362 



ARBORirrLTUKE 



Government IVotection of l-orests. 



An exchange, in noticing and largely (luoting 

 a recent article in these cohunns on the subject 

 of the forest fires, criticises the slalement that 

 * the lime is near when 'government, in the 

 interest of all the people, must enact and en- 

 force regulations in regard to the cutting of 

 timber and the burning of brush, etc., not only 

 for I he public domain, but for all private 

 owners, since the private owner has no right to 

 bankrupt posterity for his personal gain." 

 This is the cuminent of our esteemed conleni- 

 porary: — 



That is'nt so easy. While the owner of 

 timber maybe prevented from cuilinirnr burn- 

 inir it in a manner to injure or endanger other 

 property owners, yet the state cannot compel 

 him to forbear cutting it without paying him. 

 It is his property: the fact that rainfall is un- 

 favorably atlecled by the clearing of his land 

 is too remote an injury to warrant the state in 

 depriving him of his right to realize profit by 

 clearing it. It might be wise for the state to 

 take over wild lands and keep them uncut; but 

 they would have to be paid for. 



And yet the writer of the above should know 

 that in every European country the state in one 

 <legree or another assumes authority over the 

 forests; those in private hands as well as those 

 which are part of the public domain: and what 

 is done in Germany, France, Switzerland and 

 Russia can also be done in this country. Every 

 European state has a forest policy, and though 

 none of these policies is perfectly or finally 

 settled, in each it is recognized that as the 

 cause for the preservation and increase of forest 

 is the protective value of the forest cover, 

 private interest cannot be e.xpected to meet the 

 necessity adecjuately, hence the state steps in. 



In France, after long continuance, beginning 

 with the Revolution, of the policy of selling ofT 

 the slate forests, which by 1S74 had reduced 

 the area to but a fifth of the original holdings, 

 there has been a steady buying back of state 

 property in the forests, and their increase is 

 also furthered by giving to individuals and 

 communities pecuniary assistance in reforest ing 

 on a large scale. The slate now owns al)oui 

 •_'.8fX),000 acres, some 12 per cent of the total 

 forest area, managed by a staff of 700 officials 

 and protected by 3.')00 guards. "Private forest 

 property is absolutely controled as regards 

 clearing; no clearing may be done without 

 notice to the government authorities, and in 

 mountain districts not without special sanc- 



tion." In France village and city corporations 

 hoiil over 27 per cent of the forest area, and 

 these must submit their plans of management 

 to the state forest department for approval, and 

 they aredebarred from ilividing their holdings, 

 "thus insuring continuity of ownership and 

 conservative matiagement."' The stale is con- 

 tinually e.\pending money in buying and refor- 

 esting worn-out lands and in reservoirs to check 

 the torrents which pour from the denuded .\lps, 

 Cevennes anil Pyrenees. In Switzerland, after 

 a long struggle, the federal government became 

 in 1898 the executor of the protective laws in 

 all the cantons, and now no clearing whatever 

 can be done without permission of ihe authori- 

 ties. France and Switzerland are republics, 

 and the will of the people has done this. It can 

 do the same in this big republic, and whether 

 it be done by federal action or by action of the 

 several states, the people will come to the same 

 conclusion here, on the principle that a man 

 cannot do what he will with his own, if it be 

 contrary to the interest of all. Il"s the founda- 

 tion of society, but it has scarcely yet begun to 

 govern states. 



In Italy, which also is virtually a government 

 by the people, there are statutes nearly 30 years 

 old which outline state interference to a large 

 degree, placing nearly half the area not owned 

 by ihestate under government control, "name- 

 ly, all woods and lands cleared of wood on the 

 summits and slopes of the mountains above the 

 upper limit of chestnut growth, and those that 

 from their character and situation may, in 

 consecjuence of being cleared or lilled, give rise 

 to landslips, caving or gullying, avalanches and 

 snowslides, and may to the public injury inter- 

 fere with water-courses or change the character 

 of the soil or injure local hygienic conditions." 

 — Springfield, Mass., Republican. 



In Russia a very elaborate restrictive policy 

 was made into law in ISHS, and the interesting 

 fact is that its enforcement is placed largely in 

 the hands of the people of each localitv, cover- 

 ing private lands, ami the provisions are ample 

 for instruction and for execution, I tie govern- 

 ment helping in all. This is the course that 

 the United States, as a whole or through the 

 several slates, must enter upon. At present 

 any small farmer as well as any lumberer, can 

 ruin the interest and prosperity of a region by 

 carelessness and wanton destruction. Ii must 

 stop. Liberties themselves must be held in 

 trust. 



