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About Coos FPA |
Two men with a vision, both lumber experts, and business men, employed a way to save money for all timber owners in Coos County by creating a fire prevention association.
The idea was for the local timber owners to pay a tax to the Coos County Tax
Association and those taxes would go to a fund used to offset costs
associated with forest fires on all
private lands combined, creating a
membership. This fund would lower the cost for forest fires for each timber
owner as the full cost of the fire would not be suffered by the individual
timber owner that had a fire, but rather by all members of the association.
the lack of resources. With limited trails and roads, non to little telephonic communications, scarce manpower, combined with the
enormity of the timber allowed fires to grow to enormous size and cause massive destruction. Many times having to wait for the rains to
come so as to put the fire out.
Mr. A.E. Adelsperger and Mr. W.J. Conrad witnessed first hand an organized
association and brought the idea to the attention
of the timber owners of
Coos County. The timber companies all agreed to put this plan in motion with
a payment of .01 cents per
acre, the money combined would pay for a staff to
prevent and extinguish fire for all local land and timber owners.
Armed with cost figures, a workable plan, the approval of the landowners,
by-laws, a budget and Mr. Adelsperger and Mr. Conrad
to manage the funds,
they gathered a group of representatives and headed to Portland to have the
association approved.
On April 9, 1910 - Coos County Fire Patrol Association was organized and so named.
Coos Forest Protective Association celebrated their 100th Anniversary in
2010.
"Coos Forest Protective Association 1910-2010 100 Years
of Fire Protection"
In 1948 it was decided that Coos County Fire Patrol would be renamed to Coos Forest Protective Association.
Coos FPA was one of the first associations organized in the Pacific Northwest, was the second association created and is the oldest association still in operation in the State of Oregon. We encompass 1.5 million acres of forested lands in Coos, Curry, and Western Douglas Counties for the protection from fire.
The size of the district is 170 miles long by 50 miles wide, for this reason
the district is divided into three fire control units located in Bridge,
Gold Beach, and Coos Bay
each with a Forester in charge of the unit. The
headquarters is located in Coos Bay.
The Coos Forest Protective Association is a private,
non-profit corporation in the business of providing protection from fires to
its corporate
members. Under an agreement with the Oregon State Forester,
the Association also provides protection to other private, state, county and
federal lands.
The objective of the Coos Forest Protective Association is to minimize the
cost of suppression
and the damage to the forest and watershed environment
caused by wildfire and to respond to all
fire control emergencies with an
effective, well trained, equipped and supervised fire control
organization
sufficient to achieve optimum suppression results.