THE STATE REVIEW 



43 



Stop The Forest Fires 



Continued from page 40 



In matters of this kind, experience is 

 perhaps the most valuable teacher. The 

 people of Europe have owned forests and 

 practiced forestry for a thousand years. The 

 state forests of Prussia, for instance, 

 amount to about 6.5 million acres; they are 

 composed of many small and large pieces 

 scattered all over the land; they are largely 

 pine woods on sandy lands; they are located 

 in a cold country with many poor people 

 sorely needing fuel, and therefore the for- 

 ests are in no safe position either from 

 theft or fire. In 1902, an ordinary year, 

 there were fifteen fires injuring and destroy- 

 ing the forest on 360 acres, mostly young 

 pine, so that in that year there was injured 

 one acre to every 18,000, or 1-80 of one mill. 



In 1904, a very dry year, remarkable for 

 bad forest fires, there were 36 fires, injuring 

 3,900 acres of woods (one-third but slightly 

 injured), so that in this "off year" there was 

 injured only 1-16 of one per cent of all 

 woods, and this again mostly in young pine. 



These figures might be duplicated for 

 other states, and clearly show that in 

 Europe the thing is done, fires are restricted 

 and in ordinary years practically prevented. 

 In fact, so far is this considered a settled 

 fact, that in a recent meeting of forest offi- 

 cials it was generally agreed that it did not 

 pay to insure forests against fire, that every 

 large owner better take his own risks. 



\Ve Have Experience 

 But even in our own country we are not 

 altogether without some experience. The 

 United States Forest Service has charge of 

 about 100,000,000 acres of forest reserves, 

 an area nearly three times that of Michigan. 

 The larger part of these forests are difficult 

 mountain forests, nearly all conifers, and 

 a large proportion in semi-arid districts like 

 New Mexico, Arizona, etc. The Service has 

 a regular patrol of mounted rangers, and 

 spends as yet less than one cent per acre 

 for protection. In spite of the fact that 

 the whole service is new, and still inade- 

 quate, and that little or no improvements 

 have as yet been possible to help the patrol 

 service, the results have been most extra- 

 ordinary, so that in the year ending June 

 30, 1906, only 0.16 of one per cent were 

 burned over, and that this will soon be re- 

 duced to below one mill is evident from 

 past experience. 



In our own state we also have a little 

 experience of this kind in connection with 

 the State Forest Reserves in Roscommon 

 county. An area of three townships, or over 

 60,000 acres of land, in which the state 

 lands are under the control of the Michigan 

 Forestry Commission, is being protected 

 since 1903. The country is all cut and 

 burned over waste lands, where protection 

 is far more difficult than in regular forests, 

 since no one considers these lands of any 

 value, and since the sun and wind can dry 

 out the soil and soil cover and thus create 

 more favorable conditions for fire. The Re- 

 serves comprise two distinct and separate 

 tracts. On each of these one ranger is 

 kept to protect the land against fire during 



the dangerous season, and to do other work 

 the rest of the year. Both of these rangers 

 have devoted most of their time to work in 

 the forest nursery, to planting, clearing fire 

 lines, scaling timber, survey work, etc., so 

 that not more than one-third of their time 

 has been devoted to duty in fire service. As 

 soon as the snow disappears and the dead 

 foliage and plant cover is dry, and the most 

 dangerous time of the year is at hand, a few 

 extra men are employed unless there is 

 enough help engaged in other work. 



What Is Done 



This spring three extra patrols were en- 

 gaged. The results have well justified the 

 outlay and arrangement. Each year larger 

 fires were prevented by catching them in 

 their beginning stage; each year fires with 

 fronts of a few hundred to several thou- 

 sand yards were prevented from coming on 

 to the Reserve lands, and there is no ques- 

 tion but what 20 per cent of the entire Re- 

 serve area would have been run over by 

 fires in these three years and thus millions 

 of young trees would have been destroyed, 

 but for this simple and incomplete system 

 which as yet has cost less than one cent 

 per acre a year. 



The question is often asked: "If these 

 fires can be controlled, prevented and re- 

 stricted, why do our state, Minnesota, New 

 York and others still have fires when there 

 is in every one of these states a law provid- 

 ing 'fire wardens' and making this a regular 

 service with a chief warden at the head?" 

 The reason is easy to see. In Michigan the 

 chief fire warden gets $500 per year. He 

 does not see his fire wardens and there is 

 nothing beyond a perfunctory report busi- 

 ness between them. The supervisor is fire 

 warden; he gets nothing for preventing a 

 fire, and gets $2 per day for fighting fires, 

 but in no case must there be spent over $50 

 for the town in any one year. The super- 

 visor is a farmer, usually quite a busy man, 

 and to make it obligatory on him to prevent 

 and combat forest fires is very much like 

 making it the official duty of some druggist 

 ;n Detroit to prevent and extinguish all con- 

 flagrations in his ward, with the wise pro- 

 viso that he must not "blow in" over $50 

 in any one year. In a densely settled dis- 

 trict where fires are easily and qu!:kly dis- 

 covered, and where the fire warden can call 

 out a considerable number of people on 

 short notice, such a law might work fairly 

 well, but the experience of Michigan, Min- 

 nesota and New York is sufficient to prove 

 conclusively the inefficiency, and even use- 

 lessness, of these so-called "fire warden" 

 laws. 



\Vhat Can Be Done 



But what can be done? A mere suggestion: 

 From what has been said it is quite evident 

 that there are three things needed. 



1. A well organized patrol service. 



2. Fire lines and other means of render- 

 ing this service more effective. 



3. A little modification of our laws con- 

 cerning forest fires. 



The patrol service might, for a beginning, 

 be organized somewhat like the Ranger 



Service on the Federal Forest Reserves. For 

 the regulation size county of sixteen town- 

 ships there could be four men with one 

 foreman; i. e., five men in all. This fore- 

 man should be stationed at the county seat, 

 the other four each living within his own 

 district of four townships. These five men 

 might be made the permanent force and 

 might well combine the office of fire patrol 

 with that of trespass agent, game warden 

 and general police, thus protecting all for- 

 est and other property, whether private or 

 state, against all injury whatever. 



During danger seasons, especially the 

 months of April, May and June, also Septem- 

 ber and October, the foreman should be 

 given authority by the state to take on as 

 many men as would appear necessary to 



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