226 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



successfully held by the regular protection forces within 

 an area of ten acres, only 1,200 fires exceeding this 

 acreage and doing any material damage. In District 1, 

 comprising the ^lontana and northern Idaho forests, 

 where the season was comparatively shurt but very se- 

 vere, only 7 per cent of the fires burned over more than 

 the ten-acre limit. While the percentage of fires held 

 within this acreage is considered to some extent as a 

 gauge of efficiency, it is not altogether fair, since the fire- 





•■J'«Kt,I-- '■ 



W: 



FIRE LOOKOUT STATION ON THE MOUNTAIN SUM.MIT IN THE SHASTA NATIONAL TOREST 



Last year four fires out of everv five on the National Forests were put out before they had liurned over ten acres. Adequate protection of lliese 



great wilderness areas depends on continued national ownership. 



fighting expenditures are regulated, so far as possible, by 

 the value of the resources threatened and the risk of the 

 fire spreading beyond ultimate control ; in other words, a 

 smaller force is used and less money spent in attempting 

 to suppress a fire burning in brush cover which has little 

 value than in the case of one located in ^•aluable timl)er. 

 This obviously results in the burning over of consider- 

 able acreage of brush and open country, which could be 

 greatly lessened through the expenditure t)f ninre money, 

 if this were felt to be justified. 



The total area burned over during the past season in 

 the Western districts was 235,000 acres, or an average of 

 40 acres ])er fire. This compares favorably with the 

 average area of GO acres burned over the previous sea- 

 son. Preliminary estimates of the damage done indicate 

 that it will be hut aljout $280,000, as against $.")00.000 in 

 1914, and a loss of nearly $1 ."i,000,000 in 1910, when 

 approxini'itelv the same number dI fires occurred as dur- 

 ing the i)ast season. Comparatively little timber was 

 •burned in the past year, except in the forests of Oregon 

 and Washington, where SO per cent of the total loss 

 occurred. District (I, which comprises the forests of 

 these two States, had nmre than one-fifth the total num- 

 ber of fires. The extraordinary (luration of the danger 

 period in the Northwest is well shown l)y the fact that 

 while the peak of the fire season usually occurs by the 

 middle of August in that district, it was not reached this 



year until w^ell after the first of September. The total 

 of .'j;9 fires reported during the month of September 

 exceeded by 32 the total number recorded during all 

 previous Septembers from 190!5 to 1911^, inclusive. In 

 California the fire season was not considered as closed 

 until November 10, after a period of over five months, 

 during which it was necessary to keep th.; forests manned 



FOREST RANGER PACKING SUPPLIES 



It is a long, hard climb to the top of Mt. Hood, and the supplies for 

 the observer in the fire lookout station there have to be taken up on 

 horses or mules. The forest ranger here shown is about to start 

 with a pack train for the top. 



