assistants.

ants, possessing technical qualifications, and may employ Appoint necessary clerical assistants, and fix the amount of their respective salaries, which shall be payable in equal monthly installments to each assistant so appointed or employed.

§ 5279,

Rem.-Bal.]

He shall act as secretary of the board, or he may delegate that duty to one of his assistants. He shall, acting [Amending under the supervision of the board, and whenever he may deem it necessary to the best interests of the state, cooperate in forest surveys, in forest studies, in forest products studies, in forest fire fighting and patrol, and in the preparation of plans for the protection, management, replacement of trees, wood-lots, and timber tracts, with any of the several departments of the governments of other states, and with the government or with the departments Co-operate of the government of the United States with the Dominion departments. of Canada, or with any province thereof, and with counties, towns, corporations, and individuals within the State of Washington.

He shall, subject to the rules and regulations of the board, have direct charge and supervision of all matters pertaining to forestry, including the forest fire service of the state.

The term "forest fire service" as used in this act shall be held to include all wardens, rangers and help especially employed for preventing or fighting forest fires.

with other

In times of emergency or unusual danger the forester Mass service. is empowered to mass the forest fire service of the state. where its presence might be required by reason of forest fires, and to take charge of, and direct the work of suppressing such fires.

violators.

The forester shall enforce all laws for the preservation of the forests within the state, investigate the origin of all forest fires, vigorously prosecute all violators of this Prosecute act; prepare and print for public distribution an abstract of the forest laws and the forest fire laws of Washington, together with such rules and regulations as may be formulated by the board.

Publish information.

Issue permits.

Furnish statistics.

The forester may, with the approval of the board, publish for free distribution, information pertaining to forestry, and to forest products, which he may consider of benefit to the people of the state.

It shall be the duty of the forester to annually notify the county clerk in each county where wardens or rangers are appointed, giving the names of such appointees.

The forester shall furnish notices printed in large letters on cloth, calling attention to the dangers from forest fires, and to the penalties for the violation of this act; such notices to be posted in conspicuous places by the wardens or rangers in all timbered districts along roads and trails, streams and lakes, frequented by tourists, campers, hunters and fishermen, and in other visited regions.

The forester shall, subject to the approval of the board, prepare all necessary printed forms for use of wardens and rangers, in connection with the granting of applications for permits to burn; for the appointment of wardens and rangers, and any and all forms or blanks required or desirable, and shall supply each warden and ranger with such forms and blanks.

The forester shall become familiar with the location and the areas of all state timbered and cut-over lands, and shall prepare maps of each of the timbered counties showing the state land therein, and supply such maps to each warden, and in all ways that are practical and feasible protect such lands from the dangers of fire, trespass, and the illegal cutting of timber, reporting from time to time direct to the board such information as may be of benefit to the state in the care and protection of its timber.

It shall be the duty of the forester to institute inquiry into the extent, kind, value and condition of all timber lands within the state; the amount of acres, and the value of the timber that is cut and removed each year, to determine what state lands are chiefly valuable for growing timber; the extent to which timber lands are being destroyed by fire; and also to examine into the production, quality and quantity of second-growth timber, with a view

report.

to ascertaining conditions for reforestation, and not later than the first day of December of each year, make a writ- Written ten report to the board upon all such tracts so examined by him, together with detailed information as to the work of the forest fire service of the state.

wardens.

SEC. 5. The forester shall, subject to the approval of Appoint the board, have power to appoint within any county in this state where there is timber requiring protection, one or [Amending more wardens for all or any portion of the period during Rem.-Bal.] which the forester deems that forest fire dangers exist.

§ 5280,

The forester may, subject to the approval of the board, and at such times and in such localities as he deems the public welfare demands, employ one or more wardens whose duty it shall be to examine deforested lands of the state, and ascertain if such lands are chiefly valuable for agriculture, or if they are chiefly valuable for timber growing, with a view to reforestation. The said wardens shall, under the direction of the forester, engage in the discovery of inflammable material, and cause, or assist in, the burning of such material at such times as the burning can be done without endangering adjacent timber, or other property. The said wardens, under the direction Prevent of the forester, shall prevent and detect trespass and illegal cutting upon state timber lands, and shall enforce the laws in respect to such trespass and illegal cutting.

