1887 – 1991
Inducted 1997
“As Wisconsin’s ‘Mr. Forestry,’ he attached a destiny to millions of acres of unwanted cutover and tax -delinquent land in the 1930s.” — Frederick Wilson
Fredrick G. Wilson became the first Extension Forester at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1922. During forestry career in Wisconsin, Wilson fought to protect county forests and establish good relationships between educators and politicians for the good of Wisconsin.
Wilson spent his childhood years in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He studied forestry at the then Michigan Agricultural College in East Lansing, Michigan. After graduating in 1911, he returned home to begin his professional career as a disciple of E. M. Griffith (WCHF Inductee), Wisconsin’s First State Forester.
On May 1, 1911, Wilson’s expertise in forestry, road construction, trails, fire lines and timber estimates earned him a position as Forest Ranger for the Trout Lake Forestry Headquarters in Vilas County. His wages at this time were $60.00 per month. While Griffith was State Forester, Wilson worked on programs of fire protection, establishment of the forest reserves, development of the first tree nursery at Trout Lake and the establishment of the Star Lake Plantation which is the oldest managed plantation in Wisconsin.
In 1915, a Supreme Court ruling rendered state forestry programs illegal. Because he could no longer work on his programs, Wilson moved to British Columbia and became the first registered forest engineer in the province.
Wilson returned to Wisconsin in 1922 to become the state’s first extension forester. An early experiment of the need for land use zoning found Wilson crusading for zoning in 25 rural northern counties resulting in the first rural zoning ordinance n the US restricting land use to forestry in 1933.
In 1929, Wilson drafted legislation that helped expand county forests. His legislation enabled counties to take title to delinquent land, to establish county forests and to zone for forestry. The 2¼ million acres of county forests that Wisconsin has today, comprising the largest ownership of public lands in the state, was acquired without a Legislative fiscal appropriation because of Wilson’s proposal.
During the period of 1930-1952, Fred Wilson served the Wisconsin Conservation Department in various capacities. He was appointed to first Chief Ranger for Fire Control in 1930. He was instrumental in establishing a cooperative forestry research program between the department and the University of Wisconsin which is today recognized as one of the most productive forestry research efforts in the country. He served as the Superintendent of the Cooperative Forestry Division from 1932 until his retirement.
Resources
Frederick Wilson Legislative Citation
Frederick G Wilson, Wisconsin Forestry Hall of Fame Inductee, Wisconsin Society of American Foresters, 1984
Photos
These images may be used under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.