RANDOM TALK ON FOREST FIRES 



667 



not only the trees and brush but also 

 all ground debris down to the mineral 

 soil. 



Fully cleared lines are advisable when 

 the risk of fire is very great, and 

 adequate protection can be secured only 

 by having a clear break which will 

 either stop or check possible fires. Such 

 lines are necessarily expensive to con- 

 struct and maintain. They are, there- 

 fore, used only when the property is 

 valuable and the damage from a fire 

 would be very great, as, for example, 

 to protect nurseries, plantations, or 

 valuable blocks of timber. 



They are especially necessary wher- 

 ever fire will run swiftly and it may not 

 be possible to reach the fire promptly 

 with fighting appliances. A conspicu- 

 ous example of the necessity of such 



fire lines and of the service rendered 

 by them is found in the chaparral zone 

 of the mountains in southern Califor- 

 nia. (PI. Vni, fig. I.) The preserva- 

 tion of the chaparral cover is of great 

 importance in protecting the local 

 watersheds. The area is large, the 

 mountains are rough and difficult to 

 travel, and fire runs with great rapid- 

 ity. Fire lines are very necessary in 

 such localities to control any fires that 

 may start, and they must be of a char- 

 acter to stop fires, or to check them to 

 such an extent that they can be con- 

 trolled. The Government is, therefore, 

 building extensive trails for patrol to 

 prevent fires, and supplementing them 

 by wide, cleared fire lines to stop any 

 fires that may start. 



(To be coiifinued) 



RANDOM TALK ON FOREST FIRES 



ONE of the telling points made 

 by Gifford Pinchot in his ad- 

 dress at the recent congress at 

 St. Paul was this: 



"When any great movement has es- 

 tablished itself so firmly in the public 

 mind that a direct attack on it will not 

 pay, the regular method is to approve 

 it in general terms and then condemn 

 its methods and its men." 



In the State of California, for in- 

 stance, this is precisely the way in 

 which certain interests that would like 

 to discredit the national forest policy 

 as a whole, but despair of doing so 

 because it has the solid endorsement of 

 the people, are at present seeking to 

 discredit its methods, particularly its 

 methods of fire protection. These in- 

 terests are of two classes; the great 

 combinations of capital which are fight- 

 ing against any control of national re- 

 sources, and certain private and cor- 

 porate owners of timberlands within 

 the state. It is the latter class which 

 has recently worked up an organized 



attack upon the whole principle of pro- 

 tection against forest fires as practiced 

 by the national and state governments. 



This attack is well illustrated by 

 an article in the Sunset Magazine 

 for August, signed by George L. 

 Hoxie, who had as collaborators, the 

 editor states, S. O. Johnson and G. X. 

 Wendling. All of these men have ex- 

 ceedingly widespread interests in Cali- 

 fornia timberlands. Mr. Hoxie's ar- 

 ticle attacked the Forest Service for 

 trying to keep fires out of the national 

 forests, and advocated what the author 

 terms employing fire as "a servant" to 

 burn over the forest floor so as to do 

 away with inflammable material. 



As the deputy state forester of Cali- 

 fornia, Wm. C. Hodge, points out in 

 a communication to the Timbennan for 

 September. Mr. Hoxie's misunder- 

 standing of the Government timber- 

 sale policy is shown in the Sunset ar- 

 ticle to be almost perfect. Mr. Hoxie 

 says that "The 'practical' invites the 

 aid of fire as a servant, not as a mas- 



