88 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



this law is confined to the counties included in the forest preserve which takes 

 in most, but not all, of the spruce region of the state. This law has been com- 

 plied with for the reason that within this area the state had established a 

 conii>lete system of state rangers employed on a salary for constant duty who, 

 besides patrolling to prevent fires, are required to enforce this law. Even 

 then, there was considerable difference of method between different rangers, 

 as to the size of branches to be cut off and thoroughness of lopping required, 

 and whenever possible, operators neglected to comply until threatened with 

 prosecution or did the work as cheaply and ineffectively as the inspection 

 would permit. 



The state of Minnesota recently required lumbermen to burn the slash 

 after logging at times when there was no danger of the fire spreading and 

 doing damage. This law applied over an area of 3,000,000 or more acres and 

 to enforce it the state had practically no organized force. The fire law au- 

 thorizes the employment of state rangers but these are taken on during the 

 fire season, when the brush cannot be burned. The brush burning law con- 

 sequently has not been enforced, and very little more brush has been burned 

 than would have been without it, while in one or two cases fires were started 

 by burning it at improper times. The principle of both these laws is to require 

 that something be done which costs money, in order to improve the conditions 

 for forest growth and reproduction by diminishing the fire risk. With all 

 such laws, complete state inspection is the only road to success. 



It has been found possible, however, in several states to enforce restric- 

 tions in the use of fire by a system of fire wardens more local in character. 

 Laws which require permits for burning brush in a dry time on or near forest 

 lands, simply regulate the manner of performance of acts which the owner 

 intended to do anyway and cost him very little more, except some extra trouble. 

 Such laws are not so difficult to enforce. 



The main trouble with efforts to force private owners to practice forestry 

 against their will is that the public is in reality attempting to get something 

 for nothing. The expense and risk are not borne by the people for whose bene- 

 fit the regulation is demanded. It is a natural development of popular in- 

 terest in forestry that efforts of this kind should be made in order to put a 

 summary end to forest denudation and accomplish at one stroke without ex- 

 pense, the work of years of patient effort and organization. But such short 

 cuts usually fail. In the early history of European forestry many such meas- 

 ures were attempted. Yet in an environment much better suited to arbitrary 

 enforcement of such laws, such states as Prussia long ago came to the con- 

 clusion that the regulation of private forests except where their effect on 

 streams and soil erosion was clearly proved, was attended with such difficulties 

 as made it inadvisable to attempt it. 



To sum up: What should states do? The importance of forestry is not 

 diminished by the difficulties in the way of regulation of private forests. 

 First, encourage private forestry and make it financially profitable. Do this 

 by extending the facilities for popular information on forestry subjects, by 

 establishing demonstration forests, and especially by improving the system of 

 tire protection, and reforming the laws on forest taxation. Second, inaugurate 

 the policy of buying land most in need of a perpetual forest cover and manag- 

 ing such land by the state as an owner, with all the rights of an owner. Under 

 such a policy Pennsylvania has bought over 900,000 acres since 1897. Third, 

 enforce a reasonable degree of regulation on lands where the indirect influence 

 of the forest on streams and erosion is clearly proven, but put the interpreta- 

 tion of such regulations in the hands of a qualified forester with sufficient 

 assistance to insure its full enforcement. 



