Conservation Commission 115 



the Adirondack and Catskill regions may be properly protected. 

 The area now under protection does not include more than one- 

 half of the forest area of the State. The forests in the outlying 

 areas are equally and, in some respects, more important than 

 those which are now protected. 



A law should be enacted to give the commission discretion 

 in establishing fire districts in these outlying forest sections. 

 The present law gives the town supervisors various powers and 

 duties, which, in some cases, these supervisors endeavor to per- 

 form. The question of forest fires is not a town matter. Town 

 lines are not a barrier to their spread, neither are the forest 

 areas defined by such political divisions. An official hesitates 

 to incur necessary expense, and a fire, that can be extinguished 

 cheaply in one town, is, in some instances, allowed to develop 

 such headway that great damage and expense are incurred in 

 another town. The location of property or business interests 

 is many times such that the townspeople are not particularly 

 interested in the more isolated forest portions of their town 

 and, therefore, do not give the matter of fires proper attention. 

 The result of the fire protective system, which has been inau- 

 gurated in our large forest regions, indicates that the mountain 

 observation station is a necessary adjunct, and, in order to 

 secure proper efficiency, such stations must be established and 

 maintained. This, at once, becomes a matter which affects more 

 than one town. If the State cannot make appropriations for this 

 work, a law should be enacted enabling various towns mutually 

 interested to combine and form a fire protective district at their 

 own expense. 



The provisions of the Weeks Law agreement with this State 

 provide that the Federal Government will expend three thousand 

 dollars for fire protection in these outlying forest regions or such 

 parts thereof as the State will appropriate an equal sum for 

 this purpose. 



Extension 



The demand for literature in regard to forestry has rapidly 

 increased the past year. Several hundred bulletins issued by 



