8 Message From Your Sponsor

It's been a month since I drove into Cornell, Wisconsin and into the woods. Some think I've driven off a cliff! There have been some flattering comments and a few followers/groupies, but people often ask, "Why?"

(1) Like most natives, I have an irrational affection for my home state. I like the UW team colors. I like brats (not a huge fan of cheese or rubber cheeseheads). I think the state has a cool shape (think super-insulated left mitten). So any story involving my alma mater and my native home has appeal. Show me a Cornell-Wisconsin connection and I'm hooked. My favorite unverified quotation is from Andrew Dickson White, Cornell's first president: "The two most beautiful college campuses in the US are the University of Wisconsin and Cornell – not necessarily in that order." I eat this stuff up. Isn't President Skorton from Milwaukee? CU's second president Charles Kendall Adams became the president of the University of Wisconsin. Former provost Biddy Martin is now chancellor at the UW-Madison?....[see future posting for a more complete list.]

(2) It's a story that should be told. When I first read about Cornell's land grant investment in Wisconsin, I eloquently asked, "Say what?" The more I learned, the more I was intrigued. Ezra's $500,000 founding gift and the gift of his Ithaca land are dwarfed by the $5,000,000 he helped generate for the Cornell Endowment Fund. Yet I expect that nearly all alumni, like myself, had no idea. And Cornell's Sesquicentennial is in 2015.

(3) So now I'm curious – and then first trip to Cornell, Wisconsin sealed the deal: "What is the legacy of Cornell's land deals of the 1800s on northern Wisconsin of today, if any?" Are the University's retained mineral rights worth anything? Do the locals know or care about the history (taught in 4th grade according to teacher Julie Kosher)? Maybe this is a story waiting for an ending – or a new chapter.

As I returned from my first tour of Cornell the City I couldn't help wonder where this might lead. Like relatives aware of each others existence but separated by 1,000 miles and 150 years I asked, "Is a meaningful reunion possible? Of interest? Will we have anything in common? Will there be beer tents?"

I know the locals in Cornell would get a kick out of meeting Ezra Cornell BS '70, the great-great-great grandson of city's namesake. And they could use a better photo of earlier Ez in city hall. We can install one of those wooden arrows pointing due east: "ITHACA 755 MILES". Maybe much more.

The city (population 1,466) and the university (260,000 alumni, staff, students, faculty). Meet the family.

7 Trees and Timber: Part I

In “Trees of Wisconsin,” the Eastern (or Northern) White Pine (pinus strobes) is described as the Monarch of the North. The largest of the conifers (reaching 70-100 feet or about halfway up – 80 steps – the McGraw Tower) was the backbone of the Wisconsin timber industry. While these lands also contained an abundance of ash, maple, beech and birch, it was pine that drove the economy, land speculation and abundant profits.

Mature pines can easily be 200 to 250 years old. "Some white pines live over 400 years. A tree growing near Syracuse, New York was dated to 458 years in the late 1980s and trees in both Wisconsin and Michigan have approached 500 years in age." So foresight and patience are required if the majestic forests are to return to the northern parts of the Midwestern states.

I feel that I should know this tree, not only recognizing it upon sight (or a group of pines from a reasonable distance) but understand the central role it played in the lumber era of the 1800s and the generous payout presented to Ezra and his university (I'm confounding Amazon.com's predictive shopping models with my recent purchases).

Here are the stats: single tall trunk, with horizontal branching evenly spaced along the trunk; irregular crown (and a favorite home to the American Bald Eagle). The clustered needles (5 per cluster) are 3-5 “ in length, each is soft, flexible and with a triangular cross section.

For a better understanding of this subject, I called Cornell’s College of Forestry, but I’m 107 years too late.

Not "In Any Study"

In 1898, the New York State College of Forestry opened at Cornell, which was the first forestry college in North America. The College undertook to establish a 30,000 acre demonstration forest in the Adirondacks, funded by New York State. However, the plans of the school's director Bernhard Fernow for the land drew criticism from neighbors, and Governor Benjamin B. Odell vetoed the 1903 appropriation for the school. In response, Cornell closed the school. Moved to Syracuse.

Cornell eventually established a research forest south of Ithaca, the Arnot Woods. When New York State later funded the construction of a forestry building for the Agriculture school, Cornell named it Fernow Hall (after the great-grandfather of my classmate Lisa '79).

I'm calling Dr. Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr., president of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). I want to ask him if we can have the forestry college back!