THE NORTHWEST'S WORST FOREST FIRES 



As this issue of American Forestry goes to press, 

 the reports regarding the forest fires now raging 

 in the Northwest show a situation of extreme 

 gravity. The conditions are probably the worst ever 

 faced in that region. The third and worst of three suc- 

 cessive years of severe drouth has parched the country. 

 High winds, heat, and electric storms, bringing lightning 

 without rain, have heightened the peril. There are prob- 

 ably more fires burning uncontrolled at the moment of 

 writing than have ever been known since organized 

 protection of the forests began. Twenty-five hundred 

 men are on the fire lines in the National Forests, and the 

 entire available surplus of labor in Northern Idaho and 

 Western Montana has been gathered up by the Forest 

 Service, and is not enough. 



The worst fire year of recorded history, from the 

 standpoint of losses, in the same region was that of 1910. 

 The great conflagration of that year began after the 

 middle of August. Normally, conditions grow worse 

 and worse until early September brings the beginning 

 of the fall rains. 



What may come this year no man can tell. If an 

 appalling disaster is escaped, it will be due in part to 

 good fortune. At the best, there will be very heavy 

 losses of property. The situation may any day reach a 

 point at which the organized forces which are trying to 

 hold the fires in check will be routed and put to flight 

 before a vast and resistless, hurricane-driven sheet of 

 flame. The Forest Service admits that already, though 

 straining every nerve, it is having to give ground before 

 some of the fires, seeking not their control but merely to 

 limit, in so far as possible, their destructiveness by di- 

 recting their course where they will do least harm. 



To know accurately what is taking place in a battle 

 is proverbially diflScult until the smoke clears away. 

 With great forest fires a similar situation is created. It 

 is unfortunate, but inevitable, that just now when spec- 

 tacular losses are again directing public attention to the 

 great need of better protection against these fires, it is 

 impossible to make out fully why the efforts to control 

 them have not been more successful. That can only be 

 told when all the details can be studied and analyzed. 

 Nevertheless, certain undeniable facts stand out. 



In 1910 the same region was swept by fires so wide- 

 spread and devastating that it was hoped their record 

 would stand unique for all time. The Forest Service 

 met the situation heroically. Confronted with conditions 

 the like of which it had never faced before, it won uni- 

 versal commendation for the fight which it put up 

 against great odds. In the light of the experience then 

 gained it developed new methods and improved its or- 

 ganization. It also sought from Congress larger author- 

 ity to incur expenses in future emergencies of the same 

 nature. 



The next year Congress provided an extraordinary 

 emergency fund of $1,000,000. As the immediately 

 following years happened to be exceptionally favorable 



this fund was cut, over the protest of the Forest Service, 

 to $200,000 for the fiscal years 1913 and 1914, and to 

 $100,000 for 1915, after which it was eliminated entirely. 



Again and again the Forest Service has been embar- 

 rassed by delays in the enactment of the agricultural 

 appropriation act until after the beginning of the fiscal 

 year on July 1. In 1912 the bill became law August 10; 

 in 1916, August 11; in 1918, October 1. In each of these 

 years a "continuing resolution" made available in the 

 interim at the rate of one-twelfth the previous year's 

 appropriation each month. Since the heaviest expendi- 

 tures of the Forest Service and the fire season fall in 

 the summer months, the method is obviously inadequate. 

 Through what shifts and devices the fire fighters have 

 been employed, transported, equipped and fed this year 

 because of delay can only be surmised, but very serious 

 responsibilities must have been assumed and formidable 

 embarrassments surmounted. The remedy is simple. Let 

 Congress re-enact the million-dollar extraordinary emer- 

 gency provision and make the fund available until the 

 next year's appropriations can be drawn on. What is not 

 needed will not be spent, but will revert to the Treasury. 

 Public opinion should demand that this appropriation be 

 made. 



It is also plain that the fund for co-operation with 

 the States in forest fire protection should be largely 

 augmented. The total is now $100,000, apportioned 

 among 24 States. Montana's allotment from this fund 

 for the current year is $3,000 and Idaho's $4,500. The 

 figures speak for themselves. 



Further, it is imperative that radical measures be 

 adopted to provide adequate salaries for Forest officers 

 commensurate with the character of their responsibilities 

 and with what private business enterprises are glad to 

 pay the same men. The Forest Service is being starved 

 out. Many men have left because they could not stand 

 the economic pressure. In consequence green men have 

 had to be put in where experience was of great impor- 

 tance. Repeated efforts of the Forester to secure more 

 adequate pay for his field force have been without avail. 



Finally, a more vigorous and determined public de- 

 mand that forest fires throughout the country must be 

 done away with, as nearly as this is humanly possible, 

 must arise and find effective expression. Forest fires 

 have become an anachronism. They belong to a heed- 

 less and unenlightened age in the matter of forest con- 

 servation. They must be fought on a nation-wide scale 

 by private owners, the States and the Federal Govern- 

 ment in co-operation. Protection of forests, including 

 young growth, against fires must be made compulsory 

 in all forest regions. Efficient methods must be developed 

 under public leadership. Competent men must be em- 

 ployed by the States and the nation, and politics must 

 not be allowed to make their work ineffective. The time 

 for indifference and neglect is past. If our lawmakers 

 fail to recognize the fact they may have cause to re- 

 gret it. 



