PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION PROPOSED BY WISCONSIN 223 



adequate forest reserve, including its protection and improvement, and also to 

 pay for the fire patrol system in northern Wisconsin, the legislature will be 

 asked to grant the state board of forestry the proceeds of a two-tenths of a mill 

 state tax for a period of twenty years. This general state tax will yield a 

 yearly revenue of approximately $600,000, and it is estimated that the cost 

 of the patrol system will amount to $250,000 per year. However, the amount 

 which may be expended in the patrol system should be extremely elastic in 

 order to meet varying conditions, and the forestry board should be authorized 

 to expend the entire income of the department if it was found necessary to do 

 so, in an unusually dry and dangerous year. 



At first glance, $250,000 may seem a very large amount to expend annually 

 for forest fire patrols, but in the 22 counties which it is proposed to patrol, 

 there are about 12,000,000 acres of wild or unimproved lands, most of which 

 are covered with some kind of forest growth, so that the cost would be from 

 two to three cents per acre, and if the patrol system is at all successful, in 

 protecting property, the cost will really represent a very low rate of insurance. 

 Nothing has been said in regard to fires set by the railroads, and this is not 

 from lack of full appreciation of how serious the loss has been from forest 

 fires set in this way, but from the fact that the best remedy has not been found, 

 though both the state of Wisconsin and the railroad officials are working to 

 solve this difficult problem. Our records show that in ordinary years the 

 railroads are only responsible for about fifteen per cent of the forest fires, but 

 the past summer was so dry that the least spark would start a blaze and 

 therefore in 1910 the railroads started about twenty-two per cent of the fires. 



There are many kinds of spark arresters that will prevent the escape of 

 all sparks, but none has yet been found that will both prevent the escape of 

 sparks and still allow the engine to steam freely, and pull its load. But many 

 men are working to solve this problem and the correct solution should come 

 in time. In the meantime, however, the spreading of forest fires must be 

 stopped, and it is simply a question of the best and most eflfective methods. 

 Some advocate that all railroad rights of way be kept absolutely clear on both 

 sides of the track. Others place more faith in a close fire patrol on railroad 

 lines, especially of patrols on speeders who will follow up each train and 

 extinguish all small fires that are set. Personally, I believe that a combina- 

 tion of fire lines and patrols, will prove most eflfective, but that every eflfort 

 should be made to find a spark arrester that will still allow the engine to 

 steam freely. 



The American people as a whole are uncivilized in their apparently 

 stoical indifference to the appalling annual los.ses from forest fires. The 

 problems involved are tremendous ones, but they can be solved if only the 

 nation, state and individual care enough to devote the hard work and large 

 sums that will be required. This Lake States Forest Fire Conference leads me 

 to hope that the time of mere talking is drawing to an end, and that very soon 

 real action to save our forest resources will commence. 



