State, county, and private lands within national- 
forest boundaries and a large acreage of lands ad- 
jacent to national forests. Other private lands, 
State lands, and county lands are protected by the 
State except in King County, Wash., which retains 
its own fire warden, paying his salary and expenses 
from county funds. In both States the work of the 
associations and private patrols is inspected by 
State officials to see that adequate protection is 
given. In some cases the State contracts with an 
association for the protection of tax-roll land within. 
the association’s territory. 
The States receive funds for fire protection from 
private owners through county tax rolls, through 
direct appropriation by their legislatures, and from 
the Federal Government. The Federal contribu- 
tion under the Clarke-McNary Act has been an 
important factor in developing and maintaining 
fire protection of private lands. In 1936 the share 
of Clarke-McNary funds distributed to western 
Oregon was approximately $70,000 and to western 
Washington about $65,000. In recent years C.C.C. 
work has accelerated the progress of fire protection 
on private and State lands. 
Expenditures for fire control on private and State 
lands in the last 10 or 15 years have ranged approx- 
imately from 3 to 5 cents per acre per year. They 
are generally conceded to be insufficient to obtain 
adequate protection of all types of forest land. The 
large proportion of cut-over land and other highly 
inflammable types on the areas protected by the 
State foresters increases greatly the cost of protec- 
tion. In Oregon, the State forester (5) estimates 
that it would cost approximately 10 cents per acre 
per year to restrict the annual burn to 0.15 percent 
of the total forest area. Annual losses in both 
States have been many times that figure, but in 
1936 and 1937 are reported to have been approxi- 
mately 0.15 to 0.2 percent. Protection efforts on 
private lands are generally concentrated on mer- 
chantable timber, with much less attention to cut- 
over and second-growth land. 
One of the most serious problems facing the State 
forest-protective agencies is the rapidly increasing 
area of county-owned and tax-delinquent lands, 
which they are required to protect if the counties 
so elect. The State may charge the counties for 
such services but cannot force collection, and many 
counties are in arrears. 
68 
A few years ago the private associations became 
less active in Oregon, but they were revived by 
the passage of the so-called tithing act. This act 
provides that 10 percent of State taxes collected, 
including the forest-fire-patrol tax, be paid into the 
State general fund to be used in defraying expenses 
of general State administration. The timber own- 
ers, loath to see 10 percent of the money paid for 
fire-patrol purposes diverted, rejoined the associa- 
tions. Unquestionably the scope and activities of 
the fire-patrol associations will diminish as more 
land is cut over and the volume of private saw 
timber decreases. Eventually, fire protection will 
probably be administered entirely by the States 
and the Federal Government. ‘There is persistent 
demand for increased subvention by the Federal 
Government. 
In respect to other enemies, the Douglas-fir region 
is more fortunate than in its war against fire, and 
protective measures against them are accordingly 
of relatively minor importance. Measures for con- 
rol of hemlock looper infestations were first tried 
in this region during the epidemic of 1929-31. 
The infested areas were dusted with calcium arsen- 
ate from an airplane. The expense was shared 
by private owners and the State of Washington. 
The State acted principally as a landowner, since 
a large part of the timber involved was State- 
owned. There are no annual expenditures for 
protection against either insects or disease in this 
region except those of the Federal Government for 
research in forest-insect and disease control con- 
ducted by the Bureau of Entomology and Plant 
Quarantine and the Bureau of Plant Industry. The 
former bureau has done some experimental work 
in the control of white pine blister rust. This 
problem is not serious in the Douglas-fir region, 
as the susceptible species (the five-needled pines) 
are relatively unimportant here. 
Future Hazard Conditions 
In the past few years logging methods in the 
Douglas-fir region have been revolutionized, and 
the end is not yet. In 1930 motortrucks hauled 
only a few hundred million feet of logs in this 
At present, it is estimated, trucks haul 
2 million feet per day in the lower Columbia River 
region. 
