cellent prohibitive sections, but contemplating a strictly co-operative system, 

 did not provide for their enforcement at State expense. To make them 

 effective there must be a force in the field, and under the law, this must be 

 paid from county or private sources. The State can authorize, empower 

 and assist, but cannot pay the bills. There should be men in every timbered 

 locality with power to enforce the laws, to control the use of fire, and to 

 take immediate steps to extinguish the fires which start in spite of all 

 preventive effort. These men may be employed by timber-owners or by the 

 counties as specially provided by lav/. Certainly the lumbermen who pay 

 a large share of the taxes, are entitled to this protection in return, and 

 there is no reason why they should not have it. I cannot emphasize too 

 strongly that energetic pressure upon the county Boards of Supervisors 

 for co-operation with the State under the new laws will bring protection 

 from fire; and that, inversely, lack of interest shown by lumbermen cer- 

 tainly will mean failure by the counties to take such action. Nor is it an ex- 

 pensive measure. One man for patrol during the dry season, with a few 

 scattered assistants among the residents who are paid only for the days 

 they work and are on the spot quickly when needed; all of these empowered 

 by the State to arrest for violations, to call out assistance for fire fighting, 

 and to grant or refuse permits to burn brush, will give a large district very 

 efficient protection for a few hundred dollars a year, and even where the 

 county cannot be made to see the value of such an investment, the property- 

 owners themselves can pay for no cheaper insurance. 



So much for public effort, which is the most urgently needed. Second 

 in importance is the conduct of lumbering itself, and here again fire pre- 

 vention should precede other means of preservation. The methods are sub- 

 ject to local variation and to the scale of operations, but in general they 

 should include the annual burning of slash to prevent dangerous accumula- 

 tion, done so as to protect the young growth and at a time when fire will 

 not spread to the woods, the use of spark arrestors on engines, the clearing 

 of fire lines where practicable, systematic local patrol, sometimes assisted 

 by telephone construction, prompt extinguishing of all small apparently 

 harmless fires which await only favorable weather to become dangerous, 

 and above all, abandoning the frequent practice of purposely firing standing 

 timber to destroy undergrowth. 



The foregoing reforms are needed everywhere, if the process of chang- 

 ing forest wealth into worthless and even more inflammable chapparal is to 

 be stopped from its alarming acceleration throughout the State. More local 

 in its aspects and difficult to discuss briefly, is the problem of applying con- 

 servative cutting methods. The logging of mature timber only, with a view 

 to a second cut when it shall be needed; conservative cutting so as to leave 

 the ground salable to the Government for reserves or to other investors in 

 timber of future value or for certain purposes; regulation of cutting to the 

 mill output so as to deplete the stand the least; cutting so as to insure re- 

 production; all can, under favorable conditions, be as profitable to the 

 lumberman as they are desirable for economic reasons, but they are all 

 questions for study on the ground in each particular case. The owner who 

 is willing to consider them will receive every possible help from the State 

 Foresters and from the Federal Forest Service. Upon request, practical 

 foresters, familiar with California conditions, will consult with him and 

 study his tract, and prepare plans for both fire protection and cutting if they 

 find these practicable. The assistance they give is not theoretical, but 

 based upon actual experience and results in similar work with lumbermen 

 throughout the United States. 



To sum up, for the first time in California there are means by which 

 the lumbermen can receive the legal and advisory support necessary to 

 enable him to make his industry a permanent one. It rests with him 

 whether he makes the most of the opportunity and at the same time con- 

 fers an incalculable benefit upon the State for all time. 



