FOREST SERVICE. 377 



lumber camps, and in general where labor and supplies are obtain- 

 able and means of communication developed, electrical storms are at 

 least as common in rough and wild liigh-mountain country, far from 

 roads and trails, as in more easily protected parts of the Forests. It 

 is estimated that during the year 1909, 12 per cent of the fires were 

 started by lightning. Tliis is the only cause of fires which can not 

 be controlled; all that can be done is to provide adec^uate patrol, 

 open communications, and thus be prepared to put out fires as 

 quickl}^ as possible after they start. 



Frequently fires originating on private land spread to the National 

 Forests. Such fires do great damage to private lands as well as 

 endangermg the Government timber. In Washington, Oregon, 

 Idaho, and western Montana many large private owners have formed 

 cooperative fire associations. These associations are doing admir- 

 able work, in many cases placing a larger patrol in their forests than 

 the Government has been able to employ with the resources at its 

 command. The Forest Service is cooperating very closely with 

 these associations and also with private owners in the above-men- 

 tioned States and in Cahfornia who are not members of the asso- 

 ciations. In District 1 the cooperative agreements with the Pend 

 Oreille, Coeur d'Alene, Potlatch, and Clearwater timber protection 

 associations and with three large lumber companies provide a sys- 

 tem of patrol which did much to keep down both public and private 

 fire losses. In District 5 similar results were obtained through agree- 

 ments with two large companies, one of which owns 60,000 acres 

 of timber land within the Tahoe National Forest. 



The National Forests are enormous in extent and very sparsely 

 populated. In man}^ sections there is not a keen responsibility in 

 the matter of their protection, and sometimes there is active hos- 

 tility among a certain number of individuals. To protect these 

 Forests is an important public duty, for every year brings the time 

 nearer when their supplies of timber will be indispensable, while their 

 yield in water is indispensable now. Protection rec{uires in the first 

 place a reduction as rapidly as possible of the inflammable material. 

 In the disposal of timber from the National Forests, whether by 

 sale or under free use, one of the requirements is that the tops and 

 other slash shall not be left as a fire trap. The fire menace is rurther 

 reduced by utilization of dead timber wherever this can be brought 

 about. A large part of the timber cut under sales, and four-fifths of 

 the timber removed from the Forests und(>r free use, is dead timber. 

 It is also the policy to reduce as fast as possible the old slashings 

 due to lumbering before the Forests were created. This is slow work 

 on account of the large amount of such material. Yet the aggre- 

 gate yearly reduction of the material which adds to the fire risk is an 

 important result of National Forest administration. 



The proposal has been made that the Forests should be burned 

 over every year or two in order to prevent the accumulation of 

 vegetable litter on the ground. It has been alleged that the fires 

 which were set in the early days by the Indians and first settlers 

 were beneficial. As a matter of fact, these early fires were enor- 

 mously destructive. Many of thoin were much more destructive 

 than tlie fires of the season of 1 910 or of any other recent year. There 

 are a few open Forests of mature timber where the ground might be 



