The Prescott daily news., 1909-05-31
NEW PLAN FOR
 FOREST PROTECTION
Wireless Telegraphy Is Being Advocated as the Best Means for Preventing
 Destructive Fires.

Spokane, Wash, May 29.-Vet- eran timber cruisers in the h. land Empire declare the time is not far distant when 70. Q. D" messages will be flashed by wire less telegraph as a solution of the problem of scientific fire fighting in the forests of Wash ingtOn, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada. Montana, California and British Columbia which contain more than 7OO,OOO,OOO acres of stand ing timber, the patrolling of which costs the lumber companies and the United States Forest Ser vice hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, in addition to enormous expense involved in con- structing and maintaining the governments lines of commun- ica tionA
 Lumbermen in Spokane say that more timber is destroyed an nually by fires than is cut by the saws, and add if some ade- Quate protection could be de- vised the standing timber in the Nor thweSt would last for cent ur- ieS They have numerous state and interstate organizations, the larg est being the Pacific Northwest Forest Protection and Conserva- ton ASSOcia tiOn, a federation of five protective leagues in Wash ington Idaho, Oregon Montana and California headed by Albert Lh Flewelling of Spokane. This or ganzati has hundreds Of men in it's employ, but their means of communication are not extensive enough to cover the vast areas, the result being that much of it is unprotected
 The plan advocated by R. K Armstrong, an expert operator, is to establish a syStemt of wire less signal boxes and teach the forest rangers the code, so that with the first alarm they could locate the blaze and summon as- sistance before the fire gained much headway. This would elim- mate the danger of cutting off communication by fires destroy ing the poles and trees falling across wires. Probably the most important thing is the saving of life. Every year since 1870 an av- craze of 50 persons have been burned to death in the United States in forest fires, making a total of nearly 2.OOO lives sac rificed to flames which might have been prevented.
 Armstrong maintains that the chief reason for the spread of l the fire is after a blaze is dis covered a long time elapses be- fore the alarm can be sounded and aid summoned to fight the flames. Many of the large lumber concerns of the Pacific Northwest lines for connec ting camps of for est rangers but this was given up for the reason that the fires would burn the poles or the wind would blow them down so often that they would be useless most of the time. Then too, 1t was found that in many timber tracts the country is so rugged and the standing timber so heavy 1t would be impossible to stretch wire line.
 However the forest service has built hundreds of miles of tele- phone lines and cut trails through the big government forests in Idaho. Washington. Montana and other western states, where it also maintains patrols. These were found of good use during the fires in 1907 and 1908, but large areas were burned over as the result of the fires gaining great headway before they could be To- cated by the range riders.
 The problem of forest protec- ton is one of vital interest to the western ,umbermen, as well as those who are only indirectly connected with the industry. The chief payroll Of the Pacific and Northwestern states comes from numbering as is evidenced by the fact that S75, 100000 is paid in wages annually in the mills. yards and camps of Washington W hich give employment to from 175, ,OOO to 19O,OOO men while the states of Oregon Idaho, Montana and California pay as much more.