FOREWORD. 



The Kennebec Valley Protective Association was organized in the 

 Spring of 1912. The Association is endeavoring to aid in securing wise 

 protective legislation; and in co-operation with the State Department 

 aims to provide their territory with adequate means of fire protection. 

 Also it is striving, by means of publicity material warning posters and 

 the like to create a strong sentiment in favor of protection among all 

 who frequent the woods, whether for business or for pleasure. 



The object of the Association in putting out this little booklet is to 

 spread the gospel of forest fire protection among the thousands whose 

 interests are best served by keeping the woods fresh and green and free 

 from fire-scars. The sportsman must realize the necessity of preserv- 

 ing the woods as a cover for game ; those who seek a pleasant Summer 

 sojourn by woodsbound lakes have need to take some thought for the 

 preservation of those charms that lure them each year to the green clad 

 hills ; the woodsman must know that each thousand feet of timber 

 burned means labor and wages forever lost to him a thousand feet 

 of logs that he can never help to cut or yard or haul or drive. Then all 

 should make common cause against that most wanton and destructive 

 enemy of the woodlands FIRE ! 



A strict observance of the State Fire Laws would prevent the 

 greater part of the damage from forest fires, and the most important of 

 these laws are given in these pages. The attention of those conducting 

 lumbering operations is invited to the new law regarding the disposal 

 of slash along rights of way of railroads and highways ; and also to the 

 article relating to the best method of disposing of such slash. 



The greatest crime that can be committed through the agency of a 

 match is the lighting of a destructive forest fire. Consider the case of 

 a building destroyed by fire. Money will replace it. In a year or two 

 we may see another building rise on the same site, easily a better build- 

 ing than the one consumed. Then consider the destruction of a forest 

 by fire. A flaming match, or a lighted cigar or cigarette stub, carelessly 

 tossed among the dry leaves starts the conflagration, which sweeps up a 

 hillside, leaving a bare and blackened ruin hundreds of acres in extent. 

 Money cannot replace it! Time may restore this forest to some measure 

 of its former grandeur and value, but scarcely in the life time of a man. 

 Consider this burned area ten years after or even twenty years a 

 mass of brush and brambles, with the gaunt and weathered trunks of 

 many fire-killed forest monarchs still standing in disfiguring array. 



We trust by the agency of THE GREEN BOOK to impress on its 

 readers the serious consequences of neglecting the simple precautions 

 against forest fires. Let the man in the woods have a care that no 

 spark from his camp fire or match or smoking materials shall kindle 

 and spread destruction through the forests. 



For the purpose of adding a greater interest to these pages, certain 

 miscellaneous information of value has been included. While this 

 miscellany has been compiled from the most reliable sources at hand, 

 no responsibility is assumed for its "truth and veracity." 



