The sandy, acidic soil here and across much of Michigan's northern lower peninsula was excellent for growing pine trees but poor for farming. After the white pine logging era from 1870 to 1900, most of the region was clear-cut and burned over, and logging companies sold land cheaply to farmers. Many farms failed because of the poor soil, leaving owners unable to pay their taxes, and the property reverted to local or state taxing agencies. Conservationists and foresters such as William J. Beal, Filibert Roth, and Marcus Schaff recognized the urgent need to reforest these barren lands, and from the late 1800s through the early 1900s their work in fire protection and forestry experimentation helped pave the way for professional forest management in Michigan. In the 1930s, Michigan enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps, a federal Great Depression era program, fought forest fires and planted 484 million trees. Today, Michigan has over four million acres of state forests and 270,000 acres of state park and recreation areas.