58 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Jan. 9, 1909. 
Conference On Forest Fires. 
Albany, N. Y., Jan. 4.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Forty representatives of the large 
lumber companies, private landowners and 
others interested in preserving the forests of 
the State, met in conference with Commissioner 
Whipple at the Capitol recently, to suggest 
and discuss projects for the prevention and 
control of forest fires. Commissioner Whipple 
opened the conference by stating that he did not 
agree with those who thought the present fire 
warden system was adequate to meet the 
exigencies of fire lighting for the protection of 
the forests of the State. He believed the time 
had come to inaugurate a better system, and he 
had called the conference for the purpose of 
obtaining the views of the men in the State 
who are best posted as to the situation, and 
best informed as to better methods of fire pro¬ 
tection and fire fighting. He proposed a com¬ 
mittee of three, who should formulate resolu¬ 
tions embodying an efficient plan of fire protec¬ 
tion. As such committee Judge Abbott, Mr. 
Hall and Mr. Jacobs were appointed. 
Louis L. Marshall, of New York city, who 
has a summer camp on lower Saranac Lake, 
and who, with Judge Abbott and Mr. Agar, 
was a member of the constitutional convention 
which framed the existing provisions governing 
the State forests, said that considering the sub¬ 
ject from the standpoint of a summer resident 
who had had personal experience for a num¬ 
ber of years with forest fires, including the 
great fires of 1899, 190,3 and 1908, he believed 
that the railroads were responsible for the vast 
majority of the fires, and that in the interest of 
the preservation of the forests, the most im¬ 
portant step which could be taken would be 
the enforcement upon the railroad companies, 
either by legislation or by act of the Public 
Service Commission, of a change of fuel from 
coal to oil. Mr. Marshall stated that in every 
period of drouth he had seen fires burning along 
the lines of the Adirondack Division of the 
New York Central and Delaware & Hudson 
railroads, which are coal burning roads, and that 
the only railroad which had not set fires was 
the Raquette Lake Division of the New York 
Central, a petroleum burning road. He knew 
of instances where locomotive firemen had cut 
holes in the spark arresters in tire smokestacks 
of their engines, in order to make steam more 
easily, and he insisted that a change of fuel 
was the only way of doing away with this class 
of forest fires. Though he had no practical in¬ 
formation on the subject, he did not believe 
the cost required to make the change was by 
any means prohibitive. He remembered when 
some of the great railroad companies of the 
.State objected to equipping their trains with 
air brakes at a time when such a system had 
been in operation for several years on the 
Pennsylvania Railroad. He also remembered 
strenuous objections made by the railroads on 
the ground of expense, against the adoption of 
the block si.gnal system. Since the adoption of 
both these necessar}' improvements, the people 
of the State will not permit the railroad com¬ 
panies to go back to the old system. Similarly, 
he thought, the use of oil will become a perma¬ 
nent factor in the operation of the Adirondack 
railroads. 
As to the forest fires caused by others than 
railroad corporations, he thought the remedy 
lay in the enactment of legislation providing for 
more stringent punishment of persons setting 
such fires, and in the case of those setting fires 
willfully, he believed that if the statute is not 
at present sufficiently broad, that the same pun¬ 
ishment should be meted out for this offense as 
is now provided for the crime of arson. On 
the prophylactic aspect of the fire question, Mr. 
Marshall believed the present system of fighting 
fires had its chief weakness in the fact that most 
of the fire wardens had private business inter¬ 
ests, and could not devote the proper attention 
to fire fighting in times of emergency. He be¬ 
lieved in a paid force of fire police, who should 
be experienced and trained men, and who should 
give their entire time and attention to the pro¬ 
tection of the forests. He thought that at times 
when there was no danger of the fire, that these 
men could render efficient service as game pro¬ 
tectors. 
Judge Abbott agreed with the previous 
speaker that the railroads were the chief cause 
of forest fires in the Adirondacks. “I believe 
Commissioner Whipple has advocated the build¬ 
ing of signal towers,” said the Judge, “for 
watching out for that other class of fires set 
by tourists and campers. I agree with his sug¬ 
gestion. I believe these signal towers should 
be connected by telephone, and I believe every 
guide who takes a party into the woods should 
be licensed and registered with the town clerk, 
and be required to give a suitable bond in a 
small amount, conditioned that he should im¬ 
mediately report all fires coming to his obser¬ 
vation to the nearest patrol, or by the nearest 
telephone, and that the law should also contain 
the provision that his failure to so report any 
fire would be punishable by fine.” This pro¬ 
vision, the Judge thought, would go a long way 
toward making the guides careful to see that 
no fires were started by their camping parties. 
