MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



FOREST EXPERTS 



SCORE MICHIGAN. 



Drastic changes in Michigan's management 

 of her forests, state lands and lire problems 

 are proposed by the federal forest service. 

 These changes are embodied in an elaborate 

 report issued after it had gone through the 

 most careful consideration by many of Uncle 

 Sam's experts. The report and recommenda- 

 tions are based upon a study made on the 

 ground by Wesley Bradtield, forest assistant, 

 and- Athol Wynne, lumberman. They visited 

 the northern part of the state after the fires 

 had wrought their terrible havoc last summer. 



Here are some of the striking things recom- 

 mended for enactment into law by the present 

 ion of the Michigan legislature: 



Hold the Counties Responsible. 



That counties be held responsible in money 

 damages whenever fires spread through the 

 negligence of officials. The damages are to 

 be collected by the persons whose property 

 is injured. This provision is intended to stop 

 the lax conduct of officials which was respon- 

 sible for much of the fire damage in Michigan 

 last summer. The theory of the forest service 

 is that if the county has to foot the bills the 

 supervisors and all other officials charged with 

 duty as fire wardens will become thoroughly 

 vigilant. 



That punishment be inflicted upon local fire 

 wardens failing in their duties. By the legis- 

 lation proposed many local officials are clothed 

 with responsibility as fire wardens. They are 

 the supervisors, justices of the peace, com- 

 missioners of highways, sheriffs, under sher- 

 iffs and deputy sheriffs. It is proposed that 

 they be required to report all fires to the 

 state forester or to the district warden and 

 to make every effort to suppress the fire, be- 

 ing subject to the state forest authorities. But 

 in event of failure in his duty any such warden 

 is liable to removal and prosecution. 



Propose a Closed Season. 



That a closed season be created from April 1 

 to November 1, in which no fire may be started 

 upon forest land, except for cooking food or 

 warming the person. But to enable farmers 

 to clear land the state forester is authorized 

 personally or through district wardens to issue 

 permits to build fires during th_e closed season. 

 The is-iiance of such a permit shall be pre- 

 ceded by an official investigation to determine 

 the time and way in which such fires shall 

 be set and controlled. Failure to secure a 

 permit subjects the offender to a fine or im- 

 prisonment. Any damage clone to neighboring 

 property, when a fire is started without a 

 permit, subjects the offender to damages in 

 a civil suit. 



Divide Into Fire Districts. 



That railroads shall not only provide ap- 

 proved spark protectors, but that, in times of 

 danger and upon the order of the state for- 

 ester, they shall patrol their grades. 



That a state forester be appointed, subjected 

 |o tin public domain commission; that under 

 him be placed a force of deputy wardens, paid 

 not more than $1.500 each, and each given 

 charge of a district: that not more than twen- 

 ty-five of these districts be created in those 

 parts of the state where forest fires are a 

 menace: that the district wardens shall per- 

 form the work heretofore devolving upon 

 deputy game wardens and trespass agents. 



That the state annually appropriate $150,000 

 for carrying out the provisions of the forest 

 law. 



New Plan of Forest Tax. 



The forest service gives hearty approval to 

 the plan of a public domain commission and 

 to the recommendations of the stale commis- 

 sion of inquiry. I'ts drastic recommendations 



given abovr arc supplemental to recommends 

 tions previously made within the state. To 



the forest service has suggested a few minor 

 amendments. 



['lit in the vexatious matter of taxation of 

 forest lands, which has occasioned no little 

 questioning in Michigan, the forest service 

 presents a complete new bill, which, from the 

 Michigan standpoint, is revolutionary. This 

 bill proposes that the land be taxed entirely 

 separately from the trees upon it. 



The land tax is to be levied in accordance 

 with a valuation based upon the value of 

 neighboring land. No tax whatever is to be 

 levied upon the trees until they are cut, when 

 they shall be taxed ten per cent of their value. 

 But if the owner of forest land shall for fif- 

 teen years administer his forest in accordance 

 with the regulations of the state forester, his 

 timber when cut shall be taxed at the rate 

 of live per cent, instead of ten. The admitted 

 purpose of this difference in tax rate is to get 

 the timber owners to put their forests under 

 the best kind of management and regulation, 

 the bill proposed by the commission of inquiry 



This means a conservation of the forest, 

 proper care of slash, cutting only trees prac- 

 tically mature, and doing many other things 

 which are more or less expensive. The_ view 

 of the forest service is that owners willing to 

 so conduct their forests ought to be recog- 

 nized by a favorable tax rate. 



The bill provides that the ten per cent tax 

 shall not be applied to timber to the stump- 

 age value of $25 cut in any one year for use 

 upon the property, and that it shall not be 

 applied at all to a farmer's wood lot when 

 the wood lot does not exceed one-fifth the 

 total area of the farm. 



The forest service joins with the commis- 

 sion of inquiry in recommending that all state 

 tax lands be immediately withdrawn from en- 

 try until examined and classified. It is pro- 

 posed that those lands determined to be agri- 

 cultural shall then be thrown open to genuine 

 homesteading and that forest lands shall be 

 made into forest reserves, either state or 

 private. 



