22 REPORT OF THE FOREST COMMISSION. 



the existing organization covers 1,700,000 acres. A large portion 

 of the remainder lies in small scattered woodlands, supervision 

 over which properly rests on the owner ( See p. 50) . Some 

 increase in the area protected is planned for next year and it is 

 hoped that when it closes, the entire area that should properly be 

 the State's responsibility will be under firewarden service. 



During the past year wardens have been withdrawn from Al- 

 pine Borough, Bergen County, by mutual agreement between the 

 local government and the Forest Commission, because the exposure 

 did not seem to justify the expense of maintaining wardens. The 

 forest area is small and tends more to park conditions than to 

 true forest. On the other hand wardens have been added in seven 

 new townships, as follows : Dennis, Frankford, Hopatcong, 

 Monroe, (Glo. Co.), Princeton, Wantage and Woodland. 

 It is also hoped that Plumstead Township, the last of those here- 

 tofore refusing to install the system, will do so with the opening 

 of a new calendar year and thereby make it unnecessary to con- 

 tinue a division warden as its township warden. 



One particular advance made is in the use of motor vehicles by 

 the division wardens. A motor cycle used by one and more re- 

 cently an automobile by another at fixed rates of mileage have so 

 reduced distances and lost time and so increased their scope of 

 influence that results formerly impossible have been obtained in 

 both administrative and investigative work. 



The local service now includes no township wardens, and 151 

 district and deputy wardens, who with the 3 fire watchers that the 

 State employs, make a total of 264 men actively engaged in fire 

 control covering in townships. The effect of a closer touch with 

 the local wardens stands out especially plainly in the fact that 

 73 fewer State investigations of fires were necessary this year 

 than last, yet responsibility has been fixed for 15 more cases. 

 This is a real tribute not only to the wardens' activity, but to their 

 thoroughness in handling details that heretofore have placed an 

 unnecessary and hampering burden on the State's wardens. It also 

 gives the latter opportunity to take up the more obscure cases that 

 could be given no attention under the old organization. There is 

 also a growing disposition among the wardens to disregard the 

 natural claim of friend or neighbor to special consideration and 

 to deal with all infringements of the law alike, a long stride 

 toward effective service. These facts with increasing promptness 



