FOREST SERVICE. 533 



In the tracts being acquired the Govornment obtains lands which 

 are believed to be of relatively large influence in the protection and 

 control of navigable streams. Some are highly valuable for timber 

 production ; others are less so on account of the burned and impover- 

 ished condition of the soil; but all of them are so situated as to be of 

 great value as demonstrations of forest conservation. The educa- 

 tional value of these lands in some instances will, it is believed, be as 

 important a consideration as any other, since they will set up a sharp 

 contrast in the several localities between a Government forest sys- 

 tematically cared for, developed, and utilized and forests heedlessly 

 cut over, burned, and neglected. 



Congress has appropriated fimds for the protection and adminis- 

 tration of all lands acquired. They will be put under systematic 

 management with the object of improving their regulative effect upon 

 streamfiow and of increasing their products for use. 



STATE AND PRIVATE COOPERATION. 



Work in cooperation with vStates and private timberland owners 

 comprised cooperation with States in fire protection under the Weeks 

 law, field investigations in cooperation with States, and field studies 

 and a small number of examinations of timber tracts to furnish the 

 basis for advice to owners concerning better methods of management. 



COOPERATION W'lTH STATES. 



Cooperation with States in protecting the forested watersheds 

 from fire was continued under the provisions of section 2 of the 

 Weeks law, which appropriated $200,000 for the work. Almost two 

 fire seasons have passed since the law went into effect. 



Watersheds protected include such as the Penobscot, Kennebec, 

 Connecticut, Merrimac, Hudson, Delaware, and Potomac, in the 

 Northeast; the Mississippi, in Wisconsin and Minnesota; and the 

 Columbia and Willamette, in the Pacific Northwest. 



The effectiveness of patrol and other protective features has been 

 demonstrated by the small area within these watersheds burned over 

 in the fire season of 1911, which scarcely exceeded 250,000 acres, as 

 contrasted with enormous losses in some States in previous years. 



The States arc by no means equipped to handle the forest-fire prob- 

 lem alone, and where navigability of streams may be affected the 

 Federal Government may well lend its aid. Many difliculties arise in 

 connection with the handling of this problem by the States which 

 are not encountered (m the national forests because of the uniform 

 ownership and policy obtained under Federal administration. In 

 other than public-land States nearly all forest lands, especially in 

 the States east of the Mississippi River, are held by private indi- 

 viduals. The avcrano private owner is surprisingly indilFerent to the 

 need or value of forvst-firo protection, ])articularly on cut-over land^:. 

 Even where this appreciation is not wholly lacking there is often an 

 unwillingness to cooperate with other owners or with the State. 



There is an exccediugly close relation between this cooperative 

 protection and the protection given the national forests and the areas 

 purchased under the Weeks law. Wherever possible the former sup- 

 plements the latter, thus lessening in a large measure the danger of 

 fire reaching the forests or purchase areas from outside. 



