FOREST POLICY. 



6. Forestry movement: Forestry commission reports to 

 legislature in 1898. Ernest Bruncken, secretary. (See also 

 XXXI.) 



7. Laws: Forest fire warden law of 1898, creating certain 

 county officials ex officio fire wardens. 



A law of June 2, 1903, provides for an unpaid "board of 

 forest commissioners" or a "department of forestry." Paid su- 

 perintendent of State forests acts as secretary of board for records, 

 publications, maps, etc.; acts as "trespass agent" on State forest 

 reserve; acts as chief fire warden of the State; appoints fire war- 

 dens in certain counties. Fire wardens and helpers are paid by 

 the towns; but the annual fire expense per township must not ex- 

 ceed $100. Fire notices. Fire reports. Duty of district attor- 

 neys to prosecute incendiarism, upon complaint of fire wardens. 



All State lands are withdrawn from sale (excepting swamps, 

 farm wood lots, agricultural land and small tracts) and consti- 

 tnte a "State forest reserve." Here possibility of forestry is to be 

 studied by the superintendent; dead and down timber to be dis- 

 posed of; experiment stations to be formed. 



The State may accept unencumbered forest land donated by 

 private persons for reserve purposes. Insufficient appropriation. 



Any 40 acres planted with 1,000 pine trees obtain a tax re- 

 lease for fifteen years. 



8. Reservations: No federal forest reserves. 



The State forest reserves created in 1903 consist of hold- 

 ings so scattering that protection from fire will be difficult. 



9. Irrigation: None. 



FORESTRY CONDITIONS OF WYOMING: 



1. Area: 13% of area of State or 12.500 square miles are 

 said to be wooded. (Underestimate??). 



2. Physiography: A broad, high, bare plateau, stretching 

 from the northeast to the southwest into the Uintah Range, oc- 

 cupies one-half the State. Deserts in the southwest (Colorado 

 and Red Deserts). The Yellowstone Rockies occupy the north- 

 western quarter; the Big Horn Mountains, drained by the Yellow- 

 stone River, the central north; the Uintah Mountains come from 

 Utah; the Laramie and Medicine Bow Mountains from Colo- 

 rado; the Black Hills from South Dakota. The northern moun- 



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