3^4 



Ycarboo^ of Agriculture 1949 



around each of the larger communities. 

 Future settlement and development of 

 interior Alaska will continue to draw 

 heavily on the meager local forest re- 

 sources because of the distances from 

 the outside sources of supply. Conse- 

 quently, the potential value of these 

 forests to the region is great. 



Of almost equal economic impor- 

 tance is the use made of these forests 

 by fur and game animals for cover and 

 as a source of food supply. Interior 

 Alaska is one of the better areas of the 

 world for large wilderness game ani- 

 mals, and it is also an extensive pro- 

 ducer of fur. Those resources contrib- 

 ute substantially to the food supply and 

 the cash income of the native Indians 

 and of many white settlers. The big- 

 game animals moose, the mountain 

 sheep, the great brown bear, and cari- 

 bou attract hunters, wildlife photog- 

 raphers, and general tourists, who 

 provide an important and constantly 

 increasing source of income. 



THE EARLY SITUATION in the forests 

 of the Western States is being repeated 

 in Alaska in that the interior forest 

 area is subject to devastating fires, and 

 the volume of timber burned is many 

 times greater than the volume cut. 



A combination of light precipitation, 

 the long daylight hours, and the warm 

 weather of the summer months, plus 

 the heavy ground cover of moss, pro- 

 duces a serious fire hazard. Also, the 

 vast size and the wilderness condition 

 make effective fire-control measures 

 difficult and costly. Another discour- 

 aging fact is the slow tree growth here, 

 which means a slow recovery of spruce 

 and birch on the burned-over areas. 

 The fires in interior Alaska are largely 

 man-made ( lightning is serious in cer- 

 tain areas only) , and until recently they 

 have been largely due to indifference. 

 Many settlers, hunters, prospectors, 

 and general travelers had the attitude 

 that the burning of an area here and 

 there in that vast wilderness was a 

 matter of no importance. Fires were 

 allowed to escape from land-clearing 

 jobs, campfires along the trails were 



left unextinguished, and fires were set 

 to drive the mosquitoes from camp sites 

 and mining operations. The past dec- 

 ade, however, has seen an encouraging 

 trend away from this attitude. 



The extent of individual fires is ap- 

 palling to a visitor from the States, but 

 understandable in view of the warm, 

 dry summers and the wilderness con- 

 ditions. Fires often start in the early 

 spring and travel uninterruptedly until 

 the fall rains extinguish them. Dozens 

 of fires, each of 10,000 acres or more, 

 may occur in one summer, while not 

 uncommonly a single fire will burn 

 from 200,000 to 400,000 acres. In 1947, 

 at least five fires burned more than 

 100,000 acres each. The largest of 

 those, on the open public domain on 

 the west side of the Kenai Peninsula, 

 covered approximately 250,000 acres, 

 as determined by inspection from the 

 air at the end of the fire season. No one 

 knows the total area burned in interior 

 Alaska in 1947, but it probably reached 

 1,150,000 acres. 



The open public domain, comprising 

 most of interior Alaska, is administered 

 by the Bureau of Land Management 

 (formerly the General Land Office) of 

 the United States Department of the 

 Interior. Before July 1, 1939, there 

 was practically no organized forest- 

 fire protection on these lands, but at 

 that time an appropriation of $37,500 

 was made available by Congress to the 

 General Land Office for the start of 

 a protective unit, designated the Alas- 

 kan Fire Control Service. Up to and 

 including the fiscal year beginning July 

 1, 1946, the annual appropriation had 

 been increased to $170,000, and the 

 organization expanded to a force of 

 approximately 40 persons, two-thirds 

 of them part-year employees only. The 

 item for fire control was omitted from 

 the Department of the Interior appro- 

 priation act for the fiscal year begin- 

 ning July 1, 1947, which year proved 

 unfortunately to be a bad fire period. 

 That item was restored and substan- 

 tially increased the next year. 



The lands under the protection of 

 the Alaskan Fire Control Service in- 



