(P;i| er picpnrcd for recent meelinjz of Western Foresiei v ;unl 

 Co:serv.ition ;issoei;itlon meeting, held in Vancouver) 



THE ir.ost important single factor in forest fire preven- 

 tion is the weather. Where the rains are regularly dis- 

 tributed during the year the problem, of protection is 

 relatively simple. Thus in the Eastern forests it is seldom 

 that more than a few weeks pass without some precipitation. 

 Under such circumstances the fire hazard is far less than in 

 the West where there is regularly a long dry season. Again 

 in the West the fire hazard is in direct proportion to the 

 length of the dry season. The most difficult problem