STATE FOKESTKY ITS RELATION TO CONSERVATION 745 



capable of handling men. Forest fire prevention to be successful requires 

 forestry. The measures necessary to keep fire completely out of forest lands 

 presuppose an interest in the forest crop for the protection of which fires 

 must be prevented. The fire warden to be efiicient must be at least in thor- 

 ough sympathy with forestry, know the value of young timber, realize the 

 damage from fires which burn on cut over lands, and be able to impress his 

 views to others. The most efiicient type of fire warden is therefore the one 

 who is employed for this special purpose. The game warden, who is required 

 to serve also as fire warden, may regard these duties as an irksome addition 

 to his real work. 



What may be said of the subordinate officials is more emphatically true 

 of the central organization. Consolidation of forestry with fish and game 

 means that the chief official is too often interested in the one to the neglect 

 of the other. The chief fire warden of a state should either be the state 

 forester or his assistant. A forester has a full appreciation of the real pur- 

 pose of forest fire prevention and is working for the ultimate object back of 

 it, mainly, the production of timber. Under his direction the f^re wardens are 

 constantly stimulated to better work, organized and instructed, and get results. 

 If the Fish and Game Commissioner is required to be the State Fire Warden 

 he has not the same interest. In most cases he has not a forester's knowledge 

 of the subject, lacks incentive and performs his duties in a routine manner. 

 We must have active progress if the fire problem is to be met. Efficiency, not 

 economy, should be the watchword. 



This is not an argument against allowing fire wardens to act as game 

 wardens, if thought advisable, nor of allowing game wardens to serve as supple- 

 mentary fire wardens. But the responsibility for the enforcement of fire laws 

 should not be placed with a Fish and Game Commission any more than the en- 

 forcement of the State Fish and Game laws should be placed on the shoulders 

 of the Forestry Department. Consolidation of these two departments does 

 not at present seem advisable. In actual practice the states which have kept 

 these departments entirely separate and have done good work in fire preven- 

 tion are: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and 

 California. Of these, Oregon recently abandoned the plan of using her game 

 commissioner as state fire warden, in favor of fire wardens responsible to 

 a forestry commission. Minnesota's new law installs an extensive force of 

 fire wardens responsible to a state forester, and independent of the state 

 game warden. 



Of the states which have tried consolidation New York has since 1895 until 

 1911 had a Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner, who controlled both de- 

 partments. But the work of each has been entirely separate. The superin- 

 tendent of forests, with a force of appointed fire wardens paid by the state, 

 protect the state lands from fire, and enforce other forestry laws such as the 

 law requiring the tops of conifers to be lopped. A separate force of game 

 wardens serves in the same territory, and are required to report fires and 



