STATE FOREST POLICY IN AMERICA. 43 



valuable natural reproduction is destroyed when slash areas 

 are burned, and fires spreading from them to adjacent areas of 

 good growth are responsible for the heaviest losses. It is to 

 protect the young growth, or future timber supply, that fire- 

 protection is carried on by the states. 



The first step taken by every state has been the appointment 

 of a forest fire warden in each town or community, whose duty 

 is to summon help and to extinguish fires. At first local officials, 

 such as selectmen or constables, were designated as wardens. 

 The best results have been secured, however, where local 

 wardens are appointed by and responsible to the state forester. 

 In such cases the costs of fire fighting are generally shared 

 equally by the local governmental unit (town or county) and by 

 the state. To give quick notice when fires start, lookout 

 stations are established on important mountain peaks, equipped 

 with maps, telephone lines, and field-glasses. Look out watch- 

 men are kept at these stations during the dry months to report 

 incipient fires to the local wardens. During periods of extreme 

 drought, patrol men are employed to cover specially hazardous 

 localities. The whole system is planned out and mapped in 

 advance of the fire season, so that the fire force may be quickly 

 increased or reduced as the' weather changes. Railroad com- 

 panies are required to use approved spark arresters on locomo- 

 tives, to patrol their tracks adjacent to woodland during drought, 

 and to pay the costs and damages of fires caused by them. 

 Several states have begun restrictive legislation looking to the 

 clearing of lumber slash. This has not proceeded very far, and 

 is now required only where cuttings are made next to places of 

 danger, such as railroads and highways. The fire-protection 

 work of the states is encouraged by the Federal Government 

 through the payment of money for maintaining look-out stations 

 and forest patrol. The amounts paid to each state are appor- 

 tioned according to the amount of timber to protect, the relative 

 hazard, and the amount the state appropriates for the purpose. 

 In most important timber regions co-operative associations of 

 timber landowners have been formed. These associations 

 assess their members on an acreage basis, in normal years about 

 one cent per acre. The funds thus collected are used to augment 

 the state system of protection within the region of the associated 

 owners. Besides the administration of the fire laws and the 

 management of co-operating agencies, the forestry departments 



