First Fire Protective Organization 



By W. R. Fishkr 

 Sectrctary the Pocono Protective Fire Association 



THE Pocono Protective Fire Association, of Mon- 

 roe County, Pennsylvania, incorporated in 1902, 

 was the first private organization formed in the 

 United States for the protection of the forests from fire, 

 and it stood alone for four years before a second asso- 

 ciation was organized, in Idaho. 



It is said it should have been called a fire protective 

 association, not a protective fire association. But the 

 question of an appropriate name was fully discussed when 

 the association was 

 formed, and the ar- 

 rangement of words 

 as they now stand was 

 deliberately adopted 

 by the founders. 



The association had 

 its origin in the office 

 of a railroad com- 

 pany. The railroads 

 have to shoulder so 

 much blame and so 

 m u c h responsibility 

 for damage done to 

 the woods that it is a 

 satisfaction to be able 

 to record the fact that 

 credit belongs to the 

 Lehigh Coal and Nav- 

 igation Company, of 

 Pennsylvania, for 

 first carrying into successful operation the idea of organ- 

 izing a group of citizens and banding them together to 

 prevent and suppress forest fires. This corporation owns 

 large tracts of land in other parts of the State, outside of 

 Monroe County. AMERICAN FORESTRY for August, 1915, 

 gives an interesting account of recent work by this com- 

 pany in reforesting some of these lands in Carbon and 

 Schuylkill counties. 



Another peculiarity that marks the Po- 

 cono Protective Fire Association and dis- 

 tinguishes it from other protective associa- 

 tioiiN. i- to be found in the character of its 

 membership. Most of the private protec- 

 tive forestry organizations of the country 

 are carried on with the avowed object of 

 preserving the trees as timber for future 

 use. Such utilitarian motives have their 

 influence with some of our members who 

 own large tracts of land, but the greater 

 number have been led to join for esthetic 

 reasons only. Hundreds of people from 

 many States visit Monroe County every 

 2H 



E. A. HOOPF.S 

 President 



The Pocono Protective Fire Association of Monroe County, Pennsylvania. 



J. A. SEGUINE 

 Vice-President 



year, attracted by its scenic and climatic advantages, 

 seeking for rest, for sport, for recreation, or for health. 

 Many of these own little or no property in the county, but 

 they are deeply interested in the preservation of the 

 woods as objects of beauty to the landscape, as shelters 

 to game, as protectors of the water supply; and they 

 willingly pay a yearly fee to help on the work of the 

 association. Eight States, extending from Massachusetts 

 to Maryland, have representatives upon its roll of mem- 

 bership, and thus the 

 association widens its 

 influence and helps to 

 spread abroad an in- 

 terest in forest pro- 

 tection. We have more 

 than doubled our 

 membership during 

 the past year, and now 

 carry 224 names on 

 our roll. 



The association has 

 two distinct lines of 

 work one is to ren- 

 der direct assistance 

 to the State Depart- 

 ment of Forestry iii 

 fighting forest fires ; 

 the other is to keep 

 before the public mind 

 the value of trees, and 

 to teach the individual what each may do and ought to do 

 to protect the forests from damage by fire. The State is 

 helped by contributions of money for the support of a 

 fire patrol by the erection of observation towers and by 

 printing and posting warning notices about forest fires 

 throughout the county. The educational phase of the 

 work, although less conspicuous than an activity dis- 

 played in fighting fire, is in reality more 

 helpful to the State and more productive 

 of lasting results. Practical foresters agree 

 that a ready and willing disposition to 

 respond promptly to calls for fire fighters 

 on the part of the residents in wooded dis- 

 tricts is essential to a successful fire service. 

 Little can be done by legislation without 

 a favorable public sentiment to back it. It 

 is the province of associations like ours to 

 develop and to foster this sort of coopera- 

 tion ; for a private association is able to 

 reach the people of a community in a direct 

 and friendly manner, where formal and 

 impersonal methods of State officials 



