Page:Report of the Oregon Conservation Commission to the Governor (1908 - 1914).djvu/258

 shown to advantage by being the only state in the Pacific Northwest to meet such a season with no facilities except the militia to protect the lives and property of its citizens. Loss of both was heavy. A complete and modern forest bill prepared jointly by the State Conservation Commission and the Western Forestry & Conservation Association and endorsed by all similar agencies, was introduced in the 1911 legislature by Representative Buchanan, and, after a brief skirmish with the old-time opposition, received overwhelming public support and was passed almost unanimously.

The forest law, now in operation, is based upon the principle of encouraging every element to bear a share of the protection burden. It stimulates private effort and provides for relieving the State, so far as is found wise, from such responsibility and expense as can be secured through the interest and practical efficiency of timber owners. At the same time it retains sufficient state control and permits the State to act where private effort cannot be depended upon. It encourages county and federal, as well as private, participation. It has been notably successful in thus securing expenditure by others than the State, and in bringing all agencies into a co-operation which minimizes frictional or duplicate effort. It is the only western forest law which keeps the appointment and direction of the State Forester wholly out of politics.

The salient features of the law are (a) a Board of Forestry consisting of the Governor, the head of the state forest school, and five representatives of the agencies most competent and interested, like the federal forest service, the state grange, and the lumbermen's and timber owners' associations; (b) provision for both state-paid and voluntary fire wardens; (c) encouragement of co-operative private or county patrol work under organizations and districts approved by the State; (d) provision for financial co-operation with such patrols by the State Forester, when this is to public advantage; (e) comprehensive punitive sections, strictly regulating the use of fire and the disposal of inflammable material, yet flexible enough to permit suitable application to varying conditions.

Two years of operation have developed no weaknesses of consequence, proposals of amendment being very few and confined wholly to minor technical points of the punitive principles. It would be extremely unwise to amend the present law except to make certain changes in reference, necessary because of mistakes made in committee when the first draft