_Trespass._ The Act of June 4, 1897, authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to make rules and regulations for the occupancy, use and protection of the National Forests, and provides that any violation of such rules and regulations shall be punishable by a fine or imprisonment or both. This and later acts provide for fines or imprisonment for all violations of the regulations governing National Forests. The violation of these regulations constitutes trespass, and these may be either fire, timber, grazing, occupancy or property trespass, depending upon the offense. Since the United States has all the civil rights and remedies for trespass possessed by private individuals, it may bring action to recover damages resulting from trespass or breach of contract. Fire trespass includes the following offenses: setting fire to timber, brush or grass; building camp fires in dangerous places where they are hard to extinguish; or leaving camp fires without completely extinguishing them. The various railroads that cross the National Forests are one of the most frequent offenders in that the sparks issuing from the locomotives or the hot ashes dropping from the fire box set fire to National Forest timber. The railroads are required to use every precaution to prevent such fires, but many of them are started, resulting in damage suits by the Government. The damages cover not only the merchantable timber and forage destroyed, but damages are also collected for young, immature growth, which at first thought might seem to have little or no value. But the courts have held that while the young, unmerchantable trees have very little value now, they have a great value as the basis for a future crop of timber. Thus, in the case of the United States versus the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, in 1910, for fire trespass on the Black Hills National Forest, caused by sparks from the locomotives operated by the company, the damages included $17,900 for young growth. Also, in the case of the United States versus the Great Northern Railroad, in 1911, in which suit was brought upon the negligence (causing fires to start) of the defendant company on their right-of-way, which fires subsequently spread to the Blackfeet National Forest, damages included the destruction of a great many immature trees, the value of which was estimated on the basis of their value at maturity discounted to date. It is significant that this case never went to trial; the defendant paid damages and costs without argument. [Illustration: Figure 46. A few years ago this was a green, luxuriant forest. Picture taken after the great fires of August 20, 1910, on the Coeur d'Alene National Forest near Wallace, Idaho]