266 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



defoliated by the fire will recover their original appearance after 

 the lapse of ten to twenty years, and the burned area can be 

 brought in time back to its former condition, probably much 

 improved if sufficient appropriations are available. But the sim- 

 ple cost of fighting to restrain this fire has cost the State above 

 one thousand four hundred dollars. It would have cost two 

 thousand dollars but for the generous donation of the Southern 

 Pacific Company of the services of its employees, amounting to 

 about five hundred dollars, and the free use of their time given 

 by the thirteen Stanford students, who spent two days and three 

 nights in this business. The State's appropriation for the park 

 for 1904-1905, aside from the Warden's salary, is three thousand 

 five hundred dollars. 



The lessons of this fire are pointed and plain. Until the 

 State has efficient forestry and forest-fire laws supported by 

 public opinion it should purchase no more forest land for parks. 

 When the "hot spells" come in August or September, with the 

 wind northeast, and the consequent absence of dampening sea- 

 fogs at night, lumbermen should be required to suppress all fires 

 and watch their property closely, and the State should increase 

 its patrol service sufficiently to discover and suppress in the 

 first stage any outbreak of fire in the mountains. The ranchmen 

 and the owners of summer homes in the mountains are of as 

 much importance as permanent property-holders as the lumber- 

 men, and the law should not fail to protect them. 



California, in accordance with an act of the California Legis- 

 lature, approved March 16, 1903, which provided for the formu- 

 lation of a State forest policy." It is "An Act to provide for the 

 protection and management of forest land within the State of 

 California," and will be introduced into the present Legislature. 

 It provides for a State Board of Forestry, consisting of the 

 Governor, the Secretary of State, the Attorney-General, and the 

 State Forester, to be appointed under this law, which shall 

 manage all State Parks and woodlands, and have the power of 

 enforcing all forestry laws on private lands. It provides for 

 co-operative work with counties, towns, or private parties inter- 

 ested in forest lands ; for a corps of assistants and their duties ; 

 for special assistance by citizens ; for fire patrol ; for prosecutions 

 and penalties ; for restrictions in the use of fire, of engines, 

 etc., in forest lands during the dry season; for clearing along 

 roads and railroads ; and finally it provides that moneys paid 



The State 

 Forest Bill. 



This bill has been "prepared by the Bureau of 

 Forestry of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, in co-operation with the State of 



