Forest Parcelization in Vilas County, Wisconsin - Research Paper Example

 Forest Parcelization in Vilas County, Wisconsin The Study Area The study mainly focuses on two areas in the Vilas County, Wisconsin that are privately-owned and public-owned, mainly the Township 41 north and range 10 East Section 34, South boundary (East), in the County of Vilas. Land in this area is a combination of boreal forest, white pine conifer forest, mixed conifer-deciduous forests that comprise mainly the beech and hamlock. The land also comprises a swamp conifer forest and wetlands. According to various researchers, Wisconsin has approximately sixteen million acres of land that are forested (Allred et al. 2011). A huge portion of this forested land parcels are under the ownership of non-industrial private land owners. It is estimated that these non-industrial private land owners own over sixty percent of the whole forested land in the county of Vilas. The rest of the forested parcels of land are under the ownership of the county government of Vilas, the federal government, the state government, the forest industry department and the Wisconsin’s Indian Tribes. Credit:  Jeff Martin, The Department of Forest & Wildlife Ecology extension forester’s archive The Mid-Nineteenth Century Forest Description The federal government carried out the land survey of the State of Wisconsin forest in the nineteenth century. The purpose of the survey was to divide the huge land under public ownership into parcels that could be sold to private owners, in order to raise revenue for the federal government and provide settlement for the people (Allred et al. 2011). The work of the survey was implemented using the Public Land Survey System that usually divides land into six mile square townships and one-mile square sections. Six-mile square townships are the primary units of the public land survey. They are further sub-divided into one-mile square sections. The townships are then regularly arranged across the state where as the sections are similarly arranged in the townships (The Vilas County Mapping Department, 2010). The Wisconsin-Illinois border is the location of the initial point of the public land survey in Wisconsin. The locality is roughly ten miles east of Mississippi (Allred et al. 2011). The location is the point of intersection of the base-line. It is also the boundary of the southern state and the principal meridian, which is a latitude running due north from the initial point. Township lines are the east-west lines that cross the principal meridian after every six miles. Range lines, on the other hand, are north-south lines that run through the middle of the baseline after every six miles. A township thus refers to the six-mile square space of land between the adjacent township lines and two range lines that are adjacent to each other. The numbering of each township is based on its distance in the northern direction from the baseline and east or west from the principal meridian. There are 36 numbered one-mile square sections within a single six-mile square township. Land Patents The federal government sold large tracts of land to individual owners in the middle nineteenth century. The parcels of land in the Township 41N Range 10E Section 15 were sold in large sizes to private owners. The land in the meridian 4th PM-1831 MN/WI Aliquots NW1/4, NE1/4, SW1/4 and SE1/4, for instance, was sold to Psalms Francis on date May 8, 1869. The number of acres that the federal government transferred to Psalms in each of the patents was 160.00 (Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine, 1998). The total number of the patents transferred to Psalms was four. Parcel Geography, Land Cover and Land Use in the Early Twentieth Century Private land owners played a central role in the regeneration of Wisconsin’s forests after they were destroyed early in the twentieth century. The Northern part of Wisconsin became the hub of farmland at the beginning of the twentieth century. The original state tree nursery was designed and constructed in 1911 at the Trout Lake in Vilas County. Its initial seedlings were planted to create the Star Lake plantation in 1913. The Dust Bowl of 1934 made farmers start a ten-year project of planting shelter trees to control winds and protect the land soil. Wisconsin had been the largest producer of timber in the late nineteenth century, producing a lot of lumber. However, private forestry reduced in the early nineteenth century with the diminishing of the once vast piney (LandScope America, 2015). Parcel Geography, Land Cover and Land Use Today The change in forest land values over the past two decades is very evident in Wisconsin where smaller packages of woodland are combined with farms. Farmers are now indulging in the sale of their woodland holdings. Public forest lands in Wisconsin are underdeveloped, and the utility of land in the Vilas County is primarily for activities like outdoor recreation, watershed conservation, farming renewable forest crops and habitat management. The public forest lands in Vilas County also assist in preserving biodiversity and cultural history. Vilas County forests also have created many full-time employment opportunities that involve activities such as logging, trucking, and paper productions industry, lumber and manufacturing of building materials. The forest lands in Vilas County are also an important source of foreign exchange for the tourism business they provide (Krall, 2015). Moreover, timber management is also creating tax relief to the county government of Vilas. Potential Consequences of Vilas County Forest Privatization The consequence of the privatization of the Vilas County public land has had extensive adverse effects on the natural environment. The county regulation on the privatized parcels of land is very minimal. The impact of privatization of public forest lands is that there are limited environmental regulations the county can put on the use of such private lands (University of Wisconsin Extension, 2015). Companies have the possibility to log with minimal concern and care for the sustainability of the environment. There has an alarming increase in logging occurring on the private forestlands of Vilas County. The consequence of this practice has been the degradation of water sources, loss of salmon steelhead populations and loss of natural fisheries. Trees are harvested at their premature ages on the private forest lands in Vilas County. Moreover, wood waste is also rampant on these private forest lands. There is excessive number of logs left to decay on the private forest lands, which is a case that cannot be experienced with county managed forest lands. There is loss of the vast natural vegetation with much county forest lands being privatized. The private forest lands are being cleared to create space for real estate construction. Housing and infrastructure are replacing the forest cover on the privatized lands resulting in the massive loss of trees and natural vegetation cover in Wisconsin. The adverse impact of this loss of vegetation cover has been the increase in the greenhouse gas emissions. There is less timber management on the small parcels of forest lands that are privatized. The consequence is minimal timber quality. The protection values of watershed resources and the wildlife habitat also reduces. The transfer of ownership of forest land parcels from the county to private individuals brings the minimal protection of the immediate littoral habitat. The replacement of the forest lands of real estate leads to the loss of the natural scenic beauty of these forest lands. It is only county or public ownership of forest lands that has proven to be the best way of maintaining and protecting the natural habitats. References Allred S., Michler C. and Mycroft C. (2011). Midwest Logging Firm Perspectives: Harvesting on Increasingly Parcelized Forestland. International Journal of Forestry Research, (2011)8. Krall Ken (2015). Supervisor Wants Dozens of Vilas County Lots Put Up For Sale. WXPR RADIO. Retrieved: Apr.25, 2015. . LandScope America (2015). "Wisconsin Conservation Summary." Retrieved: Apr. 25, 2015. . The Vilas County Mapping Department (2010). "Vilas County Online Mapping." Retrieved: Apr. 25, 2015. http://vcgis.co.vilas.wi.us/vcom/. University of Wisconsin Extension (2015). “Wisconsin Forestland Ownership, 2003-2013”. Retrieved: Apr. 25, 2015. . Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine (1998). "The Roots of our Forest Future." Retrieved: Apr. 25, 2015. . Read More