154 



CORSICA 



Trespass. — The forest users are apparently lawless and 

 hard to control. Trespass cases, when suits must be brought 

 to enforce the collection of damages, make enemies for the 

 Service. 



During my trip frequent and flagrant open grazing trespass 

 was noted; also the destruction of signs, lopping birch for 

 goat feed even along a central road (forest of Valdoniello), 

 tapping pine for resin to be used as medicine, and the theft of 

 green wood for fuel in the forest of Valdoniello, where the head 

 ranger permitted the use of dead and down fuel without the 

 formaHty of a permit. 



It is true, however, that trespass is gradually decreasing. 

 In 1886 there were 12 violations of the law in federal and 7 

 in communal forests per 1000 hectares (2471 acres), or an aver- 

 age of 9.5; in 191 1 this average had fallen 20 per cent. 



A comparison is given in the following table for the years 

 1886 ^3 and 1911^°: 



TABLE 24 



As a corollary to this record, in 598 actions brought in 191 1 

 (think of the official work the report and preparation of these 

 cases must have consumed!) 314, or 52 per cent, were acquitted. 



Fire Protection. — Compared to the intensive fire protec- 

 tion along the Cote d'Azur, between Cannes and Toulon, the 

 protective methods in use in Corsica are crude. Grazing tres- 

 pass, even in federal forests, is winked at in order to induce 

 the local population not to set fires, but no systematic edu- 



59 Ofiicial report dated 1887. 



^ Rapport de Prefect, 191 2, p. 98, 



