BOY SCOUTS OF MICHIGAxN 



583 



girls of the public schools of Michigan 

 which shall toll of the Michigan Forest 

 Scouts or their work. 



One honor medal of gold shall be 

 awarded to the boy and one to the girl 

 writing the best of the six stories, the 

 stories to be selected by the head of the 

 department. 



Regulation honor medals will be pre- 

 sented by the field supervisor or an aidi 

 Hero medals and first honor medal;^ 

 will be conferred by the governor in 

 person or by a direct representative of 

 the executive. 



In addition to this W. B. Mershon 

 one man in Michigan who perhaps 

 more than anybody else is interested in 

 the protection of the wild life of the 

 State, has volunteered to provide 

 medals for essays on the conservation 

 of bird life. 



There are still other ramifications 

 since various organizations interested 

 in some particular branch of the work 

 are planning to ofifer medals for essays 

 or for actual work along the lines of 

 protection of game, fish or tree and 

 plant life. 



The Lower Michigan Protective As- 

 sociation is now being organized to 

 patrol forest lands and prevent fires 

 Thomas B. Wyman, of Munising, is the 

 expert in charge of the work and it 

 is proposed to use the boys in con- 

 nection. 



HOW TO ORGANIZE. 



To secure a charter, to become an 

 enlisted company is an easy matter. It 

 is provided only that five or more qual- 

 ified applicants apply to the field super- 

 visor or the head of the department and 

 that one of the applicants chosen by his 

 school teacher and elected by a ma-- 

 jority vote of his company shall be cap- 

 tain of the organization. 



The names of the companies shall be 

 chosen from the names of distinguished 

 American soldiers, patrols, frontiers- 

 men, Indian chieftains, or of some 

 American plant, tree or animal. 



The arms of the scouts are flails 

 buckets, mattocks, axes and shovels 

 The ammunition is dirt, sand and 

 water. 



The boys will be taught the first aid 

 methods of treating sunstroke, scalds 

 frost bites, snake bites, poisonmg 

 drowning, wounds of all kinds. They 

 will be taught how to build safe camp 

 fires and instructed in the necessity of 

 extinguishing them. They will be in- 

 structed in how to cook in the woods, 

 how to extinguish a forest fire, the 

 methods in which forest fires run and 

 how to avoid being overtaken and over- 

 come. They will be taught the art of 

 back firing without damage to other 

 property, of building fire lanes and of 

 protecting property when fire bears 

 down upon it. 



But his chief duty is to notify the 

 proper authority of the advance of a 

 fire. The chief township warden is 

 the supervisor of that township and 

 any justice of the peace is also a fire 

 warden in his township. The scout 

 is asked to bear in mind that the State 

 does not require nor ask him to risk 

 his life or limb in service. It is the 

 scout's duty to care for life and prop- 

 erty. His own life is held by the State 

 to be vastly more valuable than prop- 

 erty and as valuable as that of any 

 other person. 



If one or more scouts have knowl- 

 edge of a forest fire it is the duty of 

 the one having the first knowledge to 

 dispatch a warning to a township war- 

 den. He is asked to make an intelligent 

 report along these lines : 



The kind of material in combustion. 



The approximate area of destruc- 

 tion. 



The probable area of destruction. 



The possible area of destruction. 



The establishment of a fighting line. 



The means for fighting; water, sand 

 or earth, flails, brush or water soaked 

 sacks or blankets, fire lanes, etc. 



FIRST FIRE EXPERIENCE. 



Already Wolverine company, the 

 first to be enlisted and under the com- 

 mand of Capt. Oscar Swanson. has been 

 through the mill. It was in the district 

 controlled by this company that a great 

 fire swept all before it last year. Un- 

 told damage was done and hundreds 

 were left homeless and starving. Young 



