18 BULLETIN 1494, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
high-water mark of 1,910,000 acres was reached. The membership 
being voluntary, it was to be expected that with the cutting off of 
timber there would be a falling off in the number of members and a 
corresponding contraction of the area protected. This was evident 
in a shrinkage of the contributing acreage to 1,664,000 by 1924. 
Accomplishments——A glance over some of the past work of the 
associations will give an idea of how accomplishments lined up with 
the standards proposed. 
A five-year average (1922-1926) of the five principal north Idaho 
associations shows the following acreages burned over: 
Pim bere) 21h Vse Fee ee eee ier ae eS pees 2). ee 4, 848 
Cut-on. burned-over areas. | a dete se F Bee St Re) ee 33, 671 
To meet the standard of 0.25 per cent the acreage burned annually 
should be reduced to a total of about 6,700 acres of the 2,682,000 
acres protected.* 
Fire wardens who are paid directly by landowners in their dis- 
tricts have found it embarrassing to enforce laws applicable to 
lumbermen and difficult to prosecute farmers on account of the 
local feeling that they are in the employ of the big lumber interests. 
The regulation of slash disposal and all brush burning contem- 
plated by the new law accentuates this difficulty. On the whole, 
law enforcement has proved to be a problem with which associations 
have been unable to cope successfully. 
IMPROVED ORGANIZATION PROPOSED 
Sufficent time has not elapsed to give any adequate measure of the 
results to be obtained under the new law. A strong effort to increase 
the efficiency of the protection organization is called for. in order to 
cut down the damage, particularly to cut-over lands. That increased 
efforts in prevention will result in lower costs of fire fighting is also 
to be hoped. Every effort to cut down the number of man-caused 
fires should be made. The possibilities of education, research, and 
law enforcement should be studied and the best means brought to 
bear to solve this problem. 
To put law enforcement upon a workable basis two things seem 
desirable. ‘The first is a more direct control of this activity by the 
State; that is, the direct employment of chief wardens, inspectors, 
and law-enforcement specialists by the State itself. The second 
thing needed is a method or policy which by holding individuals or 
agencies accountable for results would serve as a substitute for undue 
regulation. For instance, if railroads are held responsible for fires 
started by their engines it will not be necessary to inspect their spark 
arresters so often; if logging operators are held accountable for 
any fires starting on land for which they have no clearance, it will 
not be necessary to have some one constantly on the job to see that 
the slash is piled; and ranchers will not be so willing to take a 
chance with brush-burning fires if they know that they will have to 
pay for any fire getting beyond control. 
‘During the four years 1923-1926 the Potlatch Association, by greatly strengthening 
its patrol organization, kept the burned area to less than 0.25 per cent of the area 
protected. 
