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Show COSTLY FOREST FIRES Reports Received by the Bureau of Forestry. DAMAGE IS OVER $12,000,000 Ths Losses Fall Chiefly TJpon Small Private Owners Homes of 105 Settlers Set-tlers Burned ln Three Counties and Eighteen Persons Were Killed Upon Up-on Thousands of Acies Not a Living Liv-ing Tree Bcmalns to Seed the Burned Area Different Causes That Start tho Conflagrations, Washington, Nov. 22 The bureau of forestry has received a report from one of Its agents which shows that the damage caused bs forest Ares In northwestern Oregon nnd southwestern south-western Washington during September was much greater than his been gen-eralls gen-eralls supposed After a careful trip through the regions devastated bj the fires Mr William T Cox who was detailed de-tailed by the bureau for this work. In a conservative estimate plices the damage ln Oregon ond Washington at J12T67 100 Of this, $3 910 000 Is In Oregon, Ore-gon, and JS.857HV) In Washington This Includes nil losses caused by the fires to farm proper!), sivvmllls, manufactured manufac-tured lumber, standing timber, etc Much of the area burned over seas coveted with virgin forest, mainly of Douglas spruce, cedor, and hemlock Besides the great loss of propertj eighteen persons were killed nnd many more Injured Much ot the large and small game In these regions was de-strojed THE ortEQON FHIES The nrea burned over, while not so great as was at (list reported, was very extensive. Tully 170 000 acres In Multnomah Mult-nomah and Clackamas counties nre hjackened by tires Of this ntea about oOOOO acres wero either cut-oscr lands, lands that had been cleared bs settlers or burned over by pievlous fires, und had little merchantable limber upon them. As near as could be ascertained elghtj-slx families were left homeless as n, result of these llres Two hundred hun-dred other settlers suffered a partial loss of property amounting to J357.000. Sawmills nnd manufactured forest products destroyed aggregate J1I9 000 Leasing out the CO000 acies of cut-over cut-over lands, farm clearings, nnd old burns, tho remainder of 120 000 acres contained 17,700 feet, II M , per ncre fltrurlng on wMiat has been considered the average for western Oregon This Is a. very conservative estimate, for some districts nlong the Clackamas would have jlelded 8 00 000 to 10 000 000 .et.to,. th0 1unrtec section, or 60 000 In 0 000 feet per acre Computing 120 000 acres nt 17,700 feet per acre gives 2 121 -000 000 feet is the amount of standing timber killed by the recent fires In Multnomah and Clackamas counties. Tho value of the standing Douglaa spiuce, considering; It to have had a Btumpage value of Jl per thousmd. was S3 131 000. The forest as such Is practically do-strosed do-strosed Upon thousands of acres not a living tree remains to seed the burned areas. In some plices enough Douglas spruce remains to bring about reproduction, but cedar nnd hemlock, being less resistant to nre were Inva-r Inva-r nbly killed Upon the steeper hillsides hill-sides nnd mountain slopes even the soil has been severely damaged Particularly Particu-larly does this npply to northeastern slopes, is here the force of the wind was greatest The damage by these fires to Umber ?n-'i !,ner PfTerts Is estlmnted at l1o 000. making a total of J3.910 000 lost in Oregon ' THE WASHINGTON FIIIES. In general, whit has been said of the Oregon fires npplles nlso to tho Area In Washington The nrea recently burned over ln Washington Is much more extensive ex-tensive than the burned district In Oregon, Ore-gon, nnd tho timber more saluible. but It Is much less convenient to ready beans or transportation. The Washington forest fires were most severe In hkomanla, Cdwlltz anl Clarke counties Within the nre i surrounded sur-rounded by burned timber there aro considerable tricts over which the fire did not run In estimating the total area burned all such tracts, no matter how small they were, have been deducted. de-ducted. Yet the number of acres actually actu-ally burned over according lo this tc-port tc-port Is 434 000. In these three counties 161 settlers ate known to have had their homes burned' hundreds more sustained some loss of piopertj. The approximate losses were IW.000 Sawmills and manufactured forest products total Jt81 000 With the exception of about 150 000 acres, all of the Immense area burned over by the recent fires In thceo thiee counties Is scry heavily timbered, The 160 000 ncres allows for all clenrlngs mnde by farmers, all cut-over lands, and all old burns, also a few thousand acres of bare rock exposures on the mountain peaks The remaining area after deducting this Is 284 000 acres. CAUSES OV THE TIUES. A singular chain of circumstances combined to make the (lren so destructive destruc-tive Not only was the summer very drs", hut the two preceding summers were wet In May and June thus Interfering with the burning of slashings and nl-lowing nl-lowing an unusual amount of debris to accumulate. In tho enrly part of September Sep-tember the wind blew from the east most of the time An east wind, after It gets west of the Cnscadcs Is nudy to absorb almost any quantity of mols. lure, so that thi forest waa soon In the condition of tinder The most direct cause was carelessness in many In-BtanceB In-BtanceB tho fires smouldering for considerable con-siderable perlodH without attracting nt-tentlon nt-tentlon and this In the face of the fact that the pas season has been one particularly par-ticularly favorable to forest (Ires Mnny biases started from the unex-tlngulshed unex-tlngulshed ramp (Ires of berry pickers or hunters others resulted from careless care-less burning of slashings, one was known to have originated from loco, motive sparks with the exception of this case reasonable precaution on the part of Individuals would have presented present-ed the loss of millions of dollars Most of them could have been extinguished ex-tinguished before they became serious The lesson taught Is that had there been an efficient ssatem of forest patrol pa-trol In these localities it Is doubtful If eery serious fires would have oe-I oe-I The enormous loan sustained counting only tho present cost, aside from tho effect which will be In evl-dence evl-dence for many years should nrnuse the twt States to n reillxutlon of the Importance of a careful syKein of for-est for-est supervision. |