FOREST SERVICE. 229 



District 6 ( Wa.shin<rt<)ii and Ore<?on) had 1,591 fires, and district 

 i> (California). 1,1 DS. Tojrether. tliese three districts had 73 per 

 cent of all the lires. 



Not quite three-fourths of the land burned over was timbered. In 

 a number of cases the fires swept areas previously burned in 1910, 

 destroyin*; the reproduction which had come up on these old burns. 

 As a rule the land which was thus burned over a second time will 

 now lia\e to be artihcially reforested to secure a new timijer <rrowth. 



The percentage of lightning fires was markedly less than in 1918. 

 of incendiary fires practically the same, and of fires caused l)y 

 campers considerably greater. Since practically 00 i^er cent of the 

 fires of known causes were due to human agencies, the need of the 

 most energetic efforts to bring home to the public the importance of 

 care to prevent fires is self-evident. The Forest Service is earnestly 

 seeking to lessen the number of man-caused fires in this way. Larger 

 provision for carrying on the educational efforts which are being made 

 along this line is needed. An increase in the appropriation to pro- 

 vide for this was sought last year, but was not secured. In compari- 

 son with the amounts which the Government must spend to stop the 

 fires, if they start — to say nothing of the damage to the forests caused 

 by the fires — the cost of the most thorough-going campaign for fire 

 prevention would be wholly negligible. As recreational use of, the 

 Forests by the public increases and the loral population and activities 

 of all kinds on and near the Forests become greater, man-caused fires 

 are bound to become more numerous unless educational methods can 

 be made effective. 



The very general observance of Fire Prevention Week in many of 

 the Western States last May is believed to have had substantial re- 

 sults. Forest officers took an active part in bringing to public at- 

 tention at that time the importance of preventing fires and the pre- 

 cautions Avhich it is necessary to observe in order not to cause fires. 

 To provide for l)etter coordinated and supervised activities along this 

 line and for more careful planning of methods by which public in- 

 terest may be increased in both the protection and use of the Forests, 

 a Branch of Public Relations was organized, effective May 20. 1020. 



At the outset the prospects for the season of 1920 were exceptionally 

 favorable in most of the West, though the spring fire season in the 

 Southwest, where the principal hazard is in the spring and fall, taxed 

 the energies of the protective force to hold the fires in check. In the 

 northern Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast States the winter snows 

 melted slowly and the spring rains Avere abundant. In California, 

 however, the season opened extremely hot and dry, with early June 

 fires in exceptional luunbei's through the northern Sierras 



By the middle of July an acutely hazardous condition had de- 

 veloped in the Northwest, but the fires were held well in hand until 

 about August 1 dry electrical storms began to start an extraordinary 

 number of fires, chiefly in the high mountains, where they are most 

 ditticult to get at (juickly. Fortuuatcly the fall rains set in early — 

 before the end of August — so that the acute period was relatively 

 brief. The cost of fire fighting was increased by the high prices of 

 supplies and the prevailing wage scale. The exjienditures for fire 

 fighting were approxinuitely $.S( )(),()( 10. Since tbe apj)r<)priation for 

 this purpose was $250,000, a deficiency appropriation must again be 

 sought. It has been necessary to go to Congress for such appropri- 



