The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-07-11

Last week I endeaveored to place be-
fore you a brief picture of the Superior
National Forest. The early history OF
the area, as well as the more recent de-
velopment of the region and the
creation of the Forest, was briefly out
lined. Today I am particularly in
terested in presenting our planting pro-
gram and the many problems involved
in bringing back into production that
portion of the Forest not now producing
worth while crop in satisfactory
manner
Of the gross of 1900, 900 acres, nearly
100000 acres are denuded either
through logging or fires. This land was
largely in private ownership up to a
short time ago, but is rapidly being
acquired by the government with the
primary objective of growing timber
This land represents a wide variety of
soil, topographic and climatic condi-
tions. In some places the soil is bare
and exposed, in other places it may be
covered with heavy sod, and again with
a variety of brush or inferior tree
species of varying density. The soil
varies from solid rock ledge to open
muskeg swamps, with variations of red
clay, yellow clay, fine sand, coarse
sand, gravel and silt loan. Much OF
the terrain is rolling, and in places
quite rough. Large boulders and rock
ledge characterize the area and add to
the difficulty of planting. The growing
season varies from maximum Of TIC
days close to Lake Superior to as low
as 80 days in portions of the remote
interior. In some portions of the area
logging and fires were so severe that
all seed types We're destroyed and all
seed dormant in the duff and top soil
layers was burned. These areas have
no possible chance of restocking to
valuable timber trees without resorting
to artificial reforestation.
1t is land areas such as these that
present the challenge to the forester
1t is his job to take charge of such idle
denuded acres and bring them back to
full state of production. AS a man.
ager of public property, it is his duty
to so plan his operations that maxi
mum production is obtained from each
acre and a continued supply is fur
niShed to the users of forest products.
For the purpose of bringing back
these acres to full use, planting is
necessary. BY "full use" is not meant
for wood productio malone, but for al
the correlated uses of recreation, game
management, erosion control, stream
regulation, and variety of other uses
Remember that the purpose for which
the National Forests are created is fol
the greatest good for the greatest num-
Der of people.
Prior to undertaking the actual
planting, a great deal of field recon
Nuisance and research work must be
undertaken. Technical foresters and
soil experts must first go over the areas
very carefully. This generally calls foI
two survey lines being run across each
forty-acre tract A detailed map is
prepared showing down to 2k-acre
patches the different cover conditions
and soil classifications. These men de-
termine on the ground the species OF
timber tree to plant and the age il
should be at the time of planting 1t is
not always possible to plant on an area
the same tree species as that which
grew there originally. Damage from
fire and brush, sod and other cover
conditions, change the chemical, physi-
cal and light conditions so greatly that
quite often an inferior species must be
planted first in order to build up the
soil to the point where it will again
support the original species. This nurse
crop may require from thirty to one
hundred years to repair the damages
wrought in so short time. This in
tensive examination of the area must
be done from two to four years in ad-
vance of the actual planting work
This is because it requires this period
of time to grow the young seedlings in
the nurseries. In this way then, we are
able to determine the areas to be
planted and the species to use.
The next step is to secure the seed
required by the nursery to produce this
planting. This sometimes has to be
| planned and worked out several years