Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-10-07
Fire Prevent" Year Round

W. will hold "fire prevention" meeting.
Most of US know that from October
9TH to October 10th is set aside as National
Fire Prevention Week.
It's mighty good idea that of calling the
whole conglomerated mass of humanity toward
prevention of something that is costing
yearly vast sums of money to the people in the
United States, and also in destroying beyond
recall millions of dollars worth of property and
forests. 1t might be method of learning the
careless man woman the value of watchful-
ness in all cases where fire is concerned
But, while we are with the Governor and
the commission in their October efforts to allay
the fire menace and teach the careless to be
more careful, it seems that the springtme is
THE TIME to call for statewide carefulness
IN fire prevention in the state of Wisconsin,
especially the northern half where the tangible
assets made perfect by the tree growth of
this lake region. There has been no effort so
far as can be learned whereby the governor
has seen the need to give the people of the
North Woods any tangible protection from the
fire menace in the spring time. That we know
and want to ask why.
Last June after the northern part of the
state had been swept from practically one end
to the other by forest fires, an effort was made
to have the governor and the legislature set
aside a sufficient of money to fight the
menace of fire; even delegation called upon
both but there was nothing done. Then, when
the governor made an inspection trip this sum-
over in the Laona-Crandon district where
thousands of acres of timber had been charred
to cinders and the section devastated, it is
given the governor saying after his visit
months after, that there was apparently not
the great damage done by fire that had been
reported to him.
| take the following from an article pub
lshed last June by of the state papers:
Wisconsin is without a conservation policy
worthy of the in spite of all that is claimed by
those who responsible for the safety and security
Of the states resources If this thousands
of dollars of the taxpayers money and other thous
ands expended by individuals and corporations would
now be needed to combat the fires raging in the
north woods
The conservation measure recently passed by the
Legislature carried appropriation for fighting for
fires. 1t provided for system of patrols and pro-
tectve measures which would have insured the main
tenance of adequate precauton and reduced the haz
ard of forest fire the where the would
not now be trying with inexperienced men to combat
the rapid spread of devastating flames
The governor, in his superior WISDOM vetoed that
measure, and the money employ fire wardens whose
duty it is to prevent fires and put them out after
they have started is not available"
You see, he waited until Nature had re-
clothed the burnt area with sprouts and grass,
and after the numerous rains had washed away
the blackened effect from the killed timber it
did not look one-tenth as horrid as it was re-
ported But if he investigated he would have
found the major portion of the miles and miles
of burnt district to be shorn of all live trees.
I'm with him in fire protection, but Octo-
Der is not the month in the North Woods to
ask us to be careful of our fires. Most of the
fires that work destruction come in the spring
from so many sources that they cannot be
enumerated Every spring the dead and fallen
brakes, grasses and trees form mighty fine
base for a sweeping fire-and it usually comes
and we have no means of fighting it except
with the labor of men and women who live in
this section.
Show fire that start this fall or
this week with all the wetness with which the
ground and debris is soaked. Some Octobers
are dry; but fall fires are in the minority while
it is proven fact that EVERY spring we are
raked from stem to stern with heavy fire losses
and no assistance from the governor, the COM
mission or the state legislature, is ever given
we people who live here and are fighting for
the preservation of Natures blessings and sus-
tenance
Talk doesn't get any great distance in
crisis; action and assistance does. We need the
latter.