306 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



Service in the region. Large landowners pay their pro rata share 

 of the actual cost of protection and suppression; for small owners 

 the agreements provide for flat rates per acre, based upon average 

 protection and suppression costs over a term of years. The drive 

 that has been made for cooperation on the part of owners, as well as 

 of municipalities, water users, and others owning no lands but hav- 

 ing hardly less concrete interests at stake, has brought good response. 

 The interest of residents and settlers is secured through personal 

 contact by the rangers and other forest officers, supplemented by 

 hammering home upon them by all available means of publicity the 

 vital necessity of guarding against fire and operating quickly by 

 concerted action when fires occur. 



Frequently the Forest Service has had to expend funds from its 

 appropriation for fire protection, although the burden should have 

 been borne by others. It is obvious that in such a case there must 

 be a definite placing of responsibility and that efiort must be directed 

 toward enlisting the active assistance of settlers, users of the forest 

 resources, and others interested in the detection and suppression of 

 forest fires. Responsibility for preventing and suppressing fires 

 must be placed squarely upon all agencies which, because of their 

 operations, create fires, and pressure, either by negotiation or by 

 legal process, must be brought upon such agencies for the collection 

 of fire costs and damages for which they are responsible. Cases of 

 fire trespass, in which evidence justifying legal action can be ad- 

 duced, are taken into court by the Department of Justice if a satis- 

 factory settlement can not be reached in any other way. As the 

 result of a vigorous policy in this direction a secondary line of coop- 

 eration is being built up, namely, an acceptance of Forest Service 

 standards of fire prevention and suppression and the application of 

 these standards by the outside agencies themselves as a measure of 

 self-interest. 



Important progress has been made in methods of fire control. 

 The problems involved have been attacked at their roots. Success- 

 ful fire control is not merely a matter of a quick, decisive fight against 

 roaring flames. Such contests between man and the destructive 

 forces of nature are merely incidents in a maze of matters which go 

 to make up the whole of systematic fire control. Years of search 

 have failed to disclose any simple or easy road to mastery of the 

 problem of fire control in American forestry. Merely spending more 

 money for guards and equipment, important as these are, is futile 

 unless the most careful attention is given to a multitude of details 

 involved in the management of the men, mone}^, and equipment re- 

 quired for the work. 



Control of summer fires begins the preceding fall, when a scat- 

 tered forest personnel must analyze the results of the fire season then 

 closing and by study and exchange of ideas learn the lessons the 

 closing season has taught. During each winter detailed plans must 

 be made covering the procurement, conditioning, and placing of 

 tools and equipment for use during the coming season; plans for 

 reaching the general public with talks and printed matter dealing 

 with care with fire must be reviewed and revised; arrangements 

 must be planned which will secure financial cooperation from pri- 

 vate owners of land lying in or adjacent to the national forests and 

 the personal effort of residents within or near the forest boundary 



