Star Lake Plantation Celebration
View PDF Map of Star Lake Nature and Hiking Trail
| 10:00 AM | Displays: forest management, fire control and Smokey Bear at Crystal Lake Nature Center |
| 11:30 AM | Lunch (Cookout of brats, burgers, hotdogs) – Must reserve and pay in advance to take part in the lunch (reserve by May 22 by sending e-mail to: [email protected] |
| 12:30 PM | Dedication of Tom Roberts Memorial Trail at Crystal Lake |
| 2:00 PM | Star Lake Plantation Ceremony – at lower parking lot of Star Lake campground Paul DeLong – Welcome and introductions Timber Harvest designation by Retired State Foresters History of Star Lake – Ralph Hewitt Forestry Stations and discussions |
History
In 1913, E.M. Griffith [the first state forester] chose a peninsula in Star Lake, Vilas County, in what is now the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest, as the location of the first state tree plantation. The peninsula once served as a blue grass pasture for the horses of the Williams and Salsich Lumber Company. This area was selected because it could easily be protected by the surrounding water and a nearby ranger station from the many forest fires that were raging through northern Wisconsin during that period.
Perhaps Griffith wanted to show that what had happened to the community of Star Lake did not have to happen with good forest management. Star Lake had once been a thriving lumber town with a population of about 700. By 1908 it was a ghost town.
Griffith decided to plant mostly native red and white pine on the peninsula. Because many people questioned the effectiveness of reforestation, he included some Scotch pine, a fast-growing European species to quickly convince the skeptics. Fred Wilson, state forest ranger, supervised the planting, which involved clearing the area and hand-planting the seedlings.
Planting stock came from the first forestry nursery in Wisconsin which was established at Trout lake in the spring of 1911. Planting was done by students of the Ranger Short course of the College of Agriculture. The planters worked in pairs: one man scalped an 18-inch square of sod and dug a hole. The other followed and planted the seedlings. Pay was a dollar a day and board, and the labor cost of planting was $3.42 per acre.
Wilson developed a plan for the plantation based on management and thinning procedures used in Europe. He decided that after thinning, the distance between the remaining trees should be 20 to 25 percent of the height of the dominant trees.
By 1943 there were successful plantations in every county in Wisconsin, with red pine the leading species. Public opinion now fully supported fire control and reforestation, but had swung to opposition against any form of cutting. The time had come to demonstrate that there was more to forestry than planting trees and protecting them from fire. Specific authorization from the Conservation Commission was obtained to establish a thinning plot.
With many trees in poor form, the Scotch Pine was thinned heavily in the spring of 1948 and underplanted with 4-year white pine transplants. In 1977, Wilson remeasured and marked the Star Lake Plantation for a thinning cut for the sixth time. His meticulous records proved that tree planting paid off.