NOKTH CAKOLINA FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 27 



at the colored Agricultural and Mechanical College at Greensboro, to 

 say a few words about the interest of our colored citizens in forest pro- 

 tection. 



Mr. Johnson declared that as poor a man as he is, he would have 

 declined a gift of $500 rather than have been kept from this meeting. 

 He was born in the old country, he said, and had not known what the 

 dominant race has done for the colored people until he came to the 

 South. "I want to say," he said, "that not half what has been written 

 and said about this question is true." He declared that as an agricul- 

 tural race, a knowledge of forestry would be a great help to them. 



Mr. J, G. Peters, Chief of State Cooperation in the United States 

 Forest Service, who had come down from Washington especially for the 

 meeting, then made an address on "State Cooperation in Fire Protection 

 With the United States, Under the Weeks Law." 



COOPERATIVE FIEE PROTECTIO?f UNDER THE WEEKS LAW. 



By J. G. Peters, United States Forest Service. 

 Members of the North Carolina Forestry Association, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



The protection of our forests from fire is receiving increased attention 

 throughout the country. It is the result not only of the enormous amounts 

 of timber destroyed, but especially of the constantly growing value of timber. 

 The loss in the coniferous forests of the North is frequently the destruction 

 of the merchantable timber itself, while in the pine and hardwood forests of 

 the South the chief damage is the repeated killing of young growth, especially 

 on cut-over lands. This young growth has a very great future value, for upon 

 it depends the permanency of the lumber industry in the region. 



Fire also destroys the soil covering, causing rapid run-off on steep slopes 

 and erosion is chiefly the origin of sediment in the channels of navigable 

 streams. This injury to streamflow and navigation furnishes ground for 

 active assistance from the Federal Government. A year ago Congress passed 

 the Weeks law, section 2 of which is designed to authorize this assistance. 



The purpose of this section of the law is primarily to protect navigable 

 streams, and secondly to promote forest protection by the States and private 

 owners. The appropriation for the purpose is $200,000, which is available 

 until expended. The law requires that (1) the protection must be confined 

 to the forested watersheds of navigable streams; (2) the State must have 

 provided by law for a system of forest fire protection; and (3) the Federal 

 expenditure in any State must not exceed in any Federal fiscal year the 

 amount appropriated by the State for the same purpose for the same fiscal 

 year. 



The law is administered by the Forest Service under an agreement between 

 the Secretary of Agriculture and the State. 



A broad interpretation has been placed on what constitutes a navigable 

 stream, and in every case the stream is given the benefit of any doubt. How- 

 ever, streams used only for floating logs, canoes or rowboats are not consid- 



