The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1919-08-09
TO FIGHT THE
FOREST FIRES
TIMBER OWNERS ORGANIZE
UNDER STATE LAW TO PRO
TECT THEIR HOLDINGS
Northern Part of Stevens County
Placed in District and Con-
tracted to State for Patrol

A county organization to protect
standing timber from fires has been
organized by timber owners of the
county. This movement follows the
recent organization Of district as
sociation a few weeks ago, it hav-
ing been found that larger organ
ization was imperative.
At meeting held at the court
house Sunday evening, at which the
state forester and fire warden Fred
E. .Papc and Prosecuting Attorney
O. W. Noble were present, it was
decided to form a corporation under
the laws Of the state provided for
such purposes, and include all the
timber in the county in one organi-
zation. This was recommended by
the state fire warden, in order that
the state department of forestry
might contract with the association
for fire patrol. The state can not
contract with private timber owners,
but may with corporation organiz-
ed for that purpose.
'On August the Stevens County
Forest Protection association was
duly organized, with Hugh Waddell
president, C. F. Cummins vice presi-
dent, Sid E. Barnes secretary, B. A.
Clark treasurer, and board of di-
rectors comprising Fred Draper,
Hugh Waddell, C. F. Cummins, Dan
Cookery, and II. G. Robbins of Spo-
kane.
The northern part of the county
is contracted to the state for forest
patrol, the lines of the patrol being
the north and east county lines, the
line between sections "a and 35, and
the Columbia river. This district
has something like 100000 acres of
timber. An assessment of 11a cents
an acre was levied for patrol and
fire fighting purposes.
Under the terms of the contract
with the state, four patrolmen will
be hired by the state, but named
by the district. These patrolmen
will have full power to hire men i'm
mediately for fire fighting, to revoke
burning permits when necessary to
prevent hazard, and will cooperate
with the two federal patrolmen in
the district. The four -patrolmen
will receive S110 month each and
some expenses. J. F. Daley is the
only one so far named.
The necessity of having patrolmen
in the field was demonstrated in the
recent South Fork fire. 1t started
on a Wednesday evening, but no
organized crew was put on it until
Saturday noon, and by that time the
fire had burned over 18 square miles,
absolutely destroyed 7 homes, and
partly destroyed three others. At a
cost of not to exceed 5 cents an
acre of timber land year, any
homesteader or timber owner here
after may be protected by the state
service under the new organization.
His assessment is paid to his own
organization, and this organization
contracts with the state for patrol
and protection. Inasmuch as no
insurance companies will give in
surance on standing timber, or
decked logs, and only occasionally on
a dry-log sawmill, the ranchers and
timber owners feel that they are
getting very cheap insurance at So
a quarter section a year. All west
ern Washington is under similar
contract with the state, and the
average cost has run from 212 cents
to 3 cents an acre, instead Of the
legal maximum of 5 cents.
Assessments are to be paid within
10 days after notice, or they are
turned over to the county treasurer
and assessed against the land as are
regular taxes, and collected the next
year. However, when assessments
are not paid into the association
treasury promptly, the association
has to borrow the money for the
season, awaiting the tax return the
next year. This causes unnecessary
expense to the association, and it is
believed that no timber owner can
fail to see the wisdom and economy
in paying the association dues
promptly.
One provision of the law is es-
pecially good. The patrolmen not
only are allowed to handle the burn
ing of slashings, but assist the own
er in his burnings.
The State Law
Two sections of the state law re-
garding forest fires are worthy of
the especial attention of timber
owners: