MICHIGAN FORESTS FOREVER TEACHERS GUIDE
| MICHIGAN FORESTS A CONSERVATION TIMELINE |
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| 1814 |  |
First federal land office |
| 1832 | First commercial sawmill at Menominee River | |
| 1835 | The Toledo War | |
| 1840 | Commercial copper mining begins | |
| 1843 | Beginning of the "copper rush" | |
| 1844 | Iron discovered in the U.P. | |
| 1854 | Marquette iron range opens | |
| 1871 | Fires burn over 2 million acres in central Michigan | |
| 1874 | More major wildfires in central Michigan | |
| 1874 | First forestry test planting at Michigan State Agricultural College (now MSU) | |
| 1879 | More major wildfires in central Michigan | |
| 1873 | 1,600 sawmills in Michigan | |
| 1881 | Fires burn a million acres in the "thumb" | |
| 1887 | First sanctioned Forestry Commission | |
| 1888 | First forestry convention in Grand Rapids with Bernard Fernow | |
| 1888 | First out-state test tree planting by W.J. Beal at Grayling, Oscoda, and Harrison experiment stations | |
| 1891 | More major fires in the "thumb" | |
| 1889 | First railroad logging in Ontonagon County | |
| 1890 | Peak year of lumber production | |
| 1893 | State gets power to takeover cutover lands | |
| 1895 | First State Park at Mackinac Island | |
| 1897 | Logged volume reaches 162 billion board feet | |
| 1899 | Michigan Forestry Commission | |
| 1900 | First State lands set up for reforestation. Over half of Michigan deforested by this time | |
| 1902 | Forestry Departments at MSU and U of M | |
| 1903 | First State Forests in Roscommon & Crawford Counties | |
| 1904 | Huron National Forest created | |
| 1904 | First Tree Nursery at Higgins Lake | |
| 1905 | U.S. Forest Service is Created | |
| 1908 | Huge Metz fire in the Lower Peninsula | |
| 1909 | Wyman School of the Woods Huron & Hiawatha (part) National Forest Created | |
| 1913 | State reforestation policy provides tree seedlings | |
| 1920 | Hardwood harvest first exceeds pine harvest | |
| 1921 | Michigan Department of Conservation (now DNR) | |
| 1925 | Commercial Forest Act created | |
| 1931 | Isle Royale National Park | |
| 1931 | Orders approved for the beginning of the Ottawa, Hiawatha, and Marquette National Forests | |
| 1932 | From 1921-1932, the state received nearly two million acres of tax delinquent land. | |
| 1933 | Michigan Civilian Conservation Corps Begins | |
| 1933 | Manistee National Forest Created | |
| 1934 | Public schools begin to teach conservation | |
| 1935 | Seney Wildlife Refuge Created and Toumey Tree Nursery Established | |
| 1936 | Forestry Department at MTU (Houghton) | |
| 1936 | Worst wildfire year in the U.P. | |
| 1949 | Since 1931, 642 school forests & 223 community forests created | |
| 1950 | Chainsaws regularly used | |
| 1960 | Logging camps become history | |
| 1960 | Mechanized logging machinery | |
| 1968 | The Department of Natural Resources created from the Conservation Department | |
| 1995 | Department of Environmental Quality created from the DNR | |
| 2000 | Michigan "Right to Practice Forestry" Act passed | |
| 2003 | Millions of corporate forest lands begin ownership changes | |
| 2006 | State Forests become certified as sustainable by third-party auditors |
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This website was developed and created by Michigan State University Extension for the teachers of the State of Michigan. |