ABSTRACT
Stewart Holbrook reports that the migration to the Midwest began in 1836 when a lumberman from Maine purchased timberlands on the St. Clair River in Michigan. In 1917 in the midst of the first World War, the Wobblies called the largest strike in history against the Northwest timber operators, demanding an eight-hour day and better working conditions and living conditions in camp. The importation from Europe of professional forestry and its central technology, sustained yield timber management, to the US was largely a result of public concern about the long-term consequences of unregulated timber harvest both for society at large and for timber-dependent communities. The Forest Service took particular umbrage at the screens stating that they would constrain timber sales as badly as the injunctions in place at the time and make the achievement of stated harvest levels effectively impossible.
