FIFTH NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 303 



PRESENT PROTECTIVE EFFORT 



The areas protected in Oregon by different agencies are approximately as 

 follows : 



Forest Service acres 16,148,900 



Forest Fire Associations with State aid 7,810,430 



Timber owners co-operating through agreements or informally 2,231,900 



Individual Patrol 382,360 



Lands requiring little attention 757,820 



Total Timbered Area 27,321,410 



The three agencies working along protection lines in Oregon are the Forest 

 Service, State, and private timber owners. 



The Forest Service has direct charge of protecting about half of the tim- 

 bered area of the State. In this work some 345 men are regularly employed 

 during the fire season. Largely for protection purposes some 2,129 miles of trail 

 and 1,802 miles of telephone line has been built. The fire protection work of 

 the Forest Service is efficiently and systematically handled. Lookout stations 

 have been established, equipped with telephones and range finders so that all 

 the National Forest land is under the eye of rangers during the entire fire season. 

 In addition to this the country is patrolled by men on foot or horseback who 

 daily travel over the trails, keeping track of hunters, fishermen and campers, 

 visiting logging works, and in general being on the lookout for fires. Tool 

 caches are maintained at strategic points, trails and roads posted with sign boards 

 and fire warning notices, and where necessary pack trains are maintained quickly 

 to transport tools and supplies to a fire. With limited funds for the work the 

 Forest Service has performed signal service along protection lines. 



In the State of Oregon the Forest Service expends for protection in the 

 ordinary year about $100,000, aside from funds devoted to trail and telephone 

 building for which another $50,000 is expended. 



The State of Oregon has an appropriation of $37,500.00 yearly and through 

 the Weeks law $10,000.00 additional to expend in forest protection work. 



This fund keeps in the field a force of some 90 men during the fire season. 

 Through co-operation with timber owner's associations there is no duplication 

 of effect. The State expends practically no money for trail building or telephone 

 construction but requires its wardens to help on such projects in connection with 

 their other work where possible. It is the general policy of the State to do no 

 patrol work in sections where ownerships are in large holdings, but to confine 

 its protection to foot-hrll and burned over areas, and sections where owners five 

 on or near their land or each person has but small acreage. 



Timber owners in the State patrol their holdings through forest fire asso- 

 ciations, informally through agreements with each other, or independently. There 

 are sixteen patrol associations in the State operating in twenty counties. The 

 county is the unit of organization. 



The associations are financed through acreage assessments, such assessments 

 ranging from 1 cent to 3 cents per acre according to the difficulty of protection. 



