132 Third Annual Report of the 



New York State profited by her experience in the devastating 

 fires of 1908, and completely reorganized her fire protection sys- 

 tem the following year. The new system will be considered in 

 detail in these pages. The increase in size and efficiency of the 

 fire fighting force has done much to lessen the damage done by 

 forest fires within the last three years. Legislation, tending to 

 increase the efficiency of the fire fighting force, has been secured. 

 A number of years ago the indiscriminate setting of fires to clear 

 land caused more forest fires than any other agency. Now, how- 

 ever, the law requires that no burning shall be done within the 

 " fire towns "* of the Forest Preserve Counties, except under per- 

 mit from the Conservation Commission. The clause compelling 

 the " lopping " of the tops of all coniferous trees cut within the 

 same territory decreases the fire danger on cut-over lands. These 

 are but two examples of numerous laws which have been passed, 

 and which have helped the State improve her system of fire pro- 

 tection. That there is still room for further improvement, with- 

 out which our forest regions invite the enormous damage to prop- 

 erty and possible loss of life attendant upon a severe forest fire, 

 will be shown in the following pages. 



The number of fires which are caused every year by carelessness 

 and avoidable accidents is appalling. The oft-repeated cautions 

 which appear on fire notices posted in conspicuous places through- 

 out the woods, are having some effect, but there are still hundreds 

 of campers who, either through ignorance of the possible results of 

 a forest fire, or through a criminal disregard of the rights and 

 safety of others, fail to take the simplest precautions to prevent the 

 spreading of their camp-fires. If this report shall cause a half 

 dozen persons to desist from building their camp-fires against a 

 fallen log, which might spread fire, or to hold a cigar stub or match 

 until it is out, or until it can be thrown into a pool of water, it will 

 have justified its existence. 



Few people have a definite idea of the vast areas of land in the 

 forest regions of the State which have been burned over within 

 recent years. The bad fires of the two years 1903 and 1908 

 burned over nearly a million acres of forest land within the Cats- 

 kill and Adirondack Preserve Counties. 



* The forest tcnvns in the central portion of the Adirondack and Catskill 

 regions, where the State maintains a fire protective organization. 



