Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1913-03-07
OWNERS MUST FURNISH AT
THEIR OWN EXPENSE PRO
LECTION FOR HOLDINGS
AS WE'LL AS OTHERS.
UNDER RULE OF FORESTER
Failure to Provide Necessary Patrol
Will Cause State to Take Action
and Payment For Services of Guard
Must Be Paid BY Land Patrolled;
Full Text of Law.

Additional safeguards for the tim
ber of the state of Oregon has been
provided by the passage by the late
legislative assembly of bill which
makes it the duty of every timber
owner to provide a sufficient fire pa
troll to protect his own timber and
that of adjoining lands. In the event
that such timber owner or owners do
not provide such a fire patrol, it is
then made the duty of the State For
ester to have the timber patrolled and
the expense for the same is charged
against the owner and acts as lien
on the land. Provision is made in
the law to determine the quantity of
timber necessary for the services of
patrol, and this also is under the
direction of the State Forester. Tim
ber men are generally favorable to
the law which they say will have the
effect of protecting the immense areas
of standing timber much more effec-
tually and at less expense to the tax
payers than heretofore.
The full text of the new fire patrol
law as it passed the legislature and
which will become effective early in
June is as follows:
"Sec. l. Every owner of timber
land in the state of Oregon shall fur
nish or provide a sufficient fire pa
troll therefor, during the season of the
year when there is danger of forest
fires, which patrol shall meet with
the approval Of the State Board Of
Forestry.
Sec. 2. In case any owner or ow-
ners shall fail or neglect to provide
such fire patrol, then the State For
ester, under the direction from the
State Board of Forestry, shall pro-
vide the same at a cost not to ex-
ceed five (5) cents per acre per an
mum. Any amounts so paid or con-
tracted to be paid by the State For
ester shall be lien upon the prop
erty, and shall be reported by the
State Forester to the County Court
Of the county in which such lands are
situated, and shall by such Court be
levied and collected with the next
taxes on such lands in the same man.
ner as taxes are collected. Said
County Court shall instruct the prop
er officer to extend the amounts on
he assessment roll in a separate col
INN, and the procedure provided by
aw for the collection of taxes and
delinquent taxes shall be applicable
hereto, and upon collection thereof
he County Court shall repay the
anne to the State Forester, to be ap- .
olied to the expenses incurred in ,
arrying out the provisions of this
ct. =
"Sec. 3. For the purposes of this
ct, any land shall be considered tim
'er land which has enough timber
tanding or down to constitute, in the r
Judgment of the tSate Board of For
stry, a fire, menace to itself or adj
Dining lands.
"See. 4. The owner of any land
Oming under the provisions of this
ct, who shall reside within one and
ne-half miles of said land, shall be C
by virtue of said resi- r
enee, to maintain a sufficient fire a
atrol and shall not be compelled to z
laintain additional patrol on such t,
md. !,
"See. 5. For the purposes of this 81
ct, an adequate fire patrol shall be n
1nstrued TO mean one equal to that Il
by fifty per cent of tim )
er owners in the same locality. or e,
nder similar conditions in other To- in
llities, who are IN good faith pa e,
olling their lands against fire. +" te