EDITORIALS 



361 



The institution of the new labora- 

 tory and of the corresponding sta- 

 tistical office in Chicago are further 

 steps in the policy of dispersal of the 

 activities of the Forest Service to bring 

 them nearer to the people whom it 

 serves. This will make the people bet- 

 ter acquainted with the personnel and 

 work of the service, from which knowl- 

 edge will result, we believe, a greater 

 understanding and better confidence. 

 The first and greatest step in this di- 

 rection was the establishment of the 

 district offices in the national forest 

 states, each with its district forester and 

 full staff. This brings the workers 

 nearer their work and nearer the people 

 Avhom this work directly affects. The 

 results have already approved the plan. 

 There is increasing efficiency in the 

 service and a much better feeling in the 

 west for it. 



Now comes the laboratory in Wis- 

 consin and the office of utilization in 

 Chicago. We are building up by de- 

 grees a great national forest admin- 

 istrative service which we have good 

 reason to hope and expect will soon 

 compare with any in the world. 



«r' &' "M 



The Forest Fire Season 



THIS month we have given much 

 space to the subject of waste 

 and its prevention. Aleanwhile dis- 

 patches in the newspapers from many 

 sections of the country apprise us that 

 forest fires, one of the most constant 

 sources of preventable waste, are get- 

 ting in their usual work and prepar- 

 ing the annual lesson which legislators 

 are so unaccountably slow to learn. 



And yet this legislative indift'erence 

 is not so unaccountable when one thinks 

 that it is only the natural reflection of 

 the indifference of a large part of the 

 community to a danger which the av- 

 erage citizen regards as remote and 

 lacking in interest to him. It is a good 

 piece of work for all of our forestry 

 associations to educate the public to 

 the general economic importance of 

 this matter. That is the best wav to 

 Lreak down legislative indifference. 



The annual loss from forest fires 

 cannot be put into figures. All at- 

 tempts to reduce it to statistics have 

 proved inadequate and unsatisfactory. 

 Estimates of loss are seldom supported 

 by sufficient knowledge and judgment 

 on the part of the estimators, and the 

 great damage to the future that may 

 be done even by a ground fire that de- 

 stroys little actually existent and avail- 

 able property is outside of statistical 

 computation. We can see, however, 

 without exact figures, the terrible re- 

 sults of the burns that not only destroy 

 standing timber and all property in 

 their path, but aft'ect for years the pro- 

 ductive capacity of the soil and set 

 back often for a generation the young 

 growth. 



This is a form of waste that, if not 

 absolutely preventable, can be reduced 

 to an inappreciable minimum, and must 

 be if our forestry work is to be made 

 practicable. The cost will be no greater 

 proportionally than that involved in the 

 protection from fire of town and city 

 property. Prevention is easier in the 

 case of the forest, because man is the 

 uncertain element in the fire problem, 

 and the human conditions are much 

 simpler in the forest than in populous 

 communities. 



Insurance of forest property can only 

 be obtained at prohibitive rates under 

 present conditions, and prudent men 

 hesitate before entering upon long'-term 

 investments in property that is pro- 

 tected neither by insurance nor by ade- 

 quate exercise of the state's police 

 power. States and municipalities rec- 

 ognize their obligation to protect all 

 other property from fire and other 

 perils. The owner of a stand of tim- 

 ber who holds it in good condition cer- 

 tainly deserves as well of his com- 

 munity as the man who salts his prop- 

 erty down in stocks and bonds. Fur- 

 thermore, as a property owner and, un- 

 der present laws, an inequitably bur- 

 dened taxpayer, he has a right to claim 

 protection. 



In the May number of this maga- 

 zine, Mr. Gaskill showed us how New 

 Jersey is directing its forestry work 

 at present solely against the fire evil, 

 believing that other things will take 



