STATE NEWS 



75 



National Forest was discussed at Icnoth, and 

 it was shown that perhaps through some 

 misunderstanding on the part of the National 

 Forest Reservation Commission regarding 

 public sentiment in New England in connec- 

 tion witli the management of this forest, that 

 reasonal)le progress in the purchase of those 

 lands has not been made. In order to dis- 

 pel any such misunderstanding, this Associa- 

 tion placed itself on record as favoring the 

 management of the forests in the White 

 Mountains along the same lines as other 

 national forests. 



The outlook of the Association for the 

 coming year is brighter than ever before. 

 The Association now has twenty-four branch 

 associations and a membership of 3,400, hav- 

 ing increased its membership the past year 

 by 1,491. An average of six foresters have 

 been kept in the field giving advice and do- 

 ing practical work for the past year, and this 

 work will be continued. 



From the standpoint of legislation the As- 

 sociation is proud of one bill which passed 

 the legislature through its efforts this year. 

 The Public Domain Act was so revised as to 

 give towns and cities in the Commonwealth 

 the right to own and manage municipal for- 

 ests, and already some of our towns are tak- 

 ing advantage of this measure. It is hoped 

 that in the near future many other towns 

 and cities will be persuaded to acquire lands 

 under this law. 



Pennsylvania 



The Central Pennsylvania Forest Fire Pro- 

 tective Association, of which J. M. Hoffman 

 was the organizer and is the forester, has 

 just finished its first year's work. Natural 

 regeneration on the 350,000 acres that now 

 comprises the area of the association's work, 

 in spite of recurring fires, is now at least 

 60 per cent perfect. 



Lands which to the casual and experienced 

 observer seem to have nothing growing on 

 them except brush or worthless trees, one 

 finds on close examination to be growing 

 maple, chestnut, red and white oak, and 

 others of the most valuable tree species. The 

 only great hazard preventing these young 

 trees from becoming valuable timber is fires. 



For the protection of the seven million 

 acres of the State land particularly sultject 

 to the fire hazard, and about seven million 

 additional acres of land in farmer's wood 

 lots or in communities more thickly settled 

 where the damage done by fires is less, the 

 greatest amount of money ever spent bj' the 

 State was $.50,000 for two years work. 



Mr. Hoffman says in his report : — This 

 money until our work begun had been spent 

 only in actual fire fighting. Last spring 

 and again tliis fall we were able to induce 

 the Commissioner of Forestry to allow us 

 2i patrolmen at $25.00 per month for two 

 months' service. There is this provision 

 for patrol in our Fire Warden act but until 

 our activities began this was never made 

 operative by the Forestry Department. 



I held several meetings with land owners 

 and organized an association, each land owner 

 pledging himself to pay an assessment on an 

 average basis. My plans were thus laid to 

 secure the aid from the Federal Government 

 provided for through the Weeks' law. It 

 must be remembered that with the exception 

 of one otiier association in Monroe County, 

 whose activities cover about 60,000 acres, 

 our work is the only systematic effort made 

 at Forest fire protection on private lands in 

 our State. 



I am omitting in this statement the very 

 worthy effort made by several co-operations 

 and individuals for the protection of their 

 own lands which is very difficult, indeed, 

 when all owners of consecutive areas of land 

 do not join for their mutual protection. I 

 am not including in this discussion the 

 900,000 acres of land owned by the State, 

 except to remark that in many cases where 

 the State lands adjoin or are surrounded by 

 private holdings the protection of both 

 private and State lands is necessary to pro- 

 tect either. Organized forest fire protective 

 associations adjoining State lands will greatly 

 aid the State Forestry Department in pro- 

 tective work. 



Our actual work of prevention consists 

 briefly of looking after the railroad right 

 away, cleaning up and burning where there 

 is material that is a fire trap. Burning 

 around saw-mills, utilize the telephone con- 

 nections in our communities, in securing aid 

 when fire does occur. Organizing fire fight- 

 ing crews, warning those that were permit- 

 ting anything that might cause a fire. Many 

 different devices of prevention can be 

 worked out that are unique to each com- 

 munity. Much good has been accomplished 

 by causing the owners of small farms in the 

 mountains to realize that those owning the 

 large holdings that surround their farms are 

 taking an interest in the protection of their 

 own lands. 



In this way we can assure men pay if 

 they fight a fire just as soon as they see it, 

 and confine it to as small an area as possible, 

 and no pay if they do as their custom in 

 the past has been, back fire from their own 

 lands to protect themselves from the fire 

 just as soon as the fire is anywhere within 

 miles of their farm buildings. 



In this way we have secured the hearty 

 co-operation through appealing to the set- 

 tlers self-interest. When a group of land 

 owners spend hundreds of dollars for the 

 protection of their lands along practical 

 lines, there necessarily is an uplifting in- 

 fluence exerted over the entire community, 

 and with a practical system whereby we can 

 actually show results. We have certainly 

 done much in being a living example to our 

 State. Due to favorable weather conditions, 

 we were very successful this fall having only 

 one or two four or five-acre fires. In the 

 spring we had many fires and much good 

 work was done. Some of them were caught 

 in their incipient stage before much damage 

 was done. 



