BRUSH DISPOSAL PROBLEM 65 



The slash problem not having been solved, as to privately-owned 

 lands, a second stimulus was furnished by the great Chisholm fire of 

 1908, which burned over a large area of slashings, wiped out the town of 

 Chishohn, destroyed an enormous amount of property and endangered 

 many lives. The moral effect of the Morris Act had also an undoubted 

 effect. The result was the passage in 1909 of a law requiring the piling 

 and binning of all slash resulting from wood cutting operations. Burn- 

 ing was to be completed as soon as conditions would permit and before 

 the first day of May. The opposition of some of the lumbermen and 

 the lack of sufficient funds for enforcement were responsible for its fail- 

 ure, together with the fundamental weakness of the law in that it pro- 

 vided only one arbitrary method for meeting all the widely diverse 

 conditions in the State. 



The law of 1909 proving unsatisfactory, it was repealed by the 

 enactment of the Forest Law of 1 9 1 1 . The section of the law which re- 

 lates to the disposal of brush is as follows : 



"Sec. 15. Where and whenever, in the judgment of the state 

 forester, there is or may be danger of starting and spreading of 

 fires from slashings and debris from the cutting of timber of 

 any kind and for any purpose, the state forester will notify the in- 

 dividual, firm or corporation, by whom the said timber has been 

 or is being cut, ordering them to dispose of the slashings and debris 

 as he may direct. Where conditions do not permit of the btumng 

 of the slashings and debris over the entire area so covered, the 

 state forester may require the person, firm, or corporation, by whom 

 the timber was cut, to dispose of such slashings and debris in such 

 a way as to establish a safe fire Une arotmd the area requiring such 

 protection, the said fire line to be of a width and of a character 

 satisfactory to the state forester. 



"When any person, firm or corporation shall have been notified 

 by the state forester to dispose of slashings and debris, either by 

 entirely consuming the same or estabHshing a fire line sufficient 

 for the protection of adjoining property, and fails to comply with 

 such instructions, the said person, firm, or corporation shall be 

 deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall 

 be punished by a fine of not less than $50.00 and not exceeding 

 $100.00 and costs of prosecution for each violation thereof or failure 

 to comply therewith. 



"When any such branches, slashings or debris are left unbumed 

 contrary to the instructions of the state forester, the state forester 

 may go upon the premises with such force of men as may be neces- 

 sary, and bum such branches, slashings and debris, and the expense 

 thereof shall be a lien upon the land on which they are situated, 

 enforced as liens for the improvement of real estate are enforced, 

 and such expense shall be a prima facie valid claim that may be 

 collected from the person, firm, or corporation who cut the timber 

 or wood from which the said slashings and debris were made." 



