INADEQUACY OF PRESENT TIMBER LAWS. 79 



A NEW SYSTEM OF TIMBER PROTECTION. 



It is not my purpose to attempt here a review of the various acts and 

 laws which have been framed during' the last two decades for the purpose 

 of regulating the sale and protection of the timber on the forested areas 

 of the western United States. That the timber laws now in force are 

 evaded, circumvented, or absolutely ignored is a patent fact. Two means 

 are depended on chiefly to prevent the deforesting of the public lands 

 on the Pacific Slope; they are the detection of timber trespassers by 

 a corps of special agents acting under the authority of the Department 

 of the Interior and the reserving of certain tracts against entry — the 

 so-called timber reserve. 



The detection and punishment of trespassers upon the public forest 

 domain by the system of special agents is totally inadequate in practice, 

 however good the intention of the framers and executors of the law. 

 It is impossible for any one individual to patrol even a limited district 

 in regions so difficult as are most of the Western ranges, and when 

 timber trespassers are apprehended a conviction is by no means certain, 

 for the weight of popular opinion is almost invariably on the side of the 

 accused. 



By establishing forest reserves we may be able to control all logging 

 operations on the areas covered by (lie reserve. We, however, cannot 

 prevent tires from outside spreading beyond theboundaries. In a single 

 season they may deforest a much larger tract than logging or lumbering 

 operations would have done in several decades. The single factor of 

 forest tires demonstrates amply that a timber reserve only protects 

 against one class of timber depredators, who stand far from the head of 

 the list. 



That none of the present arrangements for protecting the forests are 

 even moderately successful is a fact painfully evident to every observer. 

 There are so many loopholes and the acts and regulations, dating back 

 through many years, are so diverse that some plan can nearly always 

 be contrived for trespassing without punishment upon the public timber 

 lands. 



The most common and the simplest method is that of the squatter. 

 The portable sawmill is set up, first here and'then there; with it follows 

 a crew of employees and professional squatters. Land in the vicinity 

 of the mill is covered by squatters' rights, a slight pretense is made 

 at agriculture, the valuable timber is cut off and converted into lumber, 

 and the concern moves on. Or the programme is varied by the squatter 

 going into some mountain valley along a stream where logs can be 

 floated to market. As before, a claim is staked off, notices posted 

 announcing that the claim is taken under such and such an act, a mere 

 pretense at improvement is made, often in a region where it would be 

 impossible to carry on agricultural operations of any kind, the logs 

 are cut and floated, and the claim is abandoned. Perhaps a number of 



