164 



THE FORESTER 



July, 



Reign of the Fire King. 



Forest Fires in Washington. 



While cruising in the vicinity of the 

 headwaters of the Lewis and Sispus 

 Rivers, between Mt. Adams and Mt. 

 St. Helen, last August, I saw the destruc- 

 tion by fire of a great quantity of very 

 valuable timber. At that time fifty sec- 

 tions of heavily- timbered country were 

 totally devastated by fire within forty- 

 eight hours. I would estimate the tim- 

 ber thus destroyed to be from 40,000 to 

 50,000 feet per acre. The loss approxi- 

 mated 1,280,000,000 feet of first-class Fir 

 timber, which, when worked up into lum- 

 ber, would amount to not less than ten 

 millions of dollars in value. A fire en- 

 tailing such losses would be considered 

 a great disaster in any part of the country. 

 This is but one instance among many 

 in fact, there are miles and miles of that 

 country that have been thus destroyed. 



There are evidently several causes for 

 these fires. First, the Indians purposely 

 set fires where the brush is so thick as to 

 interfere with hunting ; secondly, the 

 sheep men cause these conflagrations to 

 make better pasturage on the sheep 

 ranges ; and, thirdly, prospectors and 

 travelers through the country are often 

 careless of their camp-fires. 



Something, indeed, must be done at 

 once if the forests of the higher lands of 

 the Cascade range are to be saved from 

 the destroying brand. It is necessary 

 not only to have a stringent law, but it 

 must be strictly enforced. If nothing is 

 done to save this great wealth of forest at 

 once, it will soon be too late. Under the 

 existing inactivity on the part of the Gov- 

 ernment and State to preserve these for- 

 ests, the end of the next ten years will 

 see the bulk of the timber on the high- 

 lands destroyed. This, of course, en- 

 dangers the lower lands also, and will 

 soon be the cause of inroads on the tim- 

 ber of the valleys. 



R. F. Cox, 

 Chenowith, Wash. 



Forest Fires in Oregon. 



Much of the loss occasioned by the 

 disastrous forest fires of recent years in 

 Washington and Oregon is undoubtedly 

 due to the indifference and carelessness 

 of settlers. 



In my personal experience one man, 

 J. B. McDonald, admitted on the witness 

 stand that, after having cleared off an old 

 burn of about two acres, he had set fire 

 to the debris, and that at dark he had 

 put it in shape so as not to spread to the 

 adjoining forest, but that about 10 o'clock 

 that night, noticing a bright light, he 

 went up to the clearing and discovered 

 that the fire had crept into the timber; 

 that before it was extinguished ten mil- 

 lions of first-class Fir was destroyed. 



The man said that his two acres, when 

 cleared for the plow, were not worth ten 

 dollars. The difference between the two 

 amounts represents the premium on his 

 carelessness and the cost of the experi- 

 ence to the State. 



It is perfectly awful to go through the 

 forests of Oregon and Washington and 

 see the waste caused by needless fires. 

 The statements of "boomers" regarding 

 the immense forests in these States are 

 gross exaggerations. The lands origi- 

 nally covered by forests have been so 

 burned over that I do not believe 40 per 

 cent of the timber remains perhaps not 

 30 per cent. 



J. B. Montgomery, 

 Portland, Oregon. 



Swift Punishment of an Incendiary. 



Lowville, N. Y. Henry Kennedy, 

 of Watson, was arrested by Sheriff Geo. 

 Denslow and brought before Justice J. C. 

 Bardo for examination. The charge is 

 setting forest fires in the town of Watson. 

 He entered a plea of guilty. He was 

 fined $25 or twenty-five days in jail, and 

 not having the necessary funds was com- 

 mitted to jail. 



