The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1903-01-29
DEAD AND DOWN.

III U1C CD Ud OllcAIA14O Civ VI ~ o00eoC
forestry commission is one that
should die a tragic death in the
Wisconsin legislature. Ordin-
airy killing would be too good for
such measure.
It provides for the appointment of
a state warden of forestry at a
salary Of $500, who is empowered
to appoint one or more fire wardens
for the following northern counties:
Ashland, Barron, Burnett. Bayfield,,
Chippewa, Clark, Douglass, Dunn,
Eau Claire, Florence, Forest, Iron,
Jackson, Lan9dale, Lincoln. Mari
nette. Marathon, Oneida, Oconto,
Polk, Portage, Price. Shawno, Saw
yer, Taylor, Villas, Waupaca, Wash
in2ton and Wood. These vardens
are obligated to care for the eXtin-
guishment of forests and marsh fires,
and they are empowered to summon
aid from the villages If neces sary.
Reasonable compensation is provided
for the fire wardens and villages
called upon to assist him, but the
amount any town may eXpend in one
year is limited to 500 Refusal to
assist the fire wardens is punishable
by fine of S10and costs or ten days
Imprisonment in the county jail or
both.
Under the act the sale of all state
lands is forbidden. The forestry
warden, however, is authorized to
contract for the sale of all dead or
down timber. The funds thus de-
rived are TO 20 into the general fund
of the state treasury. By the act
the game wardens will be made fire
wardens.
Persons cutting down timber be-
tween Nov. 1st and June 10th are
obliged to bury the tops and brush
before June 10, and all tops and brush
felled after June lst must be burned
within thirty days. The bill carries
an appropriation of $4,000 with it
with which to carry on this work.
The bill also provides for state
forestry commission 10 consist OF
two mem bers to be appointed by the
governor, and OF the attorney gen
eral, the state treasurer and the
secretary of tate.
If there is a single commend
able feature in the above bill The
TIMES has failed to discover it.
A salaried warden would do no.
thing tow ards stopping the burn
ing of timber, and the appoint
ment of deputies in the different
counties would be simple waste
of money. But the great big
niger in the whole bill is in the
provision for the sale of the "dead
and down timbe and the with
drawal of the state lands from
sale. We asked a lumberman
recently what dead and down"
tim Der was. and he described it
as defined on the reservations.
eff there j, q dead and down
piece of timber one half mile,
or mile away from a
particular starting point the con-
tractor cuts d wide road through
to it, taking all the timber in the
pathway Then if there is an
other dead and down" tree
few rods away the lum norman
comes back to the original start
ing place and builds a new road
wide at that, and takes every thing
in the way, so that if thereshould
happen to be a half dozen dead
and down" trees on the same
section the land would look like
a map Of Afghanist2n before the
six or seven dead and down "
trees were removed. There has
nothing created such great scand
al in the government service as
the contracts for the removal of
"dead and down" timber, and the
Investigations of these great tim
Der steals conducted under the
s'dead and down" acts, have cost
the United States government
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
7 IS n~orcscd nnder the Nc
Ill.," IN