At the turn of the century, New Jersey postmen delivered more than mail: They brought word of forest fires.

As part of their duties, they were asked to climb poles and act as lookouts.

In less than 100 years, forest firefighting has evolved from a patchwork enterprise into a sophisticated and highly organized effort. Today the New Jersey Forest Fire Service has more than 2,000 paid firefighters whose job it is to protect an estimated $8.5 billion of forest resources, which include woodlands, water, wildlife and recreational facilities.

This year's budget to do the job is $4.4 million, mostly for fire management.

"We have an espirt de corps ... It's kind of an unwritten law that you've got to protect each other and work together," state fire warden David Harrison said.

The Bureau of Forest Fire Management is part of the Division of Parks and Forestry in the New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection. It has 29 full-time employees, 215 part- time district wardens and 2,000 crewmen.

The bureau is directed by a permanent staff in Trenton, headed by the state fire warden. The state is divided into three divisions: A (North Jersey), B (Central Jersey) and C (South Jersey).

Division A includes Bergen, Sussex, Passaic, Warren, Hunterdon, Morris and Somerset Counties and parts of Middlesex, Union and Essex Counties. Division B includes Burlington, Ocean and Monmouth Counties and parts of Middlesex County. Division C covers Camden, Gloucester, Salem, Atlantic, Cumberland and Cape May Counties.

The divisions are partitioned into sections of 100,000 acres, each of which has a full-time fire warden who maintains headquarters in his home. Division B has 10 sections.

The sections are further divided into districts of 15,000 to 20,000 acres. Each district has four to 12 crew members. An appointed district warden is responsible for recruiting and training fire crews and for issuing fire-burning permits.

At their disposal are 320 vehicles, including 178 fire trucks, bulldozers, all-terrain vehicles, airplanes and helicopters.

Firefighters are paid between $3.35 (minimum wage and less than first-year lifeguards at state-operated swimming areas) and $5.35 an hour, depending on experience and job description. District wardens are paid a yearly $400 retainer.

With such low pay, it is a sacrifice for workers to leave their higher paying jobs to fight a fire, Harrison said. "There has to be a lot of dedication," he said.

The first attempts to control forest fires were made by the colonial government in 1683. People were indiscriminately setting fires to clear the land, so laws were enacted to limit wood burning.

But discussions of organized forest-fire protection did not occur until 1895, when reports were made to the state geologist listing the number of fires and acres burned. other surveys showed that more than 100,000 acres of forest burned annually.

In 1899 Gifford Pinchot - who was chief of the Division of Forestry, which later became the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture - recommended establishing a forest fire service.

In 1905, the New Jersey Forest Protection law was enacted, followed by the organization of a township fire warden system in 1908. Each township appointed a fire warden. Finally, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service was organized in 1924 under the Clark- McNary Act.

A manpower shortage has developed in the last few years. Harrison said it has been caused by the governor's cap on state agency employees and the disappearance of the "Pineys," who grew up fighting wildfires as a matter of survival.

"The native firefighter is starting to get extinct," said Harrison, wearing a crewcut and a Smokey the Bear tie clasp. "We're getting an influx of people who have no forest-fire fighting experience at all."

Harrison said tapping more volunteer firefighters is not the answer because many are untrained and probably would not be available on a steady basis.

Meanwhile, the Forest Fire Service has to leave positions open. "It's hard for me right now to fill the vacancies that I have," Harrison said. There are 12 vacancies, some of which are field jobs.

Division B has had to hire two part-timers to man fire towers at Batsto and at Lebanon State Forest. "You should not have somebody new in there at this time of the year," said Ray Holmes, Division B fire warden.