STATE WORK 



241 



iestroying all reproduction and seed trees. 



Only a fortunate break in weather condi- 

 tions prevented an even more serious catas- 

 trophe. All available agencies were taxed 

 to the utmost fighting fires already under 

 way, and had rain not come when it did 

 countless others would have passed be- 

 yond control. Oregon's escape from one 

 of the most fearful forest fires of history 

 was not due to its own precaution. 



Nor, after all, was the season of 1910 

 so unusual as to be reassuring as to the 

 future. Seasons vary, and Oregon has no 

 adequate system of reporting fire damage, 

 but competent authorities estimate that 

 the average annual loss in the past has 

 been fully half a billion feet and probably 

 more. This means an annual loss to the 

 community of six or seven million dollars 

 at least. 



Second, only to the fire loss, as a result 

 of Oregon's apathy toward forest preserva- 

 tion, is its unfavorable affect upon re- 

 forestation. To the careless waste of ex- 

 isting resources which we and our families 

 should share, we add the idleness of all 

 the land cut and burned over each year, 

 a dead loss of many millions of dollars. 

 Fear of fire and discouraging taxation 

 justly warrants the owner in not taking 

 the necessary steps to make this land use- 

 ful, hence much of it rebui'ns and turns 

 into desert, ultimately to be untaxable, 

 non-productive, and offering no reward to 

 labor. 



Milling and logging waste constitute an- 

 other leak in our forest economy and will 

 persist as long as neither state nor pub- 

 lic show any recognition of fundamental 

 principles. So long as our lumbermen must 

 bear the entire burden of forest preserva- 

 tion and still compete with those of other 

 states where the community assists, they 

 can do only what it pays to do. 



EXISTING PROTECTIVE EFFORT. 



The federal Forest Service is the only 

 public agency doing anything to take care 

 of the Oregon forests. Its expenditures 

 for protection alone in 1910 will exceed 

 $200,000. Of this approximately half is 

 for patrol and half for trail and telephone 

 building and additional fire fighting labor. 

 The U. S. Army and the Oregon National 

 Guard also gave valuable assistance dur- 

 ing the August fires, but this was an un- 

 precedented emergency action and can 

 hardly be considered in discussing Oregon's 

 protective system. Ordinarily the Forest 

 Service confines its work to the national 

 forests, but this year the menace to homes 

 and property outside led it to disregard 

 official boundaries in many instances. In 

 either case the benefit accrues to the state 

 for national forest timber is a state asset 

 in all but stumpage returns and twenty- 

 five per cent of these also are paid to the 

 counties. As adequately as congressional 

 appropriations permit, the Forest Service 



takes care of about a third of the timber 

 in the state. It has also begun reforesta- 

 tion. 



The only fire protection is that given by 

 private timber owners. Through individual 

 and co-operative patrols they spent about 

 $50,000 in 1909 and, while reports for 1910 

 have not been prepared, presumably that 

 amount was doubled or trebled this year. 

 About 290 regular patrolmen and over 

 1,000 extra fire fighters were employed. 

 The Coos County Fire Patrol Association 

 and the Klamath Lake Counties Forest 

 Fire Association are strongly organized 

 co-operative patrols in which the members 

 I)ro rate the cost upon their acreage. The 

 Northwest Oregon, North Williamette, Lin- 

 coln-Benton and Polk-Yamhill Forest Fire 

 Associations are looser alliances of tim- 

 ber owners maintaining individual or inform- 

 ally co-operative patrols. For central effort 

 in increasing the extent and efficiency of 

 patrol, all these organizations combine in 

 the Oregon Forest Fire Association, which 

 in turn is afR.liated with the Western 

 Forestry and Conservation Association em- 

 bracing all similar organizations from Mon- 

 tana to California. These private patrols 

 have been of immense value to the State. 

 It is notable that where they were best 

 organized, losses this j^ear were insignifi- 

 cant. They vary in efficiency, however, 

 and do not cover sufficient area. 



The Oregon Conservation Association rep- 

 resents a purely public spirited reform 

 movement, supported by annual dues from 

 all classes of citizens, and not particularly 

 pledged to promote forest protection more 

 than that of other resources. So far it 

 has devoted itself chiefiy to this end, how- 

 ever, in the belief that no other problem 

 is equally urgent. Its chief function has 

 been to supply means for carrying on the 

 work of the State Board of Forestry, which 

 is unprovided for by the state itself. By 

 meeting expenses for postage and clerical 

 work, and allowing its secretary to act 

 as secretary of the state board in prepar- 

 ing publicity matter concerning the fire 

 evil, appointing and aiding voluntary State 

 fire wardens, collecting statistics, etc., it 

 alone has prevented the forest laws from 

 being absolutely inoperative. It is hardly 

 likely, however, that it can continue this 

 work indefinitely, in view of the claims 

 of its members interested in other lines 

 of conservation. The Western Forestry 

 iind Conservation Association, mentioned 

 on a preceding page, is even more active 

 in propaganda work seeking to interest 

 both general public and forest owners in 

 systematic forest protection. 



The State Board of Forestry, created in 

 1907 by a statute that also provided an 

 excellent forest code, remains practically 

 powerless because it is not supplied with 

 any machinery for active work. It is 

 thus shorn of any real function except 

 to make recommendations to the legis- 



