A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 627 



TABLE 5. Areas and total cost of forest fires on Indian Reservations 



It is impossible to furnish at this time, detailed estimates as to the 

 probable cost of adequately protecting Indian forest lands from fire. 

 The average area burned over annually during the fiscal years 1927 

 to 1931, inclusive, has been about 75,000 acres. In the judgment of 

 Indian Service foresters this average acreage could be reduced at least 

 to 40,000 acres, and to accomplish this objective an annual appro- 

 priation of about $450,000 is needed for the next 10 years. A large 

 amount of this annual appropriation would be expended for permanent 

 improvements such as roads, trails, and lookout towers, and in addi- 

 tion reasonable protection would be given to valuable timber resources 

 which are producing many millions of dollars in revenue to the Indian 

 owners as well as affording thousands of workers an opportunity to 

 earn a livelihood. 



CONTROL OF INSECTS AND DISEASE 



Infestations of insects and epidemics of disease which damage and 

 kill standing timber are not peculiar to Indian reservations. In fact 

 such plagues are usually, if not always, of such scope and magnitude 

 that they occur simultaneously and in common on national forests, 

 national parks, Indian reservations, private lands and the public 

 domain. 



The most serious outbreaks now being combated are probably the 

 white pine blister rust, and the ponderosa pine bark beetle. There 

 is very little western white pine on most Indian reservations, but the 

 bark beetle has seriously threatened timber on the Klamath Reserva- 

 tion in Oregon since about 1920. In 1922 funds for suppression and 

 control of this pest were requested jointly by the Departments of 

 Agriculture and the Interior. 



In this work the Government departments were joined by^ private 

 operators, since timber on lands owned by all three was infected. 

 There has been expended on the Klamath Reservation since 1922 

 about $118,000 on insect-control work, of which about $75,000 has 

 been spent by the Indian Service, about $40,000 by the United States 

 Forest Service, and $3,500 by the Bureau of Entomology of the 

 Department of Agriculture. The control work has followed recom- 

 mendations of experts of the Bureau of Entomology. Twenty 

 thousand dollars for insect control work on the Klamath Reservation 

 was appropriated for the fiscal year 1933. 



