220 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Wisconsin has a wealth of fertile land awaiting cultivation, but she also has 

 large areas more valuable for forest growth, and the people of our state do 

 not as yet begin to appreciate the great future value of the young timber upon 

 such lands, and the careful protection which such small timber needs. Mature 

 merchantable timber which is burned can often be cut and so saved, but young 

 timber when burned is almost always a total loss. 



At present Wisconsin has the following system of town fire wardens: 

 The state forester is authorized to appoint as many fire wardens in each 

 organized town in the state as he deems necessary, and we now have over .500 fire 

 wardens in the northern or forest portion of the state. These fire wardens post 

 notices, have authority to call upon any person to assist them in fighting fire, 

 are given the same authority as sheriffs to arrest without a warrant, and 

 when in their judgment a dangerously dry time exists, and it is unsafe to set 

 fire for clearing land, or for any other purpose, they have the authority to post 

 special warning notices, forbidding the .setting of any fires. The fire wardens 

 and the men called out by them, are paid by the town boards for the time 

 which they actually .serve at a rate not exceeding 25 cents per hour, but the 

 total amount which can be expended annually is limited to .flOO per township, 

 or 30 sections. It will be noted that the fire wardens have a considerable 

 amount of authority, and as the best available men, irrespective of politics, 

 have been appointed, they have put out thousands of small fires and thus 

 averted much heavier losses, but the whole system is faulty from the fact 

 that it is based upon the plan of putting out fires after they occur, while it is 

 now becoming a well known truth that the greatest eft'orts in forest protection 

 should be centered upon fire prevention. 



It must have been an old forest fire fighter who coined the expression 

 "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and probably he had seen 

 as we nearly all have, a small neglected blaze fanned and spread by the winds 

 until it became a fire of such proportions that men were powerless before it. 



The present limit of expense in fighting fire of |100 per township is 

 absolutely inadequate in very dry years, such as 1908 and 1910, and in such 

 times when the wardens are needed the most is no time to have the financial 

 cog of the system break down. 



Theoretical' V, the plan of allowing fires to be set at any time, except 

 v\ hen the local lire warden posts notices forbidding any fires, is correct, for it 

 imposses the least possible interference with individual rights and especially 

 the clearing of forest lands by .settlers in order to make farms, which is of 

 cour.se so necessary, provided it is done at the proper time, and in the proper 

 manner, so as to avoid the wide desti'uction of the past. Such enormous 

 damage has been done in Wisconsin for the last six years, through fires set 

 by settlers in clearing land, and it is .so difficult to secure convictions as the 

 settler can merely claim that he did not .see the special warning notices for- 

 bidding the setting of fires, that we feel that we have the cart before the horse 

 and that a radical change in the law is demanded. 



We must prevent as far as possible the starting of forest fires, and there- 

 fore the state board of forestry of Wisconsin has decided to urge upon our 

 legislature the great imjjortance and necessity of providing a forest fire 

 I>atrol in northern Wisconsin, upon the following lines : 



A chief forest fire patrol, appointed by and under the supervision of the 

 state board of forestry,, with headquarters at some central point. He should 

 be a practical woodsman, with a wide knowledge of the northern part of the 

 state, and the ability to handle men. He should be supplied with an office and 

 such clerical help as may be neces.sary. 



In each of twenty-five or more of the northern counties there should be 

 located at some central point a head county fire patrol, in charge of the work 



