The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1908-09-24


This Year. The Good Work Of the
Forest Service.
WASHINGTON, D. c., Sept. 81. The
forest fires which have Just laid waste
whole counties in Minnesota, Michigan,
and extended into Wisconsin, destroy
ing many towns and making thousands
Of persons homeless, have focused the
attention of both government and State
forest officers on the enormous losses
of forest wealth which will be checked
up to the year 1908.
In the whole northern half of the
United States throughout the vast ter
ritory extending from coast to coast,
the reported destruction by forest fires
has been terrific and it is likely that the
year will go down as one of the worst
in the last quarter century. 1t seems
that no part of the country has escaped
the work of the devastating flames.
The latest disasters in Minnesota
Michigan and Wisconsin are the worst
of the many that have visited the Lake
States this year Other sections have
also suffered from forest fires during
the spring and summer months, and
the people of the Pacific coast, the
Rocky Mountain and the New England
States and Canada, have had thor
ough, and in some cases, continuous
experience in fire fighting.
Officers in the United States Forest
Service here say that it is doubtful II
this years actual losses from forest
fires in all parts of the country will
ever be known, but it is certain that
they will run up so high in the millions
that the country Will be startled when
a COMPILATION of statistics at the end of
the season makes it possible to give
even the most conservative figures.
Suffice it to say, were all the timber
burned up this year i'll all parts of the
country converted into cash, 1t could
provide for good sized navy of first
class battleships.
The fires have done good in one way;
they have focused the peoples atten-
ton on the seriousness of the forest
fire problem, practical foresters say,
and have started a widespread move
ment in many States to check them by
adopting rational systems OF fire protec-
ton. Among thinking people there
has been awakened All intense interest
in throwing better protection around
the forests, which grow more important
as a natural resource as the timber
supply dwindles.
The government has had lot of work
in the fire fighting line on the Natlona!
Forests, but serious as the fires have
been. careful patrol and the organza-
ton of force to battle with the flames
AS soon as discovered, has held the
losses down to a point where they are
utterly insignificant when one considers
the fearful destruction which would
have come about had there been no
protection.
Although the fire menace has been
serious in all sections, officers OF tile
Forest Service estimate that the total
cost of the forest fires on the National
Forests for the season, exclusive OF the
salaries of forest officers, Will not be
more than $4,000. This sum is small
when it is remembered that 1t means
fire protection for approximately 1885,
900 900 acres of National Forests, less
than two enths of a mill per acre.
Progressive State fire wardens ana
forest officers, individuals and private
corporations having large timber mold
ings, have organized fire lighting forces
along much the same line as the gov
eminent in many cases, and in this way
they have given protection to millions
of acres of timber which might have
been destroyed had it been left unpro-
tected.