It requires an outlay of S cents an acre on a 15,000,000-acre area 

 requiring protection. It will cost, in fact, 10 cents an acre adequately 

 to protect the 10,000,000 of idle cut-over lands and the 5,000,000 acres 

 which are not idle but timber stocked. Five of the 10 cents for each 

 acre, however, will be furnished half the protection, at least, at no cost 

 to the state. Timber owners have their own protection organizations; 

 mills shut down and whole towns turn out when there are big fires. 

 The public comes in without expectation of repayment when the job 

 is at its worst and costs the most. 



$550,000 NECESSARY. 



"If the state will spend $500,000 a year on organization and 

 improvements, the next bad fire season will not find the people 

 unprepared and helpless," says Prof. Roth. 



A detailed estimate of the cost that should be paid out by the state, 

 independent of private help, and aiming to encourage co-operative 

 effort on the part of the public, by Prof. Roth, exceeds his offhand 

 estimate by $50,000. Here is Mr. Roth's summary of "a reasonable, 

 practical minimum for effective fire protection in Michigan annually 

 to be expended for the next 20 years": 



State Fire Warden, at $6,000 and expenses $ 10,000 



30 County Wardens, at $2,000 and expenses 90,000 



Supervisors as Wardens, at $100 .40,000 



500 special Wardens, at $200 ' 100,000 



Clerks, printing, etc 10,000 



Improvements, equipment, etc 200,000 



Fire fighting, extra help, ordinary years. 100,000 



Total .$550,000 



For emergency years, a special standing fund of $500,000 for fire 

 Anting. 



WOULD LEVY TAX. 



To raise this money, Prof. Roth would have the state levy a special 

 tax of two cents an acre on all cut-over lands not part of actual farms; 

 a special tax of five cents an acre on all standing timber, and apportion 

 to the forest protection fund a part of all gun and hunting license 

 money. Generally, he says, this would yield the following returns 

 for forest protection: 



Tax on cut-over lands (10,000,000 acres) $200,000 



Tax on standing timber (4,000,000 acres) 200,000 



Part of game protection fund, etc 150,000 



Total '. $550,000 



A special tax on land for forest protection is no innovation, he 

 points out. It has been in effect in Oregon since 1913. Voluntary 

 organizations of timber owners in all the timbered states pay acre 

 assessments, some of them as high as 25 cents an acre, where timber 

 tands are especially valuable and protection difficult. The average 

 assessment runs from five to ten cents an acre. 



URGES EDUCATION. 



Prof. Roth says educative work in forest protection should begin 

 in earnest. The public should be fully informed what fires in the 

 Northland mean in loss of forest products, deterioration of soil, de- 



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