72 



CONSERVATION 



protecting timber from fire, and the organiza- 

 tion of its forces was largely along the same 

 lines. During the past season the two forces 

 cooperated with entire harmony and with 

 vast advantage in the work. The expend- 

 itures of this association were about $23,000. 

 the larger part of which was expended in 

 salaries and expenses of the regularly em- 

 ployed patrolmen. The beginning of the 

 season indicated a very disastrous one, but 

 copious rains on August 25 saved the situa- 

 tion, and had it not been for that fact, both 

 the Forest Fire Association and the state 

 appropriation would have been wholly inade- 

 quate to have handled the situation, and both 

 would have been compelled to expend more 

 money to handle the situation. 



Under the Forest Fire Law of 1907 there 

 has been formed in northern Idaho four pri- 

 vate forest protective associations, known as 

 the Clearwater, the Potlatch, the Pend 

 d 'Oreille, and the. Coeur d'Alene. The 

 acreage covered by these and the amounts 

 expended during the past season are shown 

 by the following table : 



Idaho Protection Associations 



Pend d'Oreille 



Clearwater 



Coeur d'Alene. 

 Potlatch 



Totals 



a o 



Practically noue 



4,000,000 ft. 



25,000,000 ft. 



60,000 ft. 



29,060,000 ft. 



Cost per acre, .0422; value of fire loss, 

 $500,000; loss per acre, .40. 



Each of these associations maintains a 

 regular corps of officers, a paid chief warden, 

 and sufficient rangers or patrolmen to cover 

 the territory embraced witinn their limits. 

 Two of these associations during the past 

 season were singularly free from forest fires. 

 The Pend d'Oreille and Coeur d'Alene As- 

 sociations had a very disastrous season, and 

 had it not been for the system of patrol- 

 men and the money spent in controlling fires, 

 the season would have witnessed a great 

 loss to the forests of northern Idaho. These 

 four associations have united in the organ 

 ization of the North Idaho Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, by which it is hoped to obtain more 

 uniformity in the work, to encourage the 

 formation of associations for timber areas 

 not covered by those already organized, and 

 to carry through the next legislature needed 

 amendments to the law, the principal one of 

 which is to secure the cooperation of the 

 state on a more direct basis than what has 

 been possible heretofore. 



Under the Oregon law the State Board of 

 Forestry consists of seven members and 

 provides for the division of the state into 



forest areas, and for the formation of co- 

 operative patrol systems in these forest areas. 

 No reports are available as to the exact 

 amount of work or the actual expenditures 

 made under these cooperative associations - 

 during the past year. Many of them are of 

 a very informal nature and their member- 

 ship is only made up of two or more of the 

 larger timber owners, one of which, usually 

 the one located closest to the area, conducts 

 the patrol system and handles emergencies 

 as they arise, the cost of which is borne 

 on an acreage basis by the different owners. 

 In the vicinity of Pokegama an association 

 of this sort last year patrolled 200,000 acres 

 of pine forest, which has heretofore been 

 considered practically immune from fire, but 

 which at many times during the past season 

 was in grave danger, and wholesale destruc- 

 tion was only averted by the work of the 

 association. The cost was $2,700, or a little 

 over one cent per acre. 



Similar cooperative work has been done by 

 the Booth-Kelly Lumber Company, near 

 Eugene, and the results are most satisfac- 

 tory. In the Tillamook Valley and in Coos 

 Bay, some of the larger owners united in this 

 way, besides which there were several other 

 . agreements of which no reports are avail- 

 „ able. The total cost for this work in the 

 ^ past year was probably in the neighborhood 

 ^of $25,000. This, of course, does not include 

 -the expense of logging companies in protect- 

 "^ing their own lands from fires. 

 s In northern California the McCloud River 

 ;fLumber Company partly in cooperation with 

 %he California Board of Forestry, has de- 

 ^veloped a system of patrol and of logging 

 ^that is more detailed, and has accomplished 

 *more in results than probably any other simi- 

 lar associated work in the United States. 



Every one of the agencies employed in pro- 

 tecting the forests of the Pacific Northwest 

 from fire are preparing plans for the en- 

 largement of their work. The Washington 

 State Board has suggested minor amend- 

 ments to the law, and are asking for an 

 appropriation of $50,000 for the coming two 

 years. This will enable them not only to 

 maintain the state and county organizations, 

 but will leave a considerable sum for emer- 

 gencies and for the employment of outside 

 help for serious fires. 



The Washington State Forest Fire Associ- 

 ation is increasing its membership and hopes 

 to enroll nearly four million acres for 1909. 

 It is the intention to raise at least $50,000 

 and to expend this mainly in the enlarge- 

 ment of their patrol system. Any amount 

 needed for emergencies can be utilized and 

 paid by the members in assessments on the 

 acreage basis. Through these two agencies 

 it is contemplated that the western portion 

 of Washington will be patrolled during the 

 dangerous season by at least two hundred 

 men, and western Washington will be given 

 a forest-fire protection probably more exten- 

 sive than that enjoyed by any other timber 

 section in the United States. 



