10 FORESTRY BULLETIN 



protection can never be effectual through township or county officials, as - 

 they are too often implicated in the trespassing, or not competent to con- 

 duct the prosecutions if made. Few people in the southern portions of 

 our State fully understand the conditions of this problem. First, it is 

 almost impossible to impanel a jury in the northern counties, the majority 

 of whose members have not themselves some day trespassed upon public 

 lands. Second, in sparsely settled counties, the legal talent available for 

 prosecuting attorney is limited to one or two persons, who are wholly un- 

 able to successfully cope with the attorneys which the trespasser will al- 

 ways employ, and the State is the loser thereby. Third, the trespassers 

 and generally the representatives from these northern districts raise the • 

 plea that these timber thieves are poor men of family, who are starving 

 and are forced to enter upon these lands and steal to support their fami- 

 lies. We challenge this statement, for in an investigation which has ex- 

 tended over the last four years, we have noted that in nearly every in- 

 stance the trespasser was a man who had a good bank account, and was 

 not forced to steal for a living, but finding it a lucrative business with no 

 risks or taxes, kept at it. He is still at it and still will be until more 

 stringent measures are taken to stop this business, or until the grand old 

 State of Michigan has not a tree left for him to steal. Our suggestions 

 then, as to the maintenance of our present forest areas are entirely along 

 the lines of legislation. We can do nothing with public property without 

 laws governing the same — laws which are so plain and concise that there 

 can be no quibbling or doubt as to their meaning. 



These laws should cover, first the matter of trespassers upon State 

 lands, and by trespassers we mean malicious trespassers. There are alvfays 

 some few who by mistaken lines or corners get over the true lines, but 

 these are usually willing to settle and are already well provided for, but 

 we want in addition to the good law we now have for malicious tres- 

 passers, a clause compelling the Attorney General of the State to prose- 

 cute in arrests made by the authority of the Commissioner of the State 

 Land Office, or a clause authorizing the Land Commissioner to procure 

 competent attorneys to so prosecute without the sanction of the Attorney 

 General. 



Second, legislation to prevent the destruction of our present forests 

 by fire. It seems to us that the only solution of this matter is by the se- 

 lection and appointment of efficient wardens by the State for the pur- 

 pose. No system which depends upon the township or county officers for 

 its execution, will ever be successful. These wardens must have the sov- 

 ereign power of the State back of them and in their pockets, and must be 

 entirely removed from political influences. Game Wardens, Fire Wardens 

 and Trespass Agents should all be S~tate, agents with full power to 

 make arrests and to prosecute in justice courts as the Game Wardens 

 now do. There is no Game Warden but that knows of trespass upop 

 public lands, and there is no Trespass Agent but that often sees flagrant 

 violations of the game laws, and these men should all be vested with as 

 strong authority to do anything to prevent the destruction of our forests 

 and game as can be given them by any law that can be devised. The 

 duties of the wardens should be to prevent the use of fires wherever there 

 is danger of damage resulting to the surrounding territory, whether 

 owned in private or by the State. We all know the difficulties, 

 which attend the fighting of fires in our cities where we have all modern, 

 appliances for their subjection, but none of these fires can compare with., 



