32 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



FIGHTING FOREST FIRES. 



Very substantial progress was made during the fiscal year in 

 checking the inroads which forest fires are making in the timber 

 resources of the Nation. During a season of unusual hazard the fire- 

 protective organization on the national forests of the West was 

 brought to the highest pitch of efficiency it has ever yet reached, 

 with the result that in most cases threatening fires have been reached 

 promptly and suppressed with the minimum of loss and expenditure. 

 However, the greatest progress has been made in bringing under 

 protection privately owned timbered lands. The increase in the 

 appropriation from $125,000 to $400,000 for cooperation with the 

 States in protecting forested watersheds of navigable streams, made 

 possible a very material extension of the work. The area placed under 

 protection during the past year was increased by 26,000,000 acres. 

 At the same time the protective force was strengthened and im- 

 proved in regions where the smaller appropriations of the past have 

 admitted only the retention of a mere skeleton fire-fighting organiza- 

 tion. Cooperation was established with two additional States — Ohio 

 and Tennessee — making the total number now 26. The additional 

 funds made it possible to meet emergency conditions in several States 

 where the fire hazard this year was unusually great. 



The appropriation of Federal funds for this purpose has stimu- 

 lated local interest in the efforts to safeguard the essential raw mate- 

 rial represented by their forest areas. During the fiscal year 1922 

 the 26 States cooperating with the department in fire protection 

 along navigable streams expended for that purpose from their own 

 funds a total of $1,897,000, an increase of about $830,000 over the 

 expenditure of the previous year. In addition to these public ex- 

 penditures, private owners expended approximately a million dollars 

 in the protection of their forests against fire. Federal leadership 

 has heartened both the States and the private owners in undertaking 

 this work, with the result that a very substantial forward step has 

 been made in checking the red scourge. 



According to the best information obtainable by the Forest Service, 

 there has been an average of 33,500 fires annually during the past 

 six years, burning an average area of 7,088,000 acres and involving 

 an average annual immediate property loss of $16,424,000. The 

 greatest loss and the greatest number of fires now occur in the regions 



