A PLAN FOR COMBINED INSURANCE AND FIRE PRO- 



. TECTION^ 



By Donald R. Brewster 



In trying to conceive ways and means for advancing the cause of 

 forestry in Wisconsin a general plan has been worked out in my mind 

 which would. I believe, make forest protection and insurance practically 

 automatic and self-supporting throughout the State and at the same 

 time steadily increase the area of timber producing lands under in- 

 tensive forest management. 



This plan is to assess all forest or wild lands in the State a small 

 amount per acre to cover the cost of fire protection and insurance 

 combined. Small isolated tracts, such as many wooded areas on 

 farms or wild lands on which the tree growth amounts to very little 

 and which are not a menace to surrounding tracts of forest land, could 

 be exempted from this tax either at the request of the owners or the 

 State authorities. The result would be to confine the tax and the 

 protective efforts to those extensive and more or less continuous tracts 

 of forest land on which the tree growth is of definite value or on 

 which the worthless brush and weeds would be a menace to surround- 

 ing tree growth if unprotected. 



On these brush lands the humus and other combustible fertility 

 in the soil could be considered sufficiently valuable to warrant a 

 small charge for protection anrl a low valuation for insurance. Further- 

 more, if fire were kept out of the brush lands for a period of years, 

 commercial tree species would gradually come in from adjacent 

 timbered areas and a valuable stand of timber would eventually result 

 if the land were not cleared for farming. Wilful burning of wild 

 brush land in order to collect the insurance could be avoided bv making 

 the minimum value tor such lands little more than nominal and by 

 making such wilful burning punishable by a heavy penalty. This 

 combined with an organized system of inspection and apjiraisal with 

 conservatively low valuations throughout, should keep wilful burning 

 and criminal negligence at a safe minimum. 



-'\ minimum insurable valuation of $1 per acre should be given to all 

 lands included in the protected districts. These lands would be assessed 



' Read before the Madison Section of the Societv of .Xmcrican Foresters, 

 September 23, 1020. 



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