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WESTERN WHITE PINE AND LARCH-FIR FORESTS Hic 
interest on the other have led to the development of cooperative 
patrol agencies. The timber protective associations which have been 
in existence some 20 years and which are supported by private, State, 
and Federal! funds, have accomplished much which could not have 
been done by individual effort. Clearly the mutuality of interest in 
the problem of fire protection calls for concerted action of public 
and private agencies. 
Provisions of Idaho forest law.—The forestry law? passed by the 
State of Idaho in 1925 contemplates cooperative action of private, 
State, and Federal agencies, its avowed purpose being “ to facilitate 
the cooperation, financial and otherwise, of the State of Idaho with 
the other principal agencies with which it is associated in the pro- 
tection of forest resources, forest range, water conservation * * *,” 
A cooperative board is provided on which is represented the State 
administration, including the State university forest school, the 
timber interests, and livestock interests. A member from the Fed- 
eral Forest Service serves without vote. 
A State forester is provided and is given rather broad powers in 
the administration of the law and regulations made by the board. 
The forest lands of the State are divided into districts, and war- 
dens are provided for each. These wardens are paid by the land- 
owners within the respective districts. 
Piling and burning of all logging slash is now required, except 
where some other method of disposal is approved by the State 
forester. 
Precautions, many of which have been mentioned, are required 
to be taken to prevent fires in logging operations, along railroads, 
around sawmills, etc. When proper steps have been taken to dispose 
of logging slash, a written “ clearance ” is given to the operator. 
Anyone responsible for the starting or existence of a fire on his 
land is expected to make a reasonable effort to put it out. 
The State pays its pro rata share for the protection of State-owned 
land in each of the districts. 
A permit from a fire warden is required to use fire for clearing 
or similar purpose during the closed season (June 1 to September 
30). 
Guitable penalties are provided for negligent or malicious use of 
fire. 
Every owner of forest land is required to provide adequate fire 
protection. He may protect the land himself or may contribute to 
an association for this purpose. 
In the administration of the last-mentioned feature of the law 
the organized protective associations are recognized and are reim- 
bursed for the cost of protecting noncontributing lands within their 
boundaries. ‘This cost is recovered from the owner at the time he 
pays his taxes. Until this law went into effect these agencies, which 
were organized upon a purely voluntary basis, were protecting about 
a 50 per cent greater area than was actually paying for. protection. 
Starting in 1906, the Idaho associations by 1909 had a membership 
representing 1,456,000 acres of contributing forest land. By 1915 the 
3Tdaho. Laws, statutes, etc. General laws of the State of Idaho, passed at the 
eighteenth session of the State legislature. H. B. 57, pp. 265-286. 1925. 
54606° —27——3 
