Ninety years change in a northern hardwood forest in Wisconsin

Few undisturbed remnants still exist of the great mass of hardwood and conifer forest that covered much of northern Wis­consin in the presettlement period. To­day even these small remnants are being eliminated or altered drastically under the pressures created by lumber scarcity. In 1946 the writer studied three of the re­maining undisturbed stands with two pri­mary objectives: to record quantitatively the composition of the climax forest; and to obtain any information possible on the autecology of the major species, especially with reference to their ability to reproduce under the conditions imposed by the ma­ture forest. It was evident that some knowledge of the history of the stands would be neces­sary before the relative persistence and reproductive capacity of the various species could be understood. A township located near Crandon in southern Forest County was chosen for this detailed work because in 1946 it contained an entire sec­tion of undisturbed hardwood-conifer for­est. This area is especially suited for con­tinued work on the regeneration of the northern hardwoods as detailed informa­tion is available on the lumbering opera­tions and fires which have devastated most of the township. There is no available record of presettle­ment forest composition as such and in fact there is little historical information of any kind available on Forest County for it was off the main routes of travel and had no rock formations suspected of car­rying mineral deposits. The records of the early land survey proved to be the only satisfactory source for both quantitative and qualitative data concerning the pre­settlement forests. The comparisons made in this paper are based on surveyors' notes for 1857-59 and on quadrat studies made in 1946. The writer wishes to express his appre­ciation for many valuable suggestions and stimulating guidance to Dr. John T. Curtis of the University of Wisconsin under whose direction the field work for this and other studies was accomplished. Sincere thanks are due Professor Daniel DenUyl of Purdue University and J. H. Stoeckeler and Paul Rudolph of the Lake States For­est Experiment Station for reading the manuscript and offering their suggestions. The writer, however, takes full respons­ibility for the opinions expressed herein. Acknowledgment is due the Department of Agricultural Botany, Purdue Univer­sity, for assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.