REDWOOD o DOUGLAS FIR. PTYWOOD

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Industry-State Cooperation Holdt Down

Northwest Fire Loss

Oregon and Washington's timber ir-rdustries spent $3,696,767 in 1947 for direct forest fire protection, highest expenditure on record, W. D. Hager-rstein, forest engineer for the West Coast Lumbermen's Association and Pacific Northwest Loggers Association, asserted here today in a progress report.

Industry and the trvo states together spent $6,265,602 in protection of Oregon and Washington forests from fire, Hagensteir-r said, in building up the outstanding feature in the national picture of forest conservation. He cited the industry's ou'n record, emphasizing expenditures within the Tree Farm program which approached 25 to 30 cents per acre annually, industry cooperation with the federal government through the states under the Clarke-McNary Act, joint industry and state forestry, and industry as the major financial supporter of Keep Oregon and Washington Green.

The industry forester pointed out that while national figures on 1947 forest fires showed an alarming increase both in numbers and acreage burned, the Oregon-Washington field of industry-state cooperation held fire loss to very low figures. There were 2146 fires in 1947 on nonfederal lands in the two states against 2058 in 1946. Acreage burned was 20,486 in 1946 and 76,443 in 1947. This compares rvith an annual a\rerage for the period 1934-1941 inclusive of D21 fires and 176,704 acres burned. This rvas between Oregon's great Tillamook fire disaster and the rvar. Nationally there were 200,799 fires in 1947 and 172,278 in 1946 rvhile the 2O,691,393 acres burned in 1946 jumped to 23,225,932 in 1947 and dollar damage jumped from $32,694,113 to $55,207,646 in 7947.

Hagenstein said the $3,696,767 forest fire expenditure by industry did not include another half million dollars paid by land owners as assessments to private fire protective associations, nor funds paid to the states for protection of private lands. In addition the forest products industry of Oregon and Washington spent large sums in endless forestry activities, such as permanent systems of forest protection roads, permanent fire detection and suppression facilities, modernization of communication for fire protection including radio, fire hazard reduction studies and re{orestation. He said that 30.3 per cent of forest fires in 7947 in the trvo-states were caused by the forest-using public, 29.2 per cent by lightning and only 4.7 per cent originated in logging operations.

'llt is an axiom in forestry in the Douglas fir region that 75 per cent o{ the reforestation job is in keeping fires out of recently harvested land," Hagenstein said. "This big job of industry-state cooperation is being done well in Washington and Oregon far better than the rest of the nation as the figures demonstrate. The overwhelming need here, as elsewhere, is for wider response of the forestusing public, including farmers. and sportsmen, to the appeal of 'Keep Oregon and Washington Green'."