FORESTRY 



C0LUGC OF 4 AGRICULTURE 



UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 



PRESIDENTS ANNUAL REPORT 



POTLATCH, IDAHO, DECEMBER 1, 1914. 

 POTLATCII Tl.MIlKK PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION AND STATE BOARD OF 



LAND COM M ISSIONERS. 

 GENTLEMEN : 



It is with feeling's of the keenest regret that I have to re- 

 port the fire season of 1914 as having been the most disastrous 

 the Potlatch Timber Protective Association has ever experienced. 



LOSSES AND CASUALITIES 



Our fires burned over an area of 19,734 acres, of which 6,988 

 acres were covered by merchantable green timber and 12,746 

 acres was cut-over and brush land. The loss of merchantable 

 timber amounts to 110,310,000 feet, board measure. 



In addition to the timber losses fourteen families were burn- 

 ed out, losing their homes and entire contents ; a new schoolhouse, 

 one of the association warehouses, four bunk houses, one gondola 

 car, one flat car, 5,000 new ties, three miles of railroad track, 

 26,000 feet of logging cable, 4,000,000 feet of logs, a barn, and 

 a blacksmith shop and tools were burned and utterly destroyed. 

 Besides the above there was perhaps $5,000.00 worth of miscel- 

 laneous property lost or badly damaged. 



Bovill, a town of 500 population, was seriously threatened 

 and was only saved by a combination of good fortune and the 

 indefatigable work of our men. As it was the fire jumped the 

 town and the houses were only saved by having water barrels 

 and men on the roofs. 



The association fought a number of fires outside its bound- 

 aries during the past season, two of which were quite large. 

 These fires burned over 147 acres of land which was not timbered 

 and 1,593 acres of land which was well wooded, killing 26,344,000 

 feet of saw timber. 



Two men were killed on the fire line by falling timber and 

 one man, riding on the foot of a McGifford loader, running clown 

 a steep grade, fell of? on the track ahead of the loader and was run 

 over and killed. One man was quite seriously hurt in the back 

 by a falling tree and several others received painful, though not 

 serious, injuries. 



