146 



RECREATION. 



white pine, as a finish, out of the way; as di- 

 mension get hemlock out of the way; let our hard 

 woods, in a larger measure than now, become ex- 

 hausted, the beginning of the end of the Southern 

 pine in sight, and what kind of an advantage do 

 you think those West coast lumbermen will take 

 of us? Shrewd white pine operators have bought 

 billions of feet of timber, are buying it right 

 along, and they are not in a hurry to manufacture 

 it. It will be the last chance, and that means high 

 prices. 



In the light of these statements, coming 

 from a trade journal that had always pooh- 

 poohed the idea of waning supplies, the 

 forest reservation policy of the Federal 

 government and of the single State govern- 

 ments should be as rapidly as possible ex- 

 tended and the lumbermen should soon 

 be made to see that there is need of look- 

 ing out not so much for their future as the 

 future of the community at large. Says 

 the same trade journal: 



Lumbermen who contemplate operating on gov- 

 ernment forest reserves are somewhat appalled by 

 the following requirements embodied in their con- 

 tracts with the government, backed by a bond: 



I will pay in advance for all timber before cut- 

 ting same. I promise to pay for all timber and 

 material used in the construction of shanties or 

 buildings of any kind; also for material used in 

 the construction of skidways, corduroy, log roads, 

 bridges and other improvements. I promise to 

 leave no skids, logways, shanties, corduroy or 

 other timbers I have used in the woods, and to 

 haul bodily all tree tops and debris to the pre- 

 scribed openings in the woods for burning. ] 

 promiseto cut all tree tops into cordwood to blank 

 inches in diameter, and see that no lodged trees 

 are left behind. 



There is no question that the observance of this 

 regulation will assist the growth of the young 

 timber and leave the reserves in fine shape, but 

 the expense will make competition with ordinary 

 logging operations almost impossible. 



It is better that the lumbermen be some- 

 what appalled and perhaps be deterred 

 from entering into such contracts until the 

 need of looking after reproduction is thor- 

 oughly recognized by them, than to sacri- 

 fice the relatively small quantities of virgin 

 timber now in the hands of the govern- 

 ment. 



DAMAGES BY THE LATE COAST FIRES. 



While our legitimate needs for wood ma- 

 terials are large enough to make every foot 

 of timber precious, we continue to allow 

 wanton and negligent destruction by fire to 

 decimate our supplies. The field agent of 

 the forestry department of the Interior De- 

 partment estimates that the forest fires 

 which raged on the Pacific coast last Sep- 

 tember caused a total loss of $12,767,100, 

 of which $3,910,000 fell to Oregon. This 

 includes the value of timber, farm property 

 and saw mills and their products which 

 were destroyed. Owing to its nearness to 

 market, however, much of the burned tim- 

 ber in Oregon will be saved, reducing the 

 total loss as above set forth. It was found 

 that 86 Oregon families were rendered 



homeless, while 200 others suffered partial 

 losses. In that State, farm property worth 

 $315,000 was burned, and saw mills suf- 

 fered losses aggregating $149,000. It is es- 

 timated that 2,124,000,000 feet of standing 

 timber went up in smoke in Oregon, large- 

 ly Douglas fir, spruce, cedar and hemlock. 

 The total loss in timber alone was over 

 $3,000,000. In all, 170,000 acres were burned 

 over, all of which, save 50,000, were well 

 tmbered. 



In Washington 434,000 acres were burned 

 over. The timber was fully as heavy as 

 the Oregon timber, and of better quality. 

 It is estimated that 5,026,800,000 feet of 

 Douglas spruce alone was killed, represent- 

 ing a value of $5,026,800. Other timber to 

 the value of $725,000 was destroyed. The 

 total loss in Cowlitz, Clark and Skamania 

 counties, where the fires were most disas- 

 trous, was $6,600,000, and in the other 

 burned areas, $2,256,300. 



PRESIDENT FAVORS FOREST RESERVES. 



In his recent message to Congress, Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt, in speaking of forests, graz- 

 ing and irrigation in our West, recom- 

 mends that "in view of the capital import- 

 ance of these matters, they be given 

 the earnest consideration of Congress; and 

 if the Congress finds difficulty in dealing 

 with them from lack of thorough knowledge 

 of the subject, that provision be made for 

 a commission of experts specially to invest- 

 igate and report upon .the complicated ques- 

 tions involved." 



In referring to Alaska he says : "The 

 forests of Alaska should be protected, and 

 as a secondary but still important matter, 

 the game also. At the same time it is im- 

 perative that the settlers should be allowed 

 to cut timber under public regulations for 

 their own use." 



Of great importance in this connection 

 is the forest reservation which has been re- 

 cently established in Alaska. The whole of 

 the magnificent Alexander Archipelago was 

 set aside as a forest reserve on the 20th of 

 August, 1902. This contains 4,506,240 acres. 

 The Afognak Forest and Fish Culture Re- 

 serve, which was set aside on the 24th of 

 December, 1892, contains 403,640 acres, and 

 covers the whole of the island of Afognak 

 with adjacent islands and rocks. There 

 are thus almost 5,000,000 acres of reserved 

 land in Alaska. Afognak island is practi- 

 cally the Northern limit of the Coast For- 

 est. 



The bulk of the forest of Alexander 

 Archipelago consists of Sitka spruce and 

 the coast hemlock. The forest is dense only 

 here and there. The timber is of medium 

 quality and the islands are so rough and 

 rocky that lumbering would be difficult and 

 probably unprofitable. 