The forester shall have power to temporarily suspend any warden or ranger who may be incompetent or unwilling to discharge properly the duties of his office, and to appoint his successor temporarily, until his action shall be passed upon by the board.

trespass.

Each warden shall receive compensation not to exceed Salary. four dollars ($4.00) per day, and also necessary and proper expenses for the time actually employed.

quarters.

The wardens shall make their headquarters at the county Headseat of the county which they represent, and be equipped with suitable office quarters in the county court house by the county commissioners.

The board of county commissioners of any county in

Extent of authority.

Accounts submitted to forester.

Make reports.

[Amending § 5281. Rem.-Bal.]

Post

notices.

which there has been no warden appointed, may request the forester to appoint a warden, and the forester may, if in his judgment the necessity exists, appoint, subject to the approval of the board, one or more wardens for each county.

The authority of the wardens respecting the prevention, suppression and control of forest fires, summoning, impressing or employing help, or making arrests for the violation of this act, may extend to any adjacent county, or to any part of the state in times of great fire danger. The salaries and necessary expenses of all wardens, together with all expenses incurred for help and assistance in forest fire protection, shall be borne in the proportion of two-thirds by the state and one-third by the county in which the service was given and the expense incurred for forest fire protection.

All accounts of the wardens shall be submitted to the forester, as well as all bills for forest fire protection authorized by the wardens, and when such bills are approved and paid as provided for in section 3 of this act, the amount of one-third of all such outlays in each county shall be due and payable on demand from each of said counties into the state treasury, and credited to the fund appropriated by this act.

All wardens and rangers shall render reports to the forester on such blanks or forms, or in such manner, and at such times as may be ordered, giving a summary of how employed, the area of country visited, expenses incurred, and such other information as may be called for by the forester.

SEC. 6. Each warden shall be at all times under the direction and control of the forester, and shall perform such other duties at such times and places as he may direct. It shall be the duty of wardens to post over the forest areas notices of warning giving the date of the closed season as provided for in section 8 of this act, and copies of all such laws and rules as they may be directed to post by the forester.

They shall investigate all fires and report all of a serious or threatening character to the forester immediately. They shall patrol their districts; visit all parts of roads and trails, and frequented places and camps as far as possible. warn campers or other users of fire, see that all locomotives are provided with spark arresters, and with adequate devices for preventing the escape of fire or live coals from ash pans and fire boxes, in accordance with the Duties. law; extinguish small or smouldering fires; summon, impress or employ help to stop conflagrations; see that all laws for the protection of forests are enforced, and arrest and cause to be prosecuted all offenders.

$ 5282.

SEC. 7. All state land cruisers, all game wardens, when [Amending approved by the forester, and all rangers and assistant Rem.-Bal.] rangers of the United States forest service, when recommended by their forest supervisors, and commissioned by Ex-officio the forester, shall be ex-officio rangers.

Timber cruisers and citizens of the state advantageously located may, at the discretion of the forester, be appointed rangers, and vested with their duties and powers.

rangers.

Rangers shall receive no compensation for their services except when employed in co-operation with the state under the provisions of this act, and shall not create any indebtedness, or incur any liability on behalf of the state: Provided, That rangers actually engaged in extinguishing, or preventing the spread of fire in brush, slashings, Compenchoppings, timber or elsewhere that may endanger timber or other property, shall when their accounts for such services have been approved by the fire warden in authority, be entitled to receive compensation for such services. at the rate of twenty-five cents (25c) per hour.

sation.

Closed season.

Amending

SEC. 8. No one shall burn any forest material within any county in this state in which there is a warden or ranger during the months of June to September, inclusive, in each year, which period is hereby designated as the closed season, without first obtaining permission in writing item.-Bal.] from the forester, or a warden or a ranger, and afterwards complying with the terms of said permit; and any

§ 5283,