FIRE PREVENTION BY STATES, BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND BY 



PRIVATE INTERESTS 



By the Sub-Committeb on Forest Fires. 

 Chairman, C. S. Chapman, Portland, Ore. 



D. P. Simmons, Seattle, Wash. J. S. Hoi^mes, Chapel Hill, N. C. 



F. H. B11.EARD, Berlin Mills, N. H. CoERT DuBois, San Francisco, Cal. 



Presented by Mr. C. S. Chapman, Tuesday afternoon, November 18, 1913. 



SYNOPSIS 



NO phase of forest work has been so actively taken up or has made such 

 marked progress as that of forest fire prevention, during the past ten 

 years. 



Though forest fires have occurred ever since there were forests, not until 

 the national forests were created and stumpage on privately owned land became 

 valuable, was there real efl'ort to prevent destruction of timber by fire. 



There are now ten patrolmen employed where there was one five years ago, 

 and even yet an insufficient number of men are engaged in the work. 



The expenditure for employment of men to patrol the forests of the United 

 States is now counted in millions. 



During the past five years there has been an increase of over 3,000 per cent 

 in the area of privately owned forest land patrolled against fire ; while, in addition 

 to this, 92,000,000 acres of private land has been systematically looked after, and 

 an area of some 187,000,000 acres of timber land patrolled by the Forest Service. 



Forest fires in the United States, according to the most conservative estimates 

 since any records were available, have caused an average annual loss of 70 human 

 lives and the destruction of merchantable timber to the amount of $25,000,000. 



Forest protection on privately owned lands is most intensively carried on in 

 the Northwest, Lake States, New England, and those States adjacent to New 

 England. In nearly all of these sections timber owners are doing as much or more 

 than the State to preserve the forests. With few exceptions, the character of 

 work performed is of a poorer character where the State alone is responsible for 

 fire prevention than where timber owners and the State are working together to 

 protect the forests. 



The Federal Government, taking into account the character of its work 

 throughout the United States, is performing the most effective service along fire 

 protection lines. In the Northwest, however, privately financed associations are 

 expending a greater amount per acre to protect their holdings than is the Federal 

 Forest Service. 



The Southern States, each of which have a large area of valuable forest 

 land m private ownership, are still backward in protection work. In this section 

 there is every possibility of successfully keeping out fires at small cost provided 



