The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1936-10-01
Forest Notes
By FOREST OFFICE

Inc recredClO1aI ACTIVITIES on JHe
Superior National forest are out of the
depression. More than twice as many
vacationists visited the forest during the
fiscal year ending June &c. as entered
the forest during the previous year, and
exactly twice as many as two years
previous.
In 1888 the hotels and summer resorts
in the Superior forest were feeling the
depression according to figures COM
piled in the supervisors office here.
The following year further decrease
in summer guests was experienced but
the fiscal year of 1885 showed that
this class of recreationistS had doubled
in number over the previous year. In
spite Of this decrease, 1886 showed an
additional increase of about Is per
cent.
The extensive planting of fish in the
forest lakes is attracting wide attention
in this section of the country as shown
by the fact that in the fiscal year of
1886 eighty per cent of the forest visi-
tors were primarily interested in fishing
as compared to Sc per cent the pre-
vious year.
Although there are very few roads
in the Superior, one-third of million
motorists passed through the forest
both last year and the year before.
The wilderness area, covering nearly
one million acres, contains no roads,
and only two main highways service the
remaining two million acres.
John MattSon, Isabella, has just COM
pleted the logging and saving of 1700
birch ties. The material was cut from
three government forties in the Su-
perior national forest.
Mattson purchased a mill and sawed
the bolts himself. He is now saving
/ some material for private concern,
and plans to continue in the business
by cutting government timber in the
vicinity of Isabella. The ties were
trucked to Duluth and sold to Martin
Timber company. The removal of the
birch was done under the supervision
of Ranger Schaal of the Isabella dis
trict. "The removal of the large over
mature birch will permit young bal
sam, spruce, and pole-size birch to de-
velop with much less interference"
stated the forest ranger. There is a
good stand left to grow into valuable
products"
A sale of balSam poles andA house
logs was recently made to Frank Holmes
of Isabella from the same area, for
cabin construction. The balsam stand
was too heavy, forest officers believed.
The trees undesirable in the stand but
suitable for cabin material were marked
for cutting by Ranger Schaal. Holmes
had the material sawed at Mattson's
Mill and will be able to construct his
cabin at an unusually low cost.
During a recent trip through the
Isabella district of the Superior Ma
tional forest, Ranger Schaal saw a
grounding climb trees The ranger has
seen hundreds of groundhogs over a
period of several years, and never be-
fore saw one try to climb a tree, much
less do so good a job of it, His dog,
Duke, was on the trail of the small
animal and lent impetus to the ascent.
The grounding had no difficulty as
cending a vertical, dry balsam to a
height of twenty-five feet. Upon being
shaken out, he lost no time in scaling
nearby green balsan. to an equal
height.
| A car load of live fish recently ar
rived here from the United States Bur-
eau of Fisheries at La Crosse, Wiscon-
sin, for planting in the lakes of the
Superior national forest
The shipment consisted of large
mouth bass, crappies and sunfish. They
were Immediately unloaded onto forest
service trucks, and planted in num-
Der of forest lakes where previous sur
veys in the vicinity of Ely, Virginia and
Grand Marais indicated a suitability
for this type of fish.
"The fish were in excellent condition
when planted" stated H. F. Olson in
charge of game management on the
Superior. Losses up to the time of
planting were negligible"
! The Sunfish and crappieS, four to
five inches long, were rescued from
sloughs in the Mississippi river. The
bass, reaching length Of eight inches,
were raised in the rearing ponds at La
Crosse. The purpose of securing these
fish, according to forest officers, is to