248 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



weKare. It is, of course, also partly the educational effect on public 

 sentiment of the mere organization of protective activities by the 

 Government — of the fact that fires are fought— not allowed to run 

 their course as though they were a part of the natural order of things. 

 But it is also, and in large measure, the result of conscientious educa- 

 tional effort directed at the evil of man-caused fires and seeking to 

 strike at the root of that evil by, first, making men unwilling to cause 

 fires, and, secondly, showing them what they should do or not do in 

 order to avoid causmg fires. 



There is still much more that needs to be done even among the 

 residents within and near the forests. Community education to the 

 habitual and thorough-going practice of fire prevention requires 

 constant reiteration of the lesson to be inculcated, and constant 

 study of new ways to bring it home. This is being sought. Forest 

 officers are encouraged and expected to give thought and time to it 

 as a part of their official duty. Not only through personal influence 

 exerted in their daily contact 'w^th forest users and their fellow 

 citizens but through public talks, when occasion offers, before civic 

 bodies, commercial organizations, social clubs, schools, and similar 

 gatherings, through the press, through participation in and encourage- 

 ment of forest-protection week, through effective use of posters and 

 other educational material furnished them for distribution, and 

 through ingenuity in dcA'ising new methods of arousing the interest 

 of the public in the subject of fire prevention and what it requires 

 of the individual, they are activel}^ spreading the gospel of forest 

 protection. 



. r But there is urgent need for a much broader work of public educa- 

 tion against forest fires. As facilities for travel into and through the 

 forests are multiplied and as resort to the forests for recreational 

 purposes increases by leaps and bounds, it is necessary to find ways 

 of inculcating habits of care and a realization of the importance of 

 preserving the forests on a very broad scale. A large part of the 

 danger to the national forests from man-caused fires is due to -the 

 seasonal influx of tourists, campers, hunters, and fishermen, and 

 other visitors from the cities and from distant parts of the country. 

 A national campaign of public education on the subject of forest fires 

 is demanded if the task of protection of the vast area of the national 

 forests, from Maine and Florida to California and Washington, is to 

 be successfully performed. 



There is a greater reason for conducting such a campaign with vigor 

 and effectiveness. The interests of the public in forestry are not 

 confined to the perpetuation of forest growth and the saving from fire 

 of the present growth of timber on the national forests. All forest 

 lands, whether publicly or privately owned, must be protected if 

 the needs of the Nation are to be met. They can not effectively be 



grotected without the general cooperation of the public to prevent 

 res as well as specific provision for detecting and suppressing fires 

 as an organized activity. 



Even this is not all. The people of the United States are becoming 

 alive to the need for forestry, but they are far from realizing what it 

 actually calls for. Forestry is with us largely a governmental 

 activity alone, an educational development working downward from 

 the top, not a common possession of the rural population. It needs 

 to become ingrained in the lives and habits and modes of thinking 



