World War II provided the impetus for Trees for Tomorrow, Inc. With over thirty paper and pulp mills, Wisconsin was in the forefront of war effort paper production. Raw wood was not getting to the mills as lumberjacks exchanged ax for rifle and went off to war. The War Production Board sponsored a national campaign, “Pulpwood Goes to War,” and Merrill newspaperman, M.N. “Mully” Taylor, spearheaded this industry-backed effort in Wisconsin.
The pulpwood project proved so successful that nine paper mills in the Wisconsin River valley established Trees for Tomorrow, Inc. as a nonprofit corporation in February 1944 and asked Taylor to serve as executive director. Organized on a five-year trial basis, Trees for Tomorrow became the first private industry project of its kind in the nation, with the intent that it would work in cooperation with state and county agencies in building Wisconsin's forest resources. Specific objectives included: 1) provide a self-sustaining wood supply for industry by encouraging small forest land owners to plant trees and practice forest management techniques, 2) provide continuous employment for the northwoods, 3) stabilize the tax base, 4) provide better watershed protection, and 5) provide an attractive landscape for recreation and to enhance the tourism industry.
Headquartered in Merrill, Wis., early program involvement focused on areas of reforestation, technical assistance to forest landowners, and conservation education. These programs included free tree seedling distribution; a reforestation institute held in Rhinelander; establishment of numerous school, community, and memorial forests; early work with tree planting machines; and scholarships for young men interested in pursuing college forestry degrees.
An advisory board was established to address conservation education possibilities. It first met in 1945 at a vacant U.S. Forest Service Civilian Conservation Corps Instruction Center in Eagle River. It was this old CCC facility which became the Trees for Tomorrow Conservation Camp through a special use permit from the Forest Service. The first summer workshop was held at the camp in 1946. Workshops quickly expanded to include conservation education for teachers; high school, college, and county normal students; and such groups as 4-H, school administrators, federal and state agencies, and various civic and professional groups. It has been claimed that “Trees” originated the conservation workshop concept that is still in use and it remains the oldest conservation education center in the Midwest.
Members of the Wisconsin Federation of Women's Clubs, Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Kiwanis International, Wisconsin State Chamber of Commerce, Wisconsin Bankers Association, Wisconsin Press Association, Conservation Education Association, and several other organizations became annual visitors to the camp. Many of these organizations also provided scholarships to support conservation education for teachers and students at the camp, and the Wisconsin Press Association maintained their own demonstration forest, the Nels P. Evjue Memorial Forest in Lincoln County.
Forest management services to private woodland landowners were also started in 1946 and included preparation of forest management plans and maps, timber estimation and marking, supervision of timber sales, and assistance with planting schedules. In the succeeding decades, Trees for Tomorrow distributed and planted over 22,000,000 trees, developed management plans for over 370,000 acres of forest land, aided in the establishment of 42 school forests, and supervised harvesting of 400,000 cords of wood.
By its twentieth anniversary in 1964, Trees for Tomorrow boasted twenty paper mills and power companies as members and a service area that had expanded into Michigan's Upper Peninsula. However, hardship befell the organization in the late 1960s as several key mills asked whether the organization had fulfilled its orginal purposes and therefore outlived its usefulness. By 1967, both Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co. and Thilmany Pulp & Paper Co. had withdrawn from membership. Mosinee Paper Mills withdrew in 1970. Changes followed: forest management services were phased out between 1969 and 1970, office headquarters were moved from Merrill to the camp in Eagle River, membership categories were developed which broadened the membership base, and the organization emphasized and refined its educational mission.
A 1983 report states the mission of Trees for Tomorrow as providing educational activities which “focus on forest ecology and [are] designed to increase interest and awareness of the importance of wise use as a basic philosophy in the management of our natural resources.” Present day workshops incorporate a similar philosophical base and the organization's focus on educational activities through camp-based workshops continues.
Original Members of Trees for Tommorrow:
- Consolidated Water Power and Paper Co.
- Marathon Corporation
- Mosinee Paper Mills Co.
- Rhinelander Paper Co.
- Tomahawk Kraft Paper Co.
- Tomahawk Pulp Co.
- Ward Paper Co.
- Wausau Paper Mills Co.
- Whiting-Plover Paper Co.
- Badger Paper Mills, Inc.
- Charmin Paper Products
- Chippewa & Flambeau Improvement Co.
- Consolidated Papers, Inc.
- Green Bay Packaging Co.
- Kansas City Star Co., Flambeau Paper Division
- Marathon, div. of American Can Co.
- Mosinee Paper Mills Co.
- Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co.
- Northern States Power
- Owens-Illinois Forest Products Div.
- Rhinelander Paper Co., div. of St. Regis Paper Co.
- Thilmany Pulp & Paper Co.
- Tomahawk Power & Pulp Co.
- Upper Peninsula Power Co.
- Wausau Paper Mills Co.
- Whiting-Plover Paper Co.
- Wisconsin Michigan Power Co.
- Wisconsin Power and Light
- Wisconsin Public Service Corp.