Lyon De Camp said that in his opinion ninety 
per cent, of the fires in the section around Ful¬ 
ton Chain originated from railroad locomotives. 
He believed that this subject should be taken 
up by the conference and decided before any 
other phase of the fire situation. He thought 
the railroads had done everything in their 
power to prevent fires, and that their activity in 
this respect only proved that it was impossible 
to prevent fires along the railroad lines, except 
by a change of fuel. 
Commissioner Whipple asked the speaker if 
he could suggest any remedy for preventing 
railroad fires, other than a change of fuel. It 
had been suggested that the fires might be pre¬ 
vented if the railroad companies would clear up 
a strip fifty feet in width on either side of their 
right of way, with the further precaution of 
constructing a ditch one foot wide and six 
inches deep, running the entire distance on both 
sides of the cleared strip. Mr. De Camp did 
not think the plan suggested would be effective, 
even if the entire right of way and additional 
cleared land were plowed and- all the duff and 
brush removed. To secure an effective fire 
guard of this kind would require that the sur¬ 
face of the strip be kept damp at all times, and 
if such a plan were really made efficient, it 
would cost the railroads more than a change 
of fuel. The danger of such a plan would be 
that it would not be made thoroughly efficient. 
Ferris J. Meigs, of the Santa Clara Lumber 
Company, said that a suggestion had been made 
of substituting a stone wall four or five feet 
high along the railroads’ right of way in place 
of a ditch. He was more familiar with fires 
originating with campers and hunters than 
with railroad fires, and he believed more severe 
laws should be enacted to punish individuals 
setting fires, whether intentionally set or not. 
Guides should not only be licensed, but should 
form a part of the forest rangers. The guides 
should register in advance their route when 
taking a party into the woods, so that the blame 
for any fires started by their parties could be 
accurately placed. He also thought no camp¬ 
ing parties should be allowed in the woods in 
dry seasons without registered guides, and he 
believed the Commissioner should have the 
option by law of closing the woods entirely to 
hunters and campers during dry seasons. Mr. 
Meigs agreed with the other speakers that the 
main preventive against forest fires would be a 
well paid fire patrol. 
Charles M. Higgins, who is the owner of 
woodlands on Long Island, thought that forest 
fires in his section could only be prevented by 
prohibiting the use of other fuel than oil on 
the railroads. Fie thought more attention 
should be paid to instructing the public, not 
only as to the laws relative to forest fires, but 
as to precautions to prevent the starting of such 
fires, and directions as to putting them out. 
W. Scott Brown, Superintendent of the Adi¬ 
rondack Mountain Reserve, told of the fire 
breaks being constructed around his preserve at 
Keene Valley. A space sixteen feet in width 
had been cleared of timber, and all trees which 
would fall in this space from either side had 
been cut and removed. In addition, a ditch 
three feet wide at the top had been cut through 
the muck down to the mineral soil. In addition 
to the advantages secured by these fire breaxs 
in stopping fires, and also in enabling the fire 
fighters to use them as a base for back firing, 
the fire breaks furnished good roads, and were 
invaluable for the purpose of getting large 
bodies of men through the woods, such as are 
required at the time of fighting forest fires. 
The cost for constructing a mile of such fire 
break had been $250. 
George H. Gould, a Lewis county lumber¬ 
man, and James S. Jacobs, of Tupper Lake, 
laid particular stress upon the difficulty in se¬ 
curing the right class of men for fighting 
forest fires under the present system. 
Martin E. McClary, speaking for the rail¬ 
roads, said not all railroad men were bad, and 
that the railroads were vitally interested in the 
preservation of the forests. He did not want any 
resolutions adopted on the subject of a change 
of fuel for the railroad at the present time, on 
the ground that such resolutions would unfairly 
influence a matter now before the Public 
Service Commission. 
John G. Agar emphasized the importance of 
a change of fuel on the railroads as the greatest 
work that could be accomplished for the pre¬ 
servation of the forests. He also emphasized 
the importance of a State fire patrol. 
The following resolutions were passed: 
“Your committee respectfully recommends 
the adoption of the following resolutions: Re¬ 
solved, That it is the sense of this conference 
that (ist) the necessary legislative or execu¬ 
tive action be taken to secure the use of oil 
