810 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



There is a discrepancy between the showing made in table 5 of the 

 area burned per 100,000 acres protected and some apparently corre- 

 sponding data in the sections of this report entitled "Protection 

 Against Fire" and " Federal Financial and Other Direct Aid to the 

 States." The discrepancy is due to the fact that, for the purposes of 

 the present table, the area protected is reckoned on the basis of the 

 entire area covered by the protective set-up, irrespective of the 

 character of the cover. Brush and grass lands 'must often be pro- 

 tected along with forest lands if fire is to be kept out of the forest. 



The last three columns in table 5 show the comparative standings 

 of the regions when rated on the basis, respectively, of the number of 

 fires for a uniform acreage under protection, the average size of the 

 fires, and the average yearly burn for a uniform acreage. On each 

 basis a different order is set up. Average expenditures per acre pro- 

 duced the order shown on page 809. None of these comparisons bring 

 definitely into the picture such essential parts of it as the varying 

 difficulty of the job and the degree of intensiveness of protection which 

 the varying values at stake and their varying susceptibility to fire 

 damage justify. Nor do they take into account what proportion of 

 the entire area needing protection is actually receiving it. 



Disregarding for the moment the showing of the South Rocky 

 Mountain region, which is due to exceptional circumstances, not to 

 intensive State protection, New England is here shown as outstand- 

 ing in the low ratio of area burned to area protected. This reflects 

 in part favorable conditions for keeping fires small, in part the fact 

 that protection is strongly backed by public sentiment, well supported 

 financially, well organized, and strengthened through long seasoning 

 a product of many years of continuous upbuilding. The North Rocky 

 Mountain region takes its place next to New England, and slightly 

 above the Lake region, in spite of the fact that it includes the part of 

 the country where climate, topography, and wilderness conditions 

 combine to make the problems of effective protection more difficult 

 than anywhere else in the United States. In the North Rocky Moun- 

 tain region the loss which may result from fires on the State and pri- 

 vate lands covered by the State protective system is so great that the 

 owners consider much heavier per acre expenditures than are made 

 anywhere else fully justified. The average of nearly 6 cents per acre 

 per year was shown on page 809 to be far above that of any other 

 region; and even so, the average partially disguises the situation from 

 the fact that it is held down by relatively low protective costs in 

 southern Idaho and in eastern and central Montana, as compared with 

 western Montana and northern Idaho, where the average expenditures 

 may run more than twice as high as the regional average. It should 

 be said, too, that the severest task of protection in this region falls 

 upon the Federal Forest Service, in taking care of the national forests, 

 which generally speaking are less accessible, higher lying, and of more 

 rugged terrain than the State and private lands. 



The South rates lowest in the comparative showing based on the 

 ratio of burn to the entire protected area, partly because in the 

 "piney woods" country fires easily run over large areas, often without 

 doing much damage, partly because the custom of woods burning is 

 deeply ingrained, partly because the State protective work is too new 

 to have gained a very firm hold. In the central region also the work 

 is relatively new, and further is not well supported, either financially 



