“House Bill No. 799. An Act to Establish a State Forestry Bureau”, 1885, The State of Ohio.

General and Local Laws and Joint Resolutions passed by the Sixty-sixth General Assembly and its Adjourned Session, begun and held in the City of Columbus, January 6, 1885, The Ohio State University Moritz Law Library Collection

After several failed attempts to introduce legislation to promote forestry in the state, House Bill No. 799 finally passed in 1885 to become Ohio’s first law dedicated to forestry. The bill established the State Forestry Bureau as part of The Ohio State University. The State Forestry Bureau, only the third in the nation, was charged to “thoroughly inquire into the character and extent of the forests of the state; to investigate the causes of which are in operation to produce the waste or decay; to suggest what legislation is necessary for the development of a rational system of forestry […] and to establish a forestry station on the grounds of Ohio State University.” In 1906, the Bureau was transferred to the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station in Wooster and integrated into the Station’s recently-initiated forest research program.