The New York Forest Owner - Volume I Number 4

Issued Monthly by New York Forest Owners Association,

Volume I

Inc.

October 1963

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! We are plagued with continuing drought and extreme dryness in the woods. The woods are closed to recreation allover the state and the opening dates for hunting have been postponed. Hundreds of fire-fighters have gone into the burning areas to assist the Conservation Department in getting things under controle Your President has been directly involved. As Sheriff of Washington County, I received a call for assistance at 2:30 P.M., Oct. 8th, from District Ranger George Stewart at Warrensburg who reported that there were two fires out of control in the Town of Dresden. At 5:30 P.M. our men were setting up a headquarters camp at Spruce Mountain and distributing sandwiches, milk and coffee to tired fire-fighters.

For the next seven days we assisted in passing out several thousand sandwiches, hundreds of cartons of milk and gallons of coffee, snatching sleep when we could get it and always searching for more men to go on the next fire-line shift. Such an operation on short notice is made possible. for the Sheriff's department in this county by a unique Emergency Vehicle, which is a remodeled school bus, equipped with radio, galley, bottled gas heat, tents, cots, bedding, tools, first aid and other equipment including a 110 volt A. C. generator and a boat.

On Wednesday afternoon the need for man-power became critical, and with the blessing of the Conservation Department officials (who are always in command in forest fire situitions) the Sheriff notified the Governor's office in Albany that he was declaring a "Natural Disaster Emergency" for the purpose of requesting outside assistance from the National Guard or other State agencies. This was a legal step conforming to the New York State Civil Defense Law and automatically set in motion the State and County Civil Defense-organizations for the purpose of coordinating all participating groups and legalizing the cost of operations.

You, as forest owners, will be interested to know that the unit that we obtained was a group of 60 young men from the Conservation Department of Youth Camp at Rensselaerville, N.Y., whom we bedded and fed under emergency condi.tions at the local armorYe This brief description is written a lot of thought and work has gone in or war, and to note that it is indeed should be officially concerned in his

for the purpose of informing you first hand that to orderly preparation for catastrophies in peace strange that the President of our Association other capacity as Sheriff in fighting forest fires.

Know what YOUR forest should do for YO~ before making out a management plan. So said Dr. Farnsworth at Pack Forest. This is good advice for our associati.on too, so our executive committee meets the 26th and the Board of Directors meets November 9th to continue our efforts to make the Forest Owners a "going concern".

As of October 22nd, we now have 302 members.

"Special Forest Products for Profit" - a 64 page illustrated bulletin issued by the

Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture on September 5, named some 250 products and services from which family forest owners can obtain an income while their crop trees are growing into more profitable sizes.

About a hundred copies of this publication were distributed at the fall meeting of the Association at the Pack Forest on September 27-28. For those interested single copies of the bulletin "Special Forest Products for Profit", Agriculture Information Bulletin 278, may be obtained from the Forest Service, Room 0220 - So. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 20250.

William D. Mulholland, Asst. Commissioner for Lands and Forests, has recently announced the appointment of Fred W. Oettinger of Knox~ New York, as Superintendent of Forest Fire Control in the State Conservation Department. liAs Superintendent of Forest Fire Control, protection of more than eight million acres of addition to supervising a fire force of nearly of forest fire observers maintaining a network overlooking the State's woodlands." - according vation Education, Conservation Department.

Mr. Oettinger is responsible for the forest lands throughout the State. In 107 forest rangers, he will have charge of 98 fire towers at key locations to a release of the Division of Conser-

"Man-Caused Forest Fires Increase". From a recent clipping we quote "U. S. Forest Service statistics now show that 150,345 forest fires burned slightly more than four million acres in 1962, an increase over the previous year when 98,517 fires burned about one million acres less, the Wildlife Management Institute reports. The general trend in forest fires has been downward in the past twenty years. Incendiarious debris burners and smokers started the most fires in 1962."

Undoubtedly the increase in forest fire numbers and acreage burned is due in no small part to a dry cycle of the weather for this part of the earth. It is a grim reminder that the threat of forest fires is a serious one.

"No place is complete without trees. A home without trees is charmless; a road without trees is shadeless; a park without trees is purposeless; a country without trees is hopeless."

From "Trees" - Journal of American Arboriculture.

The New York Forest Owners Association is deÂŁini~eÂąy -committed to backing Tree Farm movement in New York State. At mid-year New York State had 247 Tree We hope that this number will greatly increase in New York State. For further tion about the Tree Farm movement of New York State, contact Floyd E. Carlson, tary, New York Forest Owners Association, State University College of Forestry, Syracuse, N.Y. 13210.

the Farmers. informaSecre-