PROTECTION 151 



tutes trespass, and these may be either fire, timber, 

 grazing, occupancy or property trespass, depending 

 upon the offense. Since the United States has all 

 the civil rights and remedies for trespass possessed 

 by private individuals, it may bring action to re- 

 cover damages resulting from trespass or breach 

 of contract. 



Fire trespass includes the following offenses : set- 

 ting fire to timber, brush or grass; building camp 

 fires in dangerous places where they are hard to 

 extinguish; or leaving camp fires without com- 

 pletely extinguishing them. The various railroads 

 that cross the National Forests are one of the 

 most frequent offenders in that the sparks issuing 

 from the locomotives or the hot ashes dropping from 

 the fire box set fire to National Forest timber. The 

 railroads are required to use every precaution to 

 prevent such fires, but many of them are started, re- 

 sulting in damage suits by the Government. The 

 damages cover not only the merchantable timber 

 and forage destroyed, but damages are also col- 

 lected for young, immature growth, which at first 

 thought might seem to have little or no value. But 

 the courts have held that while the young, unmer- 

 chantable trees have very little value now, they 



