Fire Protection and the Settler 



Settler, Know Your Ranger. 



THE following is an extract from a letter written to the 

 State Forester by a sportsman who was hunting in the 

 North woods last month and became interested in the 

 forest situation here: 



"In talking with homesteaders within the past three or 

 four weeks, I praised the work which the State Forest Serv- 

 ice was doing, especially in fighting fire. My remarks were 

 met with disapproval. Their point of view in a general way 

 amounted to the statement that forest fires are good for the 

 homesteader. It's the easiest way of clearing land, and it 

 opens up tracts which would otherwise require a great deal 

 of labor. I called attention to the destruction of timber on 

 the land, and was told it was the easiest way to get rid of 

 it; that if they tried to sell it they were cheated by the lum- 

 ber companies. This, you see, is the line of criticism." 



We know that this is not the attitude of all the set- 

 tlers by any means, but there evidently are a few and the 

 situation should be explained to them. This article will en- 

 deavor to explain the attitude of these laws dealing with 

 forest fires toward the clearing of wild land for settlement. 



It is very important that the settlers of the northern part 

 of the state should be thoroughly familiar with the present 

 system of forest fire protection that they may know both 

 what restrictions are placed upon them and which is quite 

 as important what restrictions are not placed upon them. 

 Otherwise they are apt to become unnecessarily entangled 

 with the law or to have exaggerted ideas of the imagined 

 hardships which those laws impose. 



It is not necessary for any settler, no matter where he 

 may be located in the Northern counties, to overtax his mem- 



