TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING 



73 



On the eastern slope of the Cascades and 

 along the British Columbia and Idaho boun- 

 daries is a vast area of open pine lands, in 

 which it is hoped that private associations 

 will be formed which will accomplish as 

 much for that area as similar associations 

 have for northern Idaho. 



In northern Idaho it is proposed to or- 

 ganize one or more additional associations. 

 Those already formed, with added experi- 

 ence and larger sums at their command, will 

 be able still further to prevent loss. 



Lumbermen of Montana, taking a lesson 

 from those of Idaho, are urging their legis- 

 lature to enact a law similar to the Idaho 

 statute, and in case it is done, private asso- 

 ciations will be formed covering various areas 

 in that State. 



In Oregon the State Board is asking for 

 an appropriation "to provide a State Fire 

 Warden and county deputies. The forma- 

 tion of private associations on a larger scale 

 is contemplated, which, it is hoped, eventually 

 will cover the entire timber area of the 

 state. 



To accomplish the aims set forth above 

 there are various organizations, each work- 

 ing in their particular sphere; but to embrace 

 and to supplement all of these, there has 

 recently been formed the Pacific Northwest 

 Forest Protection and Conservation Asso- 

 ciation. This association will appeal to the 

 public from the standpoint of the public's 

 interest in the timber lands. All of these 

 States, with the exception of Oregon, are 

 owners of large tracts of state school timber 

 lands, Washington, for instance, having about 

 700,000 acres of timbered land belonging to 

 the state schools. Idaho and Montana also 

 have a large acreage, the extent of which is 

 difficult to determine. The legislatures of 

 these states will be urged, as a matter of 

 business policy, to appropriate money for the 

 protection of this state property. The state 

 timber lands of Washington to-day are worth 

 $20,000,000, and an appropriation of $25,000 

 per annum would be little more than one- 

 tenth of one per cent upon this valuation. 



A campaign of education will also be inaug- 

 urated, by which it is hoped to prove to the 

 people of the states that whereas when one 

 thousand feet of timber is burned the stump- 

 age owner may lose from $l to $2 per thou- 

 sand feet, the citizens of the state will lose 



in labor and for the necessary supplies for 

 converting the standing tree into timber from 

 $8 to $12. The great fire of 1902 caused 

 a loss to the timber owners of Oregon and 

 Washington of approximately $5,000,000, but 

 it annihilated a resource that would event- 

 ually have returned to the citizens of those 

 states $50,000,000 in business. 



The association will also devote its atten- 

 tion to the subject of taxation, not in a 

 spirit of opposition to the carrying of just 

 burden in the maintenance of government, 

 but in an endeavor to show that, when timber 

 land is taxed beyond its fair proportion, the 

 tendency is to accelerate its manufacture into 

 hunber, which often entails great waste. It 

 is hoped that in the future some practical 

 scheme can be devised by which cut-over 

 lands may be exempt from taxation as far 

 as growing trees are concerned, and that 

 taxes may be collected whenever any fore.st 

 product is taken from them. In this way it 

 is hoped that the private holding of cut-over 

 lands for future forest crops may be made 

 possible. 



A further effort will also be made to in- 

 corporate under state control the systematic 

 management of the state timber lands to the 

 extent that, whenever the timber is sold from 

 them, logging may be conducted in such a 

 manner as to promote the reproduction and 

 the land held as producers of a future forest 

 crop. 



The timber owners of the Pacific North- 

 west realize that their timber holdings con- 

 stitute the last resource of standing timber 

 of the United States. They wish also that 

 the industry may become a permanent one; 

 that when the virgin forests are gone their 

 mills may not be shut down through lack of 

 raw material ; that the experience of other 

 regions with its dismantled plants, its smoke- 

 stacks whose fires have long since gone out, 

 may not be repeated in the Pacific Northwest. 

 To that end it is hope that eventually every 

 acre of cut-over land that is not more valu- 

 able for agriculture or for other purposes 

 may be devoted to the growing of another 

 timber crop. It is especially fortunate for 

 the Pacific Northwest that these ideas are 

 held, not solely by theorists and dreamers, 

 but have the endorsement and financial sup- 

 port of its progressive lumber and timber 

 industry. 



Prof. H. H. Chapman, of the Yale 

 Forest School, was the next speaker, 

 his address dealing with practical 

 methods for the suppression and con- 



trol of forest fires, and suggesting a 

 number of points for remedial and pre- 

 ventive legislation. A summary of 

 Professor Chapman's paper follows. 



SUMMARY OF PROF. H. H. CHAPMAN'S SPEECH 



THE suppression or control of for- 

 est fires must necessarily precede the 

 execution of any plan or scheme for 

 forest conservation or forest establishment. 

 It is useless to expect any one to plant trees 



for profit, or undertake conservative forest 

 management, until a reasonable assurance 

 can be given that his investment will not 

 be lost through fire. 



It is the duty of the state in the interest 



