26 BULLETIN 1493, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
high mountain country or the region east of the Cascades, although 
the cost per acre is higher in the Douglas fir region than in the ter- 
ritory east of the Cascades. The territory within national forests, 
national parks, and Indian reservations is not included, since these 
are covered by separate, though cooperating, protective organiza- 
tions. In Oregon protection is given to about 13,500,000 acres of 
private and State land. In the eight years 1918- 1925, the average 
annual cost was $358,827, of which $221,941 went for prevention 
and $136,886 for suppression. ‘This amounts to a charge of about 
2.7 cents per acre. In Washington protection is given to about 
13,800,000 acres, not including Federal lands. The average annual 
protection bill for the period 1918-1925 has been $400,552, including 
both prevention and suppression, or 2.9 cents per acre. In a very 
bad year (1922) over $1,000,000 was spent in protecting these lands, 
and even then large losses occurred. 
A large proportion of the expenditures are made directly by logging 
companies and railroads for fighting fires. In 1925 the State “bore 
26 per cent of the total prevention “and suppression costs in Wash- 
ington and 12 per cent in Oregon; the Federal Government cooperated 
to the extent of 9 per cent in Washington and 6 per cent in Oregon; 
and the remainder came from the associations and other private 
sources. In years of high suppression costs the proportion of private 
expenditures is larger because the Federal cooperation and State 
appropriation are fixed and are spent mostly on prevention. 
The Washington Forest Fire Association charged for protection 
at the rate of 21% cents per acre in 1919, 334 cents per acre in 1920, 
3 cents in 1921, 5 cents in 1922 (a very bad year), 314 cents m 1923, 
5 cents in 1924, and 5 cents in 1925. In Washington the present 
limit on the amount any owner may be assessed under the compulsory 
patrol law is 5 cents per acre per year. In Oregon the actual cost of 
protection may be assessed against the owner, with the approval of 
the State board of forestry. 
THE PRESENT FIRE RECORD 
In spite of splendid cooperation and a good working field organiza- 
tion, too great an acreage is burned annually. In Oregon, outside 
of the Government holdings, there was burned over annually on the 
average for the period 1918-1925, 120,000 acres, of which 37,000 acres 
was classed as merchantable timber and the rest chiefly as old burns 
and cut-over land reburned. The number of fires averaged 1,185. 
In Washington the average annual acreage of burns for the same 8 
years was 194,000 acres, of which 22,000 acres was merchantable 
timber; the number of fires averaged 1,029. In each State about 
80 per cent of this acreage is west of the Cascade Range, chiefly in 
the Douglas fir region. 
The annual loss of private timber and property in the two States 
on account of forest fires averages close to a million dollars; some 
years it is very much more. It is not uncommon for one fire to 
cause a single operator $100,600 worth of damage. 
CAUSES OF FIRES 
A word here on the prevailing causes of fires may give a clew to 
the vulnerable places in the present prevention and suppression 
systems. 
