The Saint Paul globe., 1905-01-30
DESCRIBES CUTTING
ON FOREST RESERVE
Bureau Tells How Work Is
Being Done in Min
nesota

ncS0td
Globe Special Washington Service
1417 G Street
WASHINGTON, d. c., Jan. 29.-A
description of the work now going on
in cutting off the pine timber from
the proposed Minnesota national for
est reservation, according to the pro-
visions of the Norris act, has been
given out by the bureau of forestry.
When completely established this re-
serve will contain about 225 600 acres.
OF this area, 105,0O0 acres have al
ready been selected by the govern
| ment. Under the terms of the Morris
act 95 per cent of the pine timber
thereon must be cut This pine has
been sold and the work of cutting was
actively prosecuted last year. Nine
logging camps were established. and
the cutting began early in August.
Two camps. which worked under a
system off summer railroad logging,
shut down for the season in Novem-
Der. The other seven camps. in which
winter logging is being done, are still
| running.
The most interesting of the several
operations, from foresters stand
point was on sections Is, is, II. and
81 of township las, r. 80. Section is
was estimated to have the heaviest
stand of timber in the former Indian
reservation. The very dense growth
made it especially difficult to carry
out with the best results the law re-
quiring per cent of the timber to he
left standing for reseeding or reforest-
ing the land. When trees grow so close
together that, after Telling, the ground
is almost completely hidden by their
trunks, it is no easy matter to select
single trees or small groups of trees
SO situated that their neighbors can
be felled without injuring them. This
was, however, successfully done.
Preparing for Roads
The first work undertaken in the
four sections mentioned, after locating
the two summer camps, was opening
up and grading the roadbeds for the
logging railroads. These roadbeds
We're cut through the heaviest stands
OF timber, and it Is noteworthy that
tney required the cutting down of
strip OF forest considerably narrower
than wagon road would have involv-
ed. From 7S5 acres of these four Sec
tlons there were cut between Aug.
and Nov. 19 some 16,311,7S5 board
feet of white and Norway pine. From
all except 100 acres of this area the
brush and debris smaller than eight
inches in diameter were cleared and
built into compact piles as the log
g1ng progressed.
These piles were burned between
Oct. 28 and Dec. 49, The brush and
debris on the remaining 100 acres were
piled and will be burned at a suitable
time in the spring. So carefully was
the burning done that even I'm and
around section Is it was completed
withut injury to the per cent of seed
trees reserved. The area covered by
the hres by which the brush and debris
were destroyed was only about Z per
cent of the cutover land.
The contractors running the seven
winter camps are also doing their cut
ting, hauling and brush burning under
the inspection of the bureau of forestry.
Each of these camps operated over
larger area this season than did the two
camps already mentioned The timber
purchasers have until July, 1908, to
nnlsh the cutting and removal of the
timber from the sections already sold
Although the regulations for consery-
at1ve numbering were new to the llrrn-
Der men, they have been applied eff
fectively. Not only have the relations
between the bureau officials in charge
OF the work and the loggers been en-
tirely friendly, but radical change in
the attitude of the lumber interests of
this region toward forestry has taken
place, as the result of a better under.
standing of it's methods and its pur-
poses.
Burning of Brush
An important result of the past sea-
sons work was the practical demon-
stration that it is most effective and
most economical to pile and burn brush
and debris, SO far as practicable, as
fast as the logging proceeds. When
the burning cannot be Immediately
done, the brush should be kept cleaned
up and compaetly piled close behind
the logging. 1t can then be burned at
a time when there is no danger of the
fire spreading or getting beyond con-
troll.
In Minnesota, 1904 was a good seed
year for both white and Norway pine.
Moreover, in many places in addition
to the 5 per cent of seed trees reserved,
there remains after the cutting and the
brush burning a good stand of young
pine too small to be cut, which will
now take on more rapid growth. Thus
reforestaticn may be said to have al
ready begun.
The second and final selection of
lands to constitute the Minnesota ma
tional forest reserve will be made as
soon as all Indian allotments have been
completed, the f1owage lines of the war
departments reservoirs in this locality
have been definitely fixed, and the
question of the status of the lands Sc
lected as swamp lands, which inure t0
the state of Minnesota under the fed
eral law, has been definitely settled.
Walter E. Clark.