The Alaska daily empire., 1915-09-09

ing to Portland on the Jefferson. Mr. Graves came north several weeks ago to look into the matter of boundaries of the Chugach National Forest pre- lHminary to the elimination of a large part of the reservation.
 There seems to have been some misunderstanding as to the motive of the government in making the elimination which was announced a short time ago." said Mir. Graves this morning. The matter has been un- der consideration for two years or more and the whole reason back of the elimination is this: When the reservation was first made 1t was i'm possible to make any accurate survey of so vast an area with the facilities then available for transportation and in order that there might be boundar. ies which would legally establish the reservation. the government decided to indicate the limits of the resrve by the easiest made possible. TO that end we used in great many cas- es. such boundaries as nature provid- ed and as the result the Chugach Forest was bounded for great lengths by the crests of mountains where trees had never grown. The field work of establishing the real boun- daries for the reserve was complet- ed some months ago. and the work of deciding the exact bounds of the tracts that were non-forest, within the reserve. has been going on until very shortly before the announcement of the elimination was made by Presi- dent Wilson.
 There was no motive whatever in the elimination except our desire to have the reservation include only tru- ly forest tracts.
 "As for the agricultural value of the land which has been eliminated, DO continued Mr. Graves. "that of course depends upon the location of the land. Some of it is on the tops of mountains and not accessible. There are large tracts however which have an agri- cultural value. and all of the eliimina- tion will, naturally, become a part Of the public domain"
 Fire Damage Large
 An unusually large loss has result ed from the extensive forest fires which have been raging in various parts of the Alaskan forests accord. ing to the statement of Che Chief for ester. This loss is very large" said Mir. Graves, mot SO much in a money way, for it would be impossible to estimate its value in that term. but in the matter of materials which the forest furnishes. such as fuel. build Ing logs, corduroy-road material, etc. The fires began in May, which is ear Her than we have known fires to start before in this section and as ] came down from Fairbanks to Valdez l passed through 100 miles of burning forest along the trail The losses around Haines were very heavy, al- so."
 WANTS FIRE PROTECTION
 "One of the first things that shall try to accomplish upon my return to Washington. will be to get from Con- gress an appropriation for the main- tenance of an adequate system of fire protection throughout the Forest reserves. We have now a liquid fund which we may draw upon in cases Of emergency. but believe that we should have an actually organized system of fire protection and shall make that one of my chief interests this Fall During the year 1914 we had 1000 serious forest fires in the various reservations, and the loss was enormous. Alaska will suffer greatly if some adequate protection is not arranged. and hope that that may be accomplished before the next dry season sets in"
 Alaska Forests Valuable
 When asked his opinion as to the value of the forests in Alaska, when considered in connection with the development of the Territory, Mr. Graves said: CT think that the value of the forests in this section can hardly be overestimated. have investigated yer ythoroughly the wood pulp industry. and ] firmly believe that within a very short time one Of the most important industries of this Territory will be the manufacture of wood pulp It is an industry which demands four things, namely water power, easy transportation. easy log ging. and @ wood that will grind cas- fly. l know of no place where all these factors can be more readily sup piled than in Alaska and forsee a big future for that branch of manu- facture here.
 Paper is being used far more ex- tensively than ever before in the history of the world, and is being made a basic part of a more varied line of products than ever before. It stands to reason that a country which can supply an abundance of the ma terial ingredient will shortly become the setting for extensive wood pulp manufacture"
 Praises Anchorage
 Speaking of the city of Anchorage. where he spent a few days. Mir.