Back Roads from Wisconsin’s Past

A man on the left, leaning against a tree in about 1946, appears to be addressing a large group of other men facing him. There's a large decaying tree stump in the foreground on the right; there are narrow stakes in the ground throughout the area. The wooded area is the Star Lake Forest Plantation, established in 1913 by Wisconsin's first state forester, E.M. Griffith. The men may have been associated with Trees for Tomorrow, an organization created in 1944 by paper-company officials to promote the rapid reforestation of land in Wisconsin. The effort was a response to pulpwood shortages; it worked in cooperation with federal, state and local agencies as well as private citizens. -- Creator, Trees for Tomorrow' from R. Bruce Allison photographs