The Cook County news-herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Cook County, Minn.) 1909-current, 1920-02-11
WHY FORESTS SHOULD BE
PLANTED AND PROTECTED
One OF Third Prize Essays in Mime
sofa Forestry Association
Contest.

The following article written bv
Cecil Brownell of Tofte, was printed
in North Woods magazine pub
Eshed by the Minnesota Forest Serv-
ice. The article was written in a
contest in which all eighth grade
pupils of the state were asked to
participate and was awarded third
prize
Trees should not only be planted
and protected but the young growth
should be saved also.
There should be at least as MANY
trees planted as are cut each year.
Considering the amount of timber
cut besides what dies, there would
soon be no forests if a system Of
planting and protection were not
maintained.
The government and Also the state
have a good system of protection
for our forests, but the men are too
few to cover the amount of terri
tory needing protection.
The main part Of the timber oper-
ators seem to wish to hinder instead
of help the forest officers. Instead
of following the forest regulations
of piling and burning the brush,
they leave the slashings lying
around so that whenever a fire gets
started the dry stuff burns with
such force that it often burns not
only the slashings but also the good
timber that has never been logged.
The old method of cutting out the
best timber and leaving the slash
lngs among the young growth has
done more toward destroying our
forests than almost anything else,
on account of the fires which get
started sooner or later in the dried
brush.
Forests also tend to regulate the
water supply. With the trees all cut
and not much left to absorb the
moisture, the water runs away at
once washing the hillsides to the
clay and rocks on which nothing will
grow, and raising the water in
creeks and rivers, causing floods in
the lowlands, often with great loss
of life and property.
With trees at the head of these
creeks and rivers the water soaks
away slowly keeping an average flow
in the water course, except in spring
when the frost is still in the ground.
Then the washing of the earth is not
so great.
If trees are not planted and the
young growth protected, lumber in
dustries will soon be a thing of the
past, thus throwing thousands out of
work and raising the price of lumber
until it would become a luxury in
stead of a necessity as it is at pre-
sent and seemingly always must be.
In our town and surrounding
towns the main fuel is wood. The
burning of coal instead of wood
would be an item of much expense
to many who now are able to depend
on the forest for fuel.
Trees also are a great air purifier
as they absorb the carbonic acid gas
and throw off oxygen which is the
life-giving portion of the air.
Northern Minnesota is noted for
being one of the best recreation
grounds in the country. There are
several different places where par
ties can start with canoes and travel
every day for a month returning to
where they started without travers-
ing the same river twice. On trip
Of this kind you can catch land
locked salmon weighing as much as
thirty pounds, pickerel measuring as
long as. four feet, also pike, perch
and black bass. You will see moose,
deer and bear that you can get close
enough to to take pictures of, both
in the timber and lakes. You can
also see beaver and once in while a
caribou. 81 { ssz = g.5.s. =55s 15sss
IS Now, with the forests gone, the
lakes would in time dry up. Also