766 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



supervisors were ex officio fire wardens, with authority to divide their 

 towns into districts and appoint district wardens and with the duty 

 of taking whatever measures might be necessary to extinguish fire. 

 But with respect to the Commission the only relationship imposed 

 upon them by law was a yearly report on all fires covering more than 

 1 acre, showing the size, damage, cause if ascertainable, and meas- 

 ures employed and found most effectual in stopping the fire. Super- 

 visors of towns in which were wild or forest lands of the State not 

 included within the 14 forest preserve counties were to be the protec- 

 tors of these lands, subject to instructions of the Commission; and 

 when so ordered by the Commission they were required to appoint 

 one or more forest guards, whose powers, duties, and pay were to be 

 determined by the Commission. On the other hand, in the 14 forest 

 preserve counties the fire wardens were to be appointed specifically 

 as such, by the Commission itself, and were to serve during the 

 pleasure of the Commission. 



As an efficient agency for holding fires in check, a local warden 

 system without centralized authority of supervision and control 

 compares with an up-to-date, trained, disciplined, and properly 

 equipped protective organization very much as a sheriff's posse would 

 compare with a Regular Army detachment for resisting a military 

 raid. Fire control has become in the United States during the last 

 30 years a specialized branch of forestry in which, perhaps, greater 

 progress has been made from the standpoint of developing the best 

 technique than in any other branch. The fatal weakness, of course, 

 in the initial form of State organization for fire control was its extreme 

 decentralization, with its certainty of inefficiency, changing personnel, 

 varying degree of interest and capacity, and entire lack of cohesion 

 and discipline. And, of necessity, the town and county officers upon 

 whom these laws imposed, irrespective of their fitness or interest, the 

 duty of serving as fire wardens were either themselves local politicians 

 or indebted to local politicians for their offices. So poorly was the 

 first form of State protective organization contrived. 



A great advance was made when, after a number of years, the 

 principle began to be established that the head of the State forestry 

 department must be a trained forester with adequate professional 

 qualifications, freedom from political control, and full power to select 

 and dismiss the local wardens. A half-way step toward this centrali- 

 zation of authority was the provision made in the fire laws of a number 

 of States whereby local wardens were appointed by town or county 

 officers, subject to the approval of the State Forester with power vested 

 in the latter to remove or obtain the removal of unsatisfactory men. 

 But the development of really efficient State systems of forest pro- 

 tection did not take place until the Federal Government had worked 

 out, on the national forests, practices and methods which the States 

 could take over and adapt to their needs ; and the period of real progress 

 in the development of efficient State administration of fire protection 

 was ushered in by the enactment of the Weeks law, in 1911, providing 

 for Federal cooperation and financial aid to the States. 



SUMMARY OF PROGRESS IN STATE FORESTRY ACTIVITIES DOWN 

 TO PASSAGE OF THE WEEKS LAW 



The progress made by the States between 1885 and the beginning of 

 1911 in organizing their forestry activities is partly indicated by the 

 legislation of the period, which is summarized below. The summary 



