584 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Minor improvements are the development of water where it may be of 

 assistance for administrative purposes, and hence for fire protection and on 

 a few forests, the improvement of camping places in such a way that they will 

 be attractive to transients, and at the same time will reduce the menace from 

 fire. 



(This article mil be concluded in November.) 



WHAT OREGON IS DOING TO PREVENT FOREST 



FIRES 



By C. S. CHAPMAN. 



Sechetart and Manager. Oregon Forest Fire Association 



OREGON, the greatest timber state in the union, with one-fifth of all the 

 standing timber in the United States, has been among the last to adopt 

 progressive measures for preventing destruction through forest fires. 

 That this trouble is being speedily remedied, however, is strikingly shown by 

 the record made up to the present writing, for though 1911 has seen many fires 

 and those of the latter part of August have been serious, in no case has there 

 been failure to promptly attack them, and in few instances has serious damage 

 to green timber resulted. 



Contrary to the opinion of many people, Oregon has not for some years past 

 been a state absolutely lacking in" forest fire protection. Private owners in 

 no small numbers can' point with pride to the fact that as a result of careful 

 patrol and readiness to spend any amount necessary for fire fighting, they 

 have never sustained any loss through fire. Others, however, can boast of 

 no such record, for until the past two years large areas existed, scattered 

 throu<rh the state, where no patrols were maintained, on which fires gathered 

 such headway as to prevent their control when they reached points where 

 the careful owner had provided protection in an endeavor to save his own 

 timber. These gaps have now been closed to a large extent, though not all 

 of the state is yet adequately protected. 



With a view to securing better protection, and at the same time save the 

 trouble involved in maintaining individual patrols, Oregon timber owners two 

 years ago started a movement to form cooperative patrols. This plan had 

 worked well in Washington and Idaho. It not only allows any owner to 

 share in the expense of looking after the timber, no matter how small his hold- 

 ings, but the wardens over a wide territory being distributed through one 

 agency does away with duplication of effort, and consequently the maximum 

 protection at the minimum cost is secured. 



Under this plan the question of insurance also comes in advantageously. 

 If owners over a large territorv agree, in addition to patrolling the land, to 

 jointly fight all fires which occur, it is certain that no heavy burden of expense 

 will fall on one company or individual in any one year. The plan comes as 

 near to giving insurance on timber as any that can be arrived at. 



A number of good cooperative patrols are now working successfully in 

 the stale. Notable among these is the Coos County Patrol Association, cov- 

 erino- all of Coos and portions of Curry and Douglas Counties. The Klamath- 



