FOREST SERVICE. 211 



read in the barren sand wastes of the Lake States, the desolate areas 

 of snags and brush where fires have destroyed the magnificent fir 

 forests of the Northwest, the thinned stands and damaged timber of 

 the pine forests in CaHfornia, or the virgin forests of the Southwest 

 which have no understory of young timber coming on to take the 

 place of the mature trees as they are cut. 



On many of the national forests settlers burned the slash in their 

 clearings without concern lest their fires escape to the surrounding 

 public domain. When such fires escaped, as they often did (and still 

 do occasionally), they were not fought if they threatened merely to 

 devastate publicly owned timberland. Fu-es were set to keep the 

 woods free of undergrowth which hindered stock grazing and afforded 

 a refuge to marauding animals. Regular burning was believed 

 necessary to keep down ticks and other undesirable insects. Mil- 

 lions of acres were burned to make it easier for hunters to see and 

 follow game, to enable prospectors to detect rock outcrops and small 

 metalliferous deposits more easily, and in the belief that frequent 

 burning increased the growth of forage. 



Much educational work remains to be done both in the places where 

 burning the woods is still believed in and to establish the habit of 

 extreme care with fire on the part of the increasing throngs, particu- 

 larly of nonresidents, who traverse or use the national forests. But 

 a contrast of conditions as they were when the national forests were 

 established and as they are to-day shows that much ground has 

 been gained. There are now few spots on and adjacent to the 

 national forests where local public opinion encourages the setting 

 of fires. The characteristic thing is for farmers, miners, and others 

 to volunteer posthaste when they see or hear of a fire on the national 

 forests. They usually do not need to be called by the ranger. 



In Colorado cooperation by permittees and residents on and near 

 the forests has reached the point where settlers are willing to be 

 responsible for the handling of fires on definite areas under view 

 from their ranches or within striking distance. It has become the 

 common thing for ranchers to go immediately to fires and stay as 

 long as needed even when they have to drop haying or other urgent 

 work at their homes. So reliable has this cooperation become that 

 it has been possible to reduce the number of guards employed locally 

 for fire patrol. 



In the Trinity National Forest, in northern Ca,lifornia, where 

 from Indian days do^vn to the creation of the national forests it 

 had been the custom to ''light burn" the forests, the settlers are still 

 fearful that the dense growth of young timber which follows effective 

 fire protection will interfere with their stock growing and mining 

 industries, but they nevertheless cooperate effectively with the forest 

 officers. For a period of several years when money for fire guards 

 was lacking, in one ranger district of 225,000 acres all fire guards were 

 dispensed with except the lookouts and one man at a central point 

 to receive messages from lookouts and arrange over the telephone 

 with settlers to take charge of the fires reported. 



The increased cooperation with the Forest Service in California is 

 shown by the following significant tabulation of the number of 

 owners of private land intermingled with national forest holdings 

 who have entered into cooperative agreements with the Forest 



