FORESTRY 



COLLEGE OF 

 tJNIVCRSlTY 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL REPORT 



POTLATCH, IDAHO, DECEMBER 1, 1913. 

 PoTLATCH TniUHk PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION AND STATE BOARD 



OF LAND COMMISSIONERS. 

 ( rENTLEMEN : 



In many ways the fire season just closed marks an eqoch 

 in the history of this association. We have confined the total 

 area burned over during 1 a season to less than 70 acres and the 

 total damage done by forest fires in an area almost equal to that 

 of some of our smaller eastern states to 13,000 feet of timber, 

 which was merely fife killed and was logged within a few weeks 

 without appreciable loss. 



Idaho participated for the first time this year in the appropri- 

 ation made by Congress some time since for the protection of 

 the forests on the watersheds of inter-state navigable streams and 

 the Potlatch Timber Protective Association secured a portion of 

 the funds set aside for Idaho out of this appropriation. 



Any misgivings which might have been entertained at one 

 time by lumbermen and timbermen as to the wisdom of giving 

 the federal Forest Service any voice in the afrairs_of an associa- 

 tion made up entirely of practical business men engaged in an 

 effort to save their own timber and that of the "State from forest 

 fires have been entirely dispelled by the results of our first year's 

 experience in co-operating with the Forest Service in expending 

 our share of the Weeks Law appropriation. 



It seems only fitting and proper that I should here express 

 the feeling of appreciation and the sense of obligation of every 

 member of this association towards Mr. F. A. Silcox, District 

 Forester, of Missoula, Mr. E. A. Holcomb, Supervisor of the 

 St. Joe National Forest, and Mr. C. A. Fisher, Supervisor of the 

 Clearwater National Forest, for their helpful, practical sugges- 

 tions, their unfailing courtesy and patience under circumstances 

 which at times must have been trying' to them, and for the 

 promptness with which our share of the Weeks Law funds was 

 passed to our credit. 



To my mind no better evidence exists of the fact that the 

 gulf of misunderstanding and mutual distrust which has ex- 

 isted between the Forest Service officer and the timberman in 

 years gone by has been finally bridged than the harmonious and 

 thoroughly practical way in which our relations under the Weeks 



