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MICHIGAN FORESTS FOREVER TEACHERS GUIDE

 

 


MICHIGAN FORESTS A CONSERVATION TIMELINE

 

1814 wpeB.jpg (8839 bytes)  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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