The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1895-08-08
PROTECT OUR SCHOOL LANDS.

A Warning From the Office of the Board OF
State Land Commissioners, to Tres
passers on Our School Lands.
The following communication regard
ing our public school lands was recelv-
ed last Monday by Supt. Dyer, and is
or should be of interest to every citizen
of San Juan County:
OFFICE OF BOARD OF STATE LAND
COMMISSIONERS,
OLYMPIA, July 90, 1895.
County School superintendent,
Friday Harbor, Wash.
Dear Sir:
Reports having come to the
Board of State Land Commissioners
from the Superintendent of Schools,
that;
First-They have heard reports of
trespass OH school lands and therefore
ask Instructions as to their duties in
the matter and;
Second That they have themselves
authorized persons to cut fire wood for
themselves OF for school district use;
Therefore, the Board of State Land
Commissioners, with the endorsement
and approval of the Hon. Supt. of Pub
lie Instruction, desire to call yOnr at
tentiOn to the law, and to the following
facts, and to ask your hearty and cheer
full cooperation with us, and that you
will call for the help of school district
officers and teachers.
AS you are well aware the income of
the schools is derived from the sale and
lease OF school lands. With the eXcep-
ton of lands in the wheat belt of East
ern Washington, the chief value of our
school lands i'll this state is in the tim
bered lands of Western Washington.
During territorial days some of the
best school land in the state has been
logged off. In the absence of forestry
guardianship of any kind in the state,
the practice of logging on school lands
has undoubtedly continued and is still
going on, and we are certain that petty
trespass on the part of settlers is
practiced, by the very men who
owe most to the common schools, and
who should be the most vigilant pro-
tectors of all that would add to the
school fund out of which their children
are being and will continue to be edu-
Gated.
At the last session of the legislature
an act was passed vesting the manage
ment, lease and disposition of state
lands in the Board of State Land Com
mlssiOners, at Olympia.
The land act provides Session Laws
1895, Chapter 17S, Secs. 81, SO, 1OD
that any firm, corporation or associa
ton cutting or removing or causing to
be removed any timber growing upon
any state lands, or manufacturing the
same into logs, bolts, shingles, lumber
or other articles for domestic use or
commerce, shall be liable to the state
for treble the value of the timber or ar
ticles so cut or removed, and shall for
felt all interest in and to the article in
to which the timber is manufactured;
further, that such sersOns, upon con-
viction shall be punished by fine or inn
prisOnment, or by both, rot exceeding
one year in Jail and 81 900. Further it
is the duty of the Board to investigate
all cases of trespass and damage on
school lands and to prosecute the same.
We therefore call on you as good and
patriotic citizens, charged with the
most serious and delicate responsibility,
that of care of the education of the
children of the state, that you will also
act as the volunteer protectors of that
upon which the education of the chill
dren chiefly depends, to-wit; the land
which the state holds in trust for them.
Let your school directors know, and
through them let the children know,
that no one has right to rob them of
their heritage, as some miscreants are
now doing. 1t may seem trifling to cut
cord wood, for example, from school
sections, but there have been sections
which have been nearly denuded of
timber by such procedure, to the states
loss. Let them know that the legal
status of every person going on school
section, using it or removing anything
from it, should be carefully inquired in
to, and if it does not clearly appear that
such persons are bona fide lessees or
purchasers, they should be reported at
once to the state board with a state
ment of names, dates and places of and
of witnesses willing to testify who will
enable the state board to properly in
vestigate and prosecute.
If we shall receive your hearty coop
Grafton, the result should be to save to
the state school fund many thousands
of dollars.
Respectfully,
N ~