Look to Incipient Fires. 



The report has been forwarded to Charles W. 

 Garfield, of Grand Rapids, for the use of 

 the state authorities and the legislature. Ac- 

 cording to the law authorities of the forest 

 service, the only fundamental difficulty with 

 the law proposed by the commission of in- 

 quiry is that it fails to provide for a regular 

 patrol to discover fires in their incipient 

 stages. 



"The fire warden system for fighting fires 

 after they are under headway is good in its 

 place," reads this section of the report, "but 

 success in fire protection will never be at- 

 tained until there is an adequate force of pa- 

 trolmen, whose sole duty it will be in danger- 

 ous seasons to discover and extinguish incipi- 

 ent fires. Such a force should be under the 

 control of the state forester, and be paid 

 from funds raised by charges imposed upon 

 the timber lands thus protected." 



Striking Arraignment of State Conditions. 



Striking recommendations for changing 

 Michigan fire laws are based by the forest 

 service upon the tremendous damage which 

 was done by the fires of last year. The dam- 

 age, for which precise figures of more than 

 IIO.OIMI are given by the forest experts, 

 was very largely due, according to the report, 

 to defective laws and their more defective ad- 

 ministration. The experts also reflect some- 

 what upon the legislature, for they take the 

 ground that appropriations for fighting forest 

 fires were insufficient. Some of the more 

 striking portions of the arraignment of condi- 

 tions in Michigan, as contained in the report 

 of the agents of the forest service follow: 



"Sufficient precautions were no! taken to 

 control the situation in the earlier part of the 

 season, and the deputy wardens did not exer- 

 cise their full control over the township lire 

 wardens. A large number of township lire 

 wardens reported that they did not see or 



receive instructions from any one of the state 

 officers during the entire season. Thus, while- 

 special credit should be given to individual 

 cases, the management of the situation by 

 the deputy ivardens was not effective. 



Supervisors Ignored Their Duty. 



"The supervisors and other township lire 

 wardens were not as a rule efficient. Some 

 individual supervisors did all they could to 

 protect life and property to the extent which 

 the funds at their disposal would permit. 

 More of the supervisors, however, were either 

 totally ignorant of their duties under the law, 

 or completely ignored them. It is known that 

 over half of the supervisors did absolutely 

 nothing with the fires burning in their town- 

 ships, and, in a number of cases, supervisors 

 refused to assist in fighting fires when called 

 upon by settlers and lumbermen. Some even 

 refused to give adequate support to the state 

 deputies. One supervisor allowed the men 

 lighting fire to work as they pleased, and 

 spent over $300 on a job which was finally 

 taken in charge by a state deputy, who ex- 

 tinguished the fire at a cost of $40. 



"In the prevention of fires the supervisors 

 were even more lax. Ve,ry few did anything 

 more to enforce the law or to educate the 

 people in their townships than to post a few- 

 notices which attracted very little attention. 

 Their greatest negligence, however, was in 

 entirely ignoring the small fires smoldering 

 in the swamps or burning in cutover lands in 

 their townships from July to October. 



The Result of Negligence. 



"These fires, which could easily have been 

 controlled at a slight expense if taken in time 

 were, as a result of this negligence, the direct 

 cause of the loss of forty-seven lives and mil- 

 lions of dollars worth of property. Tt re- 

 quired only this negligence, continued dryness 

 and a high wind to convert these smoldering 

 fires into the immense uncontrolled lire which 

 swept across hundreds of miles in a few hours. 

 Some supervisor offered as an excuse for their 

 negligence that they 'didn't have time to light 

 the fire.' 



The failure of supervisors and other town- 

 ship firewardens to prevent and control fires 

 was due chiefly to the fact that they did not 

 realize the danger from forest fires and did 

 not expect the present law to be enforced. 

 Supervisors were extremely anxious to avid 

 putting their townships to any expense, since 

 in many cases there was but little money 

 available; nor did they wish to raise the taxes 

 to cover the debts incurred in lighting lire. 



Feared to Enforce the Law. 



"Many supervisors were ignorant of the 

 proper methods of lighting lire. In several 

 counties the boards of supervisors were in 

 session at the time of the greatest fires. A 

 state deputy was present at one of these meet- 

 ings giving them careful instructions as to 

 their duties as lire wardens under the law. 

 The fire situation had reached a climax and 

 the boards immediately adjourned in order 

 that the supervisors might return home and 

 take charge of the work. The damage, how- 

 ever, had already been done. 



"The supervisors were also very reluctant 

 to enforce the law in regard to the setting 

 of fire to clear land. They feared that since 

 the farmers were anxious to take advantage 

 of the dry season to clear their land and wen- 

 ignorant or careless of the dangers of this 

 practice, any attempt to prevent the setting 

 of clearing fires would be bitterly resented 

 by their neighbors who had elected them. The 

 failure of the supervisors to properly educate 

 their people to the danger from fires of any 

 kind in a dry season, and to take linn action 

 where warnings were disregarded, unquestion- 

 ably added millions of dollars to the lire loss 

 in the state. ft is not known that the town- 

 ship fire wardens received any definite instruc- 

 tions from the state authorities to carry on 



