FOREST PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION 

 PROPOSED BY WISCONSIN 



By E. M. GRIFFITH 



State Forester of Wisconsin. 



(An address delivered at the Lake States Fire Conference, December 4.) 



a].L thinking people realize that the wonderful forest wealth of this 

 country cannot be conserved through wise use until the government, 

 the states and the private owners are willing to spend the large suras 

 which will be necessary to stop the annual and appalling loss from forest 

 fires. This country is growing out of its irresponsible boyhood days, with its 

 reckless waste and utter disregard for the future, and as it has grown older, 

 and as elbow begins to rub elbow with the enormous increase in population, 

 we are beginning to learn a truth long known in older countries, that the state 

 in order to do its duty to all its citizens must use its general police powers 

 much more freely than in the past, and that the selfish interest of the indi- 

 vidual must give way to the infinitely greater good of the whole people. 



This academic introduction is merely to prepare your minds for the 

 extensive fire protection system which we hope will be adopted by the state 

 of Wisconsin ; which will cost a very large sum and will oblige the state to 

 exercise its police powers, so as to protect not only its own timberlands, but 

 those of all its citizens as well. 



The United States census for 1900 gave Wisconsin the proud position of 

 ranking first among all the states in the production of lumber. The census 

 of 1910 will show that Wisconsin has fallen back in these te i years to eighth 

 place, and that her production of lumber in the same period of time has 

 decreased forty per cent, which is more than that of any other state. The 

 wood using industries of the state, not counting the saw mills, use .mnually 

 over 930 million board feet of lumber, valued at |20,000,000, but the state 

 will lose these industries, and many others even more important, as saw mills, 

 paper and pulp mills, etc., unless all forms of needless waste are stopped, and 

 certainly forest fires are the most useless and needless forms of forest waste. 



The Lake States Forest Fire Conference proves that the severe fire losses 

 of 1910, following the even greater losses of 1908, have aroused us all as never 

 before, and if our legislators can truly appreciate the situation, i am sure they 

 will not fail to act. Let us see what the fire losses have been in Wisconsin. 

 In 1908, according to the reports of our fire wardens, 1,200,000 acres were 

 burned over, and the lo.ss in timber and young growth amounted to $9,000,000. 

 For 1910 our reports are still incomplete, but those received indicate that at 

 least 1,000,000 acres have been burned over, and that the financial loss will 

 amount to several million dollars. The direct loss of merchantable timber, 

 however, is not by any means the most serious in its lasting results, but 

 rather the loss of the industries which depend upon the forests for their raw 

 material, and the still greater ultimate loss through the destruction of young, 

 growing timber, upon thousands of acres which are burned over every year. 



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