268 THE PRINCIPLES OF HANDLING WOODLANDS 



points from which the fighting crew may work. Their 

 establishment usually makes the woods accessible, so that 

 a crew can get to a fire or near it quickly with appliances 

 for fighting it. If back firing is necessary, it can often 

 be done best from the fire-line. 



Fire-lines differ very greatly in construction and 

 width, according to local conditions of fire danger and 

 of special forest organization. They will be discussed 

 under the following heads: (1) Roads; (2) trails; (3) 

 special fire-lines. 



Roads. An ordinary dirt road ranks as one of the 

 best of all fire-lines. The wider the road the more 

 effective it is. A forest well cut up with roads is, there- 

 fore, much more easily protected than one with few or no 

 roads. In Europe, every well-organized forest has a 

 thoroughly planned network of roads. These are located 

 primarily with reference to the problem of logging, but 

 they serve also as a network of fire-lines, and special lines 

 are cleared to supplement them where necessary. Every 

 part of the forest is readily accessible, not only for patrol- 

 ing for fire during the danger season, but for the quick 

 transportation of fire-fighting appliances. In case a fire 

 should start in such a forest and be discovered within a 

 reasonable time, it would be easy to confine it to a small 

 area. 



We cannot expect to have such a well-organized sys- 

 tem of roads and fire-lines in our forests for a long time, 

 but much can be done in the way of utilizing the more 

 or less temporary roads that are used in logging and 



