200 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



Yet even today federal and state support of fire protection is 

 not one half what it should be and private support is even less. 

 Fire losses are still increasing and whenever drought sets the 

 stage for destructive fires federal and state foresters alike find 

 themselves helpless. The fires of 1910 swept the West unhin- 

 dered by the heroic but poorly equipped fire fighters. 



Nor in twenty years has the picture greatly changed. The 

 fires of 1929 destroyed billions of feet of ripe timber, took the 

 life of a forest officer and after a disastrous career which cost 

 the country millions only surrendered to heavy rains. 



To conquer the fire evil requires men and money, fire-towers, 

 trails, roads and rapid transportation. It requires eternal vigi- 

 lance and organized defenses for fires come quickly. In 1929 

 one lightning storm alone set over four hundred fires. To deal 

 with such situations requires much more complete organization 

 and equipment than will ever be possible until this nation can 

 be moved to spend sums more in keeping with the gravity of 

 the situation and the value of our forests. 



In all this vitally important problem of forest fires sooner or 

 later we can not escape the question what are we going to 

 do about it? After all, the responsibility for this annual sacri- 

 fice of twenty million dollars rests on each of us since each of 

 us is directly affected. We have little enough timber here in 

 America. Not nearly enough to cover our needs for lumber, 

 paper, and the many other products that depend on wood for 

 their existence. Certainly we have not enough to sacrifice yearly 

 to the flames for even if forest fires were stamped out, we 

 should still be using more timber than we are growing. We 

 should still need forestry. But we should be in an immeasur- 



