THE FIRE PROTECTION ON THE 

 NATIONAL FORESTS IN 1914 



By Henry S. Graves 



THE season of 1914 has been one 

 of very grave emergency in 

 preventing destructive forest 

 fires in the National Forests. 

 The hazard in the heavily timbered 

 portion of the Rocky Mountain and 

 Pacific slope regions has been in many 

 ways the greatest since the establish- 

 ment of the National Forests. The 

 conditions of drought and other factors 

 of forest fire hazard were fully equal in 

 severity to those of 1910, the year of the 

 disastrous Idaho fire, and in many sec- 

 tions the danger was even worse than 

 during that year. 



During the season more than 6,000 

 fires threatened the National Forests, 

 or 1,000 fires more than occurred in 

 1910. To put out these fires and to 

 prevent others from starting the Forest 

 Service has been put to the severest 

 test in its history. That it met this 

 test successfully is indicated by the fact 

 that the damage to timber this year is 

 less than 4%, of the damage done in 

 1910. 



The past season has definitely demon- 

 strated that while we cannot expect 

 entirely to prevent forest fires from 

 starting, their damage can be kept down 

 to a small amount provided there is an 

 efficient organization and adequate 

 funds to meet every emergency swiftly 

 and effectively. 



SEASONAL CONDITIONS 



The factors which create a season of 

 large forest fire risk are variable and 

 often complex. Primarily, the risk 

 depends on the frequency of soaking 

 rains. If there are good rains, well 

 distributed through the season, the 

 danger from fire is small. The hazard 

 depends also to a certain extent on the 

 total aggregate of rainfall during the 

 season. The total precipitation, how- 

 ever, does not always indicate conditions 

 of drought, for a few very heavy storms 



separated by long intervals of drought 

 would be a less favorable season for 

 fire protection than a smaller aggregate 

 amount of rain falling at more frequent 

 intervals. A further factor is the depth 

 of the winter snow, for with a light 

 snowfall the ground is exposed early in 

 the spring. An early spring, especially 

 when accompanied by rains, means a 

 vigorous herbaceous vegetation which 

 matures and dries up early; it then 

 becomes inflammable and a source of 

 danger. Still another factor of im- 

 portance is the behavior of the wind. 

 In certain places on the Pacific coast, 

 the easterly winds are the dry and 

 dangerous winds. A dry wind lasting 

 for only a day or two dries out the 

 forest with great rapidity and an emerg- 

 ency immediately results. Still again, 

 the condition of the nights may influence 

 the hazard. In some sections the 

 principal fire fighting has to be done at 

 night. If it cools off and the wind dies 

 down, it is much easier to get control of 

 the fires than where the nights are hot 

 and windy. 



During the winter of 1914 there was a 

 relatively small fall of snow. There 

 was, therefore, an early spring through- 

 out the northwestern and Pacific coast 

 regions. In certain parts of California, 

 as, for example, in Modoc County, the 

 vegetation started growing five weeks 

 earlier than in the normal season. In 

 some sections fires began to occur in 

 May, although the conditions did not 

 become serious until early July. In 

 north central Idaho no rain fell from 

 July 4 until September 7, a dry spell 

 17 days longer than in 1910. In the 

 north Pacific Coast region there was a 

 continuous drought for over 70 days, 

 which is the longest in history. During 

 this period of excessive drought there 

 were unusually high temperatures, high 

 drying winds, and in many sections 

 exceptionally dry nights. It was the 



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