356 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



September^ 



Mn Pinchot Mr. Gifford Pinchot, 

 Goes to the Forester, U. S. Depart- 

 Philippines. ment of Agriculture, 

 started for the Philip- 

 pines Saturday, August 30. Instead of 

 sailing from Vancouver, as he had first 

 planned, Mr. Pinchot sailed from New 

 York. He will make the trip to Manila 

 by way of Russia and the Trans-Siberian 

 Railroad, arriving there about October 

 15. After spending about a month in- 

 specting the forests of the islands, Mr. 

 Pinchot will start home on November 

 15, coming by way of San Francisco, 

 and will reach Washington late in De- 

 cember. 



Jt 



Forest Fires. 



There were a number of 

 forest fires during the 

 month of August, which did a great 

 deal of damage to standing timber, and 

 in many cases destroyed buildings. A 

 majorit}^ of the fires occurred in the far 

 west. 



"Wyoming:. -The most serious forest 

 fires of the month occurred in Wyoming. 

 The worst of these fires started in the 

 heavy timber on the Encampment River 

 and burned furiously for several weeks. 

 They became so .serious that Governor 

 Richards sent an urgent appeal to the 

 Department of the Interior to send as- 

 .sistance, as the fires were mainly on 

 government lands. Government agents 

 were sent to the scene, and were em- 

 powered to employ extra assistance to 

 fight the fires. At last accounts, through 

 hard work, they have been gotten un- 

 der control. The towns of Battle Eake, 

 Grand Encampment, Gold Hill, and 

 Rambler were at one time threatened 

 with destruction. 



Dispatches to the newspapers estimate 

 the loss to .standing timber at $1 ,000,000. 

 This is likely a rather high estimate, 

 though the damage was undoubtedly 

 great. Fires near Lander burned over 

 a territory of 40 square miles, destroy- 

 ing a large amount of timber. 



Wisconsin. A number of serious for- 

 est fires were reported during August, 

 one of which threatened to destroy the 

 town of Florence. Many men were 

 called out to fight the flames, and serious 

 consequences were averted through the 



coming of a heavy rainstorm. Several 

 serious fires near Rhinelander destroyed 

 much timber. The cut-over lands near 

 Star Lake and Ballard Lake were burned 

 over the last week in the month. Near 

 Mercer forest fires caused much dam- 

 age to the property of farmers. 



Michigfan. During the last week in 

 August serious forest fires near Linden 

 caused considerable loss to farmers. A 

 timely rain extinguished this fire. Near 

 Mass City, in Ontonagon county, forest 

 fires are known to have destroyed 

 $20,000 worth of cedar lumber at one 

 mill, and heavy losses are reported by 

 .several other lumber operators. 



Montana. Forest fires during Au- 

 gust were reported from Schley and 

 Whitefish Lake. 



"Washing-ton. Forest fires in this 

 .state during August were reported from 

 Larchmont, Whatcom, and in the north- 

 eastern part of Clark county. A special 

 telegram to the newspapers from Port 

 Townsend, states that the smoke from 

 forest fires along Puget Sound at one 

 time became so thick as to make naviga- 

 tion difficult and dangerous. 



California. Forest fires are reported, 

 as having occurred near San Andreas, 

 which destroyed .several houses and 

 barns. A fire in the redwoods near 

 Cloverdale destroyed the tracks of the 

 California Northwestern Railway for 

 some distance. A fire was also reported 

 at Dry Creek. 



Oregon. A number of forest fires in 

 the Cascade Mountains along the Co- 

 lumbia River destroyed a great deal of 

 valuable timber, the worst of the fires- 

 taking place near Multnomah Falls. 

 Forest fires in the Siskiyou Mountains, in 

 the Beaver, Hungry, and Grosse Creek 

 mining sections did a great deal of dam- 

 age to timber. Reports connect the 

 occurrence of these forest fires with the 

 bitter feeling that has grown up be- 

 tween the miners and the timber-land 

 locators, who have during the present 

 year filed notices of location on thou- 

 sands of acres. Forest fires burned over 

 2,000 acres near Oregon City. 



Colorado. Fires are reported from 

 the vicinity of Long's Peak, Leyden 

 Gulch, near Golden, Colorado, Mount 

 Baldy, Dillon, and Cassells. The most 



