Improvement Systems Cost 245 



It is probably true that the first improvement construction 

 is done in answer to current administrative demands, a little 

 later with a principal view to protection problems, and last on 

 account of utilization necessities. The three, of course, are 

 mingled more or less constantly. While it is rather fruitless to 

 attempt to segregate them, protection needs doubtless are the 

 most urgent for the present and are likely to remain so for at 

 least a number of years. What improvements will be required 

 in order to permit the operation of a satisfactorily effective fire 

 protective organization? 



Such a question will be variously answered according to two 

 principal factors: (1) the inherent difficulties of transport and 

 communication due to the topography and cover, (2) the intensity 

 of work justified by the value of the timber to be protected and 

 its danger from fire. In much of the Western Yellow pine region, 

 for instance, where a wagon or automobile can be rapidly taken 

 across country without specific roads, the problem is radically 

 different from the very broken and densely tangled forests of 

 the Couer d'Alene or Puget Sound regions. An open and 

 scrubby growth near timberline may be subject to frequent light- 

 ning fires, but would not warrant the investment in improve- 

 ments which would be warranted by a comparatively small 

 acreage of replanted old burn, or accessible and merchantable 

 timber. 



In any case the approximate improvement needs for protection 

 can be arrived at by specifying the minimum time to be allowed 

 between the start of a fire at any point on the forest and the 

 arrival at the fire of an adequate crew properly equipped. For 

 the forest of low value this period will be longer than for the 

 high-value forest. Where the difficulties of travel across coun- 

 try are great, rapidity of transport along the main travel routes 

 must compensate for the slowness of cross-country travel. For 

 our well-run forests, we shall shortly have figures to indicate, 

 for given forest and stand, the average area burned over per 

 hour of unrestricted spread. If a certain figure is adopted to 

 indicate the maximum annual acreage of burn which can be 

 tolerated, and if the average number of fires per year can be 

 statistically anticipated, it would be possible to determine the 

 theoretical distance between roads and trails necessary to permit 



