Twelve :: :: THE SEVENTH AXXUAL REPORT OF THE 



Five times during the season Mr. Beals advised us that these hot 

 winds would occur,, and in only one instance did his predictions fail. 

 In securing reports on w T eather conditions over a large area and study- 

 ing the effects of climatological changes locally and in disseminating 

 the knowledge gained thereby, the Weather Bureau Service can be of 

 great assistance to timber owners in the matter of fire prevention. 



Recommendations 



Our experience of this year and of 1912 is sufficient to justify a 

 demand that the "closed season," in which burning can be done only 

 under permit and requiring logging concerns and others to adopt fire 

 preventive means, should begin not later than the 10th of May. 



An opinion rendered by the attorney general, at the request of 

 the state forester, on Section 1 1 of the Fire Laws is, in effect, that 

 anyone responsible for the starting of a fire cannot be made to 

 extinguish the same or be compelled to reimburse others for so doing. 

 This interpretation of the law has been accepted as correct, but its 

 effect upon our work is mischevious in that people starting fires refuse 

 to take care of them, not being conscious of the danger in allowing 

 them to spread. This places the burden of caring for such fires upon 

 our patrolmen and the county wardens. The law should be so amended 

 as to make the suppression of a fire obligatory upon the ones respon- 

 sible for it. This should be done upon demand of any fire warden. 



The state forester, through his deputies, should be given more 

 specific authority in regard to the enforcement of Section 12 of the 

 law, providing for the disposal of any forest material likely to further 

 spread the fire. 



Respectfully submitted, 



G. C. JOY, Chief Fire Warden. 



