Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 41, number 2, winter, 1957-1958

              ''iii?^
\liiioil hiiir <>(' \\ i-><-oiisiir» loiiil liiiid area is in forests, more than five million acres of which are zoned by county ordi¬ nances. What zoning is, how it came about, and what it means to the economy and people of the state are explained by a veteran forester.
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Zoning for Forestry and Recreation: Wisconsin's Pioneer Role
by F. G. Wilson
In order to understand the new concept of zoning for forestry—a concept which had its origins in the era of logging the "inexhaust¬ ible forests" and the destructive forest fires which followed—it is first necessary to ex¬ plain what is meant by the term "zoning." In brief, zoning is public control over the use of property in the public interest; it is an ap¬ plication of the police power to further public safety, health, and general welfare, compa¬ rable to the establishment of building codes or the posting of quarantine notices. Zoning or¬ dinances are adopted and enforced by local units of government acting under state en¬ abling laws, but only to the extent author¬ ized by the state law, and only in strict compliance with the prescribed procedure.
Any zoning law, whether it applies to for¬ est lands or to residential areas, must meet the rule of reasonableness, meaning that the re¬ strictions imposed on the use of land are clear¬ ly in the public interest; any zoning ordinance must, in addition, be comprehensive and con¬ sistent, applying equally to similar conditions within a given political unit. Courts have con¬ sistently supported the zoning principle; but ordinances found to have overstepped the bounds of reasonableness, or to have displayed inequity in relation to lands of a like condi¬ tion and location, or not to have been adopted in full compliance with statutory procedures
have been invalidated. Moreover, a zoning ordinance may control only future develop¬ ment: it is not retroactive. Thus, a land-use in effect at the time of an ordinance's enact¬ ment, even though in conflict with the enacted ordinance, may be continued. Never¬ theless, those who favor zoning look forward to the abandonment of such "established non¬ conforming uses" when circumstances permit. After the not-so inexhaustible forests were logged, it was believed without doubt that the cut-over lands were destined to become pros¬ perous farms, and that the resultant forest fires were an aid in land clearing. But Wis¬ consin's first state forester, Edward Merriam Griffith, who had studied forestry in Europe and had seen countries with as much as one third of their land in forests despite the popu¬ lation pressure for food crops, had brought back the Old World concept of "true forest land; that is, land unsuited to farming but which may find its highest use in the growing of timber.^ Pointing to Wisconsin's wealth of good agricultural soils stifl to be developed, (Griffith urged that settlements in forest areas should be guided in order to avoid the prob¬ lems of schools and the lack of community life
Picture; supplied by Walter A. Rowlands.
'For further evidence of Griffith's intimate knowl¬ edge of European forestry see his first four reports to the State Forestry Board, 1906-1910.
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