804 JOURNAI, OF FORESTRY 



a minimum amount of two cents per acre per year for protection and 

 insurance and $1 per acre would be paid to the owners of all lands 

 burned over where the owner was not at fault. 



At the option of the owner, the insurable value of land containing 

 young or mature timber of commercial species could be declared higher 

 than $1 per acre up to a maximum of say $50 per acre. In all such 

 cases a field inspection by an appraiser would be made unless the 

 appraiser were already familiar with the tract. An additional assess- 

 ment of 1 per cent of the appraised value would be added to the 

 minimum tax of 5 cents, making the tax for timberland worth $50 

 an acre total to 52 cents per acre. 



Provision would be made for reducing these charges as rapidly 

 as the efficiency of the protective work increased. A sufficient charge 

 should be made, however, so as to build up a surplus for investment 

 which would be available in case of an unusually bad fire season. A 

 definite part of this surplus could be set aside each year for the pur- 

 chase of forest lands by the Forest Fire Insurance Fund and for plant- 

 ing and placing these lands under intensive forest management as a 

 profitable permanent investment. 



More definite facts would be needed in order to decide the exact 

 rates to charge. But let us work out a hypothetical example. We will 

 assume that out of the 20 million acres of wooded and wild lands 

 in Wisconsin 10 million are of such a character and so located as 

 to come within the protection and insurance act. This would bring in 

 a base income of $200,000 from the minimum charge. Add to this the 

 additional assessment on 2 million acres of mature timber of an 

 average valuation of $20 an acre amounting to $400,000 more. In 

 addition to this fund a contribution of $50,000 should be made from 

 the hunting and fishing licenses for forest protection and an additional 

 fund of $50,000 could be expected in the form of Federal co-operation 

 in fire protection. This would make a total of approximately $700,000 

 available annually for protection and insurance. 



Suppose that an average of 50,000 acres or one-half of one per cent 

 of the protected area is burned over each year and that 90 per cent is 

 brushland of minimum valuation and the other 10 per cent timberland 

 of an average value of $20. Insurance payments would then be $40,000 

 plus $200,000, or $240,000. Suppose that the. cost of fire protection 

 totaled $200,000. A balance of $260,000 would then be left. Suppose 

 that the cost of insurance and appraisal came to $60,000. A surplus 



