Standardization of fire Plans. 383 



that question in itself is worth considering. There are certain 

 men on almost any Forest, who by reason of several summers' 

 experience as guards and of their intimate knowledge of the 

 country and local conditions, make the very best possible guard 

 material. These very often are men who do not intend to be- 

 come rangers, who own ranches and who could not pass the 

 ranger examination if they took it, and others in exactly the 

 same class who are too old to take the ranger examination. 

 These men are glad of the opportunity to earn some money dur- 

 ing the summer, make excellent guards, but would not be willing 

 to work as day laborers at all. 



The solution of this matter is that there should be special 

 positions of lookout man and patrolman, to be appointed as 

 such. Surely every field forest officer realizes that there is no 

 more responsible nor important position than that of lookout 

 man — then why not recognize it by making a special appoint- 

 ment? 



Divorcing Protection From Administratton. 



Until protection can be absolutely divorced from administra- 

 tion, fire plans cannot be considered perfect. On those forests 

 where the administrative work during the fire season is of such 

 a character that it can either be neglected entirely or handled 

 by the district rangers without interference with their protec- 

 tive duties it may be said that the two are now already divorced. 



On large forests containing extensive stands of timber, the 

 first step to be taken toward divorcing protection from adminis- 

 tration is the establishment of fire units, with the assignment of 

 a fire chief in charge of each unit. Such units will be made 

 without regard to the boundaries of administrative districts. If 

 two or three administrative districts are included in whole or 

 in part in a fire unit, their respective rangers in charge will con- 

 tinue the administrative work and will be called on only in the 

 event they are needed for actual supervision of fire fighting. Un- 

 der this system, the organization for fire protection is separate 

 from the administrative organization until there is a large fire 

 or a number of small fires. This means that a district ranger 

 in charge of an administrative district will not be called upon 



