288 REPORT OF THE FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



were made "for lack of evidence or the insufficiency of the statutory enactments 

 relating thereto." During the two fiscal years of 1889 and 1890 there were spent 

 in salaries of field agents $5,658.60. 



Through political influence the board was abolished in 1893. 



Following legislative action in 1885 and 1887 and the abolishment of the 

 Board of Forestry in 1893, the legislature lay dormant, so far as the forest fire 

 situation was concerned, until 1903. Then, urged by the California Water and 

 Forest Association, the Sierra Club, and certain public-spirited citizens, it passed 

 an Act empowering the State Board of Examiners to enter into a cooperative 

 contract with the U. S. Forest Service for the purpose of gathering the data on 

 which to formulate a State forest policy. 



Work was started under this contract by the Forest Service July 1, 1903, 

 and the completed reports were turned over to the State in the spring of 1907. 



Before this, however, the study of forest fires had been completed and a 

 bill embodying the views of the Forest Service and backed by the organizations 

 named, was introduced into the legislature. This bill provided, among other 

 things, for a paid State protective organization. It was opposed by certain 

 interests and as a result a compromise measure — ^the Act of March 18, 1905, — 

 was passed. This, with a few minor amendments, is California's basic forest 

 law today. 



This Act provides for: 



An ex-officio State Board of Forestry; 



A technically trained State Forester appointed by the Governor, and 

 for his assistants; 



Authority for technical advice to land owners ; 



Publication of forest laws and fire warnings; 



Appointment of volunteer fire wardens who receive no pay; 



Conferring of powers of peace officers on volunteer firewardens; 



The maintenance of preventive fire patrol when the counties or private 

 landowners will pay for it; 



Vigorous prosecution of offenders by District Attorneys; and 



Fines for destroying fire warnings. 



Other previous Acts, or Acts passed about the same time, provided for; 

 enforced clearing of slash when a menace to adjacent property; fines for leaving 

 camp fires burning, or allowing fire to escape, using coal or wood burning engines 

 without sparks arresters, or refusing to fight fire when called upon by a warden. 



These are the tools that the executive branch of the State Administration 

 has had to work with. 



As has been said, the bill, as originally drawn after three years careful study 

 by the Forest Service, provided for the nucleus, at least, of a State protective 

 organization. Before passage, the scope of the measure was changed entirely 

 from afifording a working organization for forest protection to establishing an 

 agitation in Sacramento to spur local and individual effort. 



The Board of Forestry was organized and a State Forester appointed late 

 in 1905. From then until the present time consistent efforts have been made to 

 secure an organized protection field force through the county organization section 



