HARDWOOD RECORD 



31 



>outlieru Appalachiaus iududiiiy West \'irgiiiia, eustoni Kentucky, 

 Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina, and in 

 Pennsylvania, Xe\%' York, and the Northeast. The lower Missis- 

 sippi hardwood region is comparatively exempt from fire risk on 

 account of the fact that in lowlands which are moist, serious fires 

 are rare; but in the Ozark region and even in the Ohio valley as 

 well a." in the other regions, ground fires burning through the leaves 

 do serious damage to standing hardwood timber. The damage done 

 to the stands in the Adirondacks and Appalachian mountains is 

 too well known to require further discussion here. 



Another pertinent fact is that most of our hardwoods are very 

 susceptible to injury even by severe ground fires and that fire 

 killed hardwoods deteriorate in quality very rapidly. Aside from 

 this fact, fire injured timber, even when not killed outright is 

 often left in such bad shape that it falls a ready prey to boring 

 insects and fungi and the result is almost the same as if it had 

 beCT killed at first. Even the second growth hardwood stands 

 that have been cut over several times in the East, including New 

 Kngland, south along the coast to Maryland, suffer considerable 

 annual damage from recurrent ground fires. Several lumbermen 

 and timber owners in this section have taken active measures to 

 both prevent and control all forest fires. A good example is 

 found in the Pocono Protective Fire Association in eastern Penn- 

 sylvania. This association has shown what can be accomplished 

 in the way of preventing damage by fires through cooperation of 

 the private owners of 100,000 acres, nearly all of which consist 

 of hardwood timber. Expenses are met for this work by the 

 annual assessment of six mills per acre of land owned by the 

 association. 



In discussing the importance of the forest fire situation and 

 methods of securing eflicient fire protection, it is interesting to 

 note the various causes of forest fires. In one large section of 

 the country where in one year, 1,.338 fires were reported, the follow- 

 ing causes were recorded: 



Causos yumber Percent 



Campers 346 25 



Lightning 176 13 



Itailroad locomotives 273 20 



Ix)gging machinery, small sawmills, etc.. 65 5 



Clearing land 34 3 



Incendiary 19 2 



Hunters 15 1 



Miscellaneous 60 5 



I'nknown or cause not reported 367 26 



Totals 1,358 100 



Under "unknown, etc.," it is apparent that it would be impos- 

 sible to detect in every case the exact cause of fire. It is aston- 

 ishing, however, to note that of aU the various causes listed, light- 

 ning is the only one that is not absolutely preventable. 



In various sections of the countrj- a great campaign of publicity 

 :ind education in regard to forest fires is being waged which should 

 cut down some of the most serious causes of fires such as careless 

 campers, hunters, those clearing land, and those in charge of log- 

 ging engines, sawmills, etc. 



The principal and most successful methods that are now coming 

 to be employed in the protection- of timberlands from fire losses 

 are the following: (1) patrol (2) construction of telephones and 

 lookout or observation towers in connection with them (.3) brush 

 burning and lopping (4) use of roads, trails, and fire lines where 

 necessary. In one part of the country the heliograph was used 

 to flash signals under a code system, by means of the sun's rays, 

 to report the location of fires that had started. In addition to 

 these methods, legislative measures have been resorted to in order 

 to compel railroads under certain conditions to use oil as fuel 

 rather than coal; to clear out their rights of way, and to use 

 spark arresters to prevent the spreading of sparks in the woods 

 during the dry season. Other measures have been passed by many 

 states restricting the burning of brush in clearing land to a few 

 months in the year and imposing penalties for setting fire to the 

 woods either through careless or willful action. 



Very often a combination of various methods is used, such as 

 the use of patrolmen, lookout towers and telephones. This has 



worked out to splendid advantage in a number of regions under 

 different conditions both by state and federal organizations and by 

 private lumbermen and cooperative associations. Patrol work is 

 really necessary only during an unusually dry and dangerous fire 

 season. In the West, the Forest Service guards ami rangers cover 

 about 100,000 acres apiece on an average, which is entirely too 

 much for effective work. In parts of Germany, patrolmen arc 

 expected to cover only from 1,000 to 5,000 acres. Look out towers 

 have been used very successfully in locating incipient fires. They 

 are placed on mountain tops or high elevations which command 

 extensive views and with the aid of field glasses, observers can 

 detect fires up to thirty miles away. In the West fires have been 

 detected as far as one hundred miles distant in the clear at- 

 mosphere. On discovering a fire, the observer takes a compass 

 direction to it and if he can get in communication with another 

 observer by telephone, the directions are plotted on a map and 

 wherever the lines intersect on the map, the fire is located and the 

 proper authorities are notified at once. Telephone lines have been 

 found to be almost indispensable in some regions. A single line 

 built with a No. 9 galvanized iron wire can be constructed for 

 from $30 to .$.50 a mile by attaching to living trees. The above is 

 the method adopted by most of our states. New York, Wisconsin, 

 Pennsylvania, and Maine have been the leaders in state fire pro- 

 tection work and since their reserves are scattered in with private 

 holdings, the individual owner can cooperate with the state for- 

 ester or warden to excellent advantage. New York has over 

 1,600,000 acres of forest reserves in the Adirondacks and the 

 Catskills. Pennsylvania has practically 1,000,000 acres and Wis- 

 consin about 500,000 acres in reserves. 



Eoads and trails are used to advantage as means of access in 

 getting over the tract and also as a good place in which to check 

 the advance of the fire. It is often necessary to construct trails 

 in densely forested regions of mixed hardwoods and softwoods in 

 order to properly control the area or to make the lookout stations 

 accessible. 



Under certain circumstances, especially in remote or inaccessible 

 forest regions, caches of tools distributed at convenient points 

 have been found to be splendid investments. Sometimes even 

 food and rough camp outfits are stored along with caches of tools 

 so that the toting of supplies which is often an important factor 

 in putting out or fighting fires, does not hinder the progress of the 

 work. Time is the big factor in putting out fires. As one lum- 

 berjack, well experienced in fire fighting, once expressed it. "Every 

 fire can be put out with a stamp of the foot if you do it in time." 

 If a fire is allowed to burn for several hours, undetected or without 

 any effort to stop its progress, it may develop into a crown fire 

 which under the presence of a high wind is impossible to stop. 



The best tool to trench or directly fight a fire is undoubtedly 

 the long handled shovel. This can be used both to dig a trench 

 to the mineral earth and to throw moist earth directly on the 

 spreading fire. Other useful tools are the mattock, cross-cut saw, 

 axe and often a common rake. 



In regard to cost, fire protection can be assured wherever fires 

 are dangerous in our hardwood or mixed hardwood and coniferous 

 forests by the expenditure of a few cents per acre annually at 

 the outside. One large lumber association that uses patrol in the 

 dangerous seasons and cooperates with the state in the use of tele- 

 phones and lookout stations, secures very efficient protection for 

 about two cents per acre per year. Another association during an 

 especially dry and dangerous fire season spent as high as twelve 

 cents per acre and considered it a splendid investment. The West- 

 ern Forestry and Conservation Association, supported almost en- 

 tirely by lumbermen, secures good protection from forest fire 

 losses for between one and two cents per acre. This expenditure 

 is really in the form of forest fire insurance and the various lum- 

 ber companies have been well satisfied with the investment. For- 

 est fire insurance has not been offered by any of the regular insur- 

 ance companies in this country but in Europe it has been in use for 

 some time. There is one large concern in Munich, Germany, which 

 does considerable business in guaranteeing freedom from fire losses. 



