for timber culture and forestry. The said commissioners shall embody in their plan 

 provisions for the classi6cation of the lands now owned by the State and lhe reservation to the State of all lands 

 which are better fitted for the growing of timber than for agricultural purposes ; the purchase of similar lands which 

 may have been abandoned by their owners, or may have been struck off to counties for unpaid taxes ; the management 

 of the forests existing on such lands according to the principles of scientific forestry; the replanting of forests on 

 such lands, as far as they have been denuded of their timber; and such other provisions as may be deemed advisable. 

 They shall aim at devising the best means by which the forest resources of the State can be utilized for the people 

 and preserved for future generations without retarding the development of the agricultural, manufacturing, and 

 mining industries; shall have regard to the influence which the maintaining of forests has upon the climate and 

 water supply of the State; and shall draw up a plan by which the forestry department may be from the first self- 

 supporting and in time become a source of revenue to the State. The report of said commissioners shall be submitted 

 to the legislature of the State at its next regular session, within the first ten days after the beginning thereof, in 

 the form of a bill or bills. 



Sec. 2. Said bill or bills may be accompanied by a report explaining the provisions of such bill or bills and 

 giving the reasons for any of the provisions contained therein. The said bill or bills, together with such report, 

 shall be printed by the State printer at the expense of the State in not more than five hundred copies, and shall be 

 distributed to such persons as the governor may direct. 



Sec. 3. The said commissioners shall receive no compensation for their services, but shall be entitled to their 

 actual and necessary expenses, including clerk hire, which expenses and clerk hire shall not, in the aggregate, exceed 

 two hundred and iifty dollars, to be paid by the State treasurer upon warrants drawn by the secretary of state, upon 

 verified statements made by the chairman of such commission. The superintendent of public property shall furnish 

 such commission with the suitable and necessary stationery for the performance of such work. 



Sec. 4. There is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, a sufficient 

 sum to carry out the provisions of this bill. 



Sec. 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication. 



Approved April 14, 1897. 



The commission appointed by the governor sought the cooperation of the Division of Forestry 

 of the Department of Agriculture, whose experts, in cooperation with the State geological survey, 

 made a comprehensive forest survey of the forested counties of the State, upon the basis of which 

 the commission is framing its propositions. 



The State also has an effective forest-fire law, which is in charge of a special commissioner, as 

 will be shown later. 



In Minnesota, as a consequence of the terrible warning by the fires of 1894, on April 18, 1895, 

 the legislature passed "an act to provide for the preservation of forests and for the prevention 

 and suppression of forest fires," under which the State auditor was made ex officio forest com- 

 missioner, with a chief fire warden as executive officer in charge of the organized service to 

 combat forest fires. Beyond these duties the latter officer is only required to add to his report 

 u suggestions relative to the preservation of the forests of the State and to the prevention and 

 extinguishment of forest and prairie fire." Three annual reports have so far appeared and show 

 the wisdom of the legislation. 



An effort was made during the legislative session of 1897 to secure the enactment of the 

 following bill, which passed the house but failed to reach a vote in the senate. The bill is included 

 here, notwithstanding its failure to become a law, because it embraces a novel and interesting 

 method of securing to the State the benefits of a forest reservation. 



AN ACT to encourage the growing and preservation of forests, and to create forest boards and forest reserve areas. 



(Sections 1 to 8 provide for the acquirement of forest reserve areas, the appointment of a forestry board of 

 nine members, who shall serve without pay other thau the reimbursement of actual expenses incurred, and who 

 shall have a secretary, and elect a president and vice-president. The State treasurer is made treasurer of the board, 

 and county commissioners and town supervisors are made county and town forestry boards. The duties of the 

 boards are defined, and the remainder of the bill, embracing its unique features, is as follows:) 



Sec. 9. Any person or corporation being the owner in fee simple of any cutover or denuded, or partially cutover 

 or partially denuded, natural forest lands, which will not probably be utilized for many years for agricultural 

 purposes, or any bare or waste, or partially bare or waste, rough prairie lands, or any very sandy, very rough, or 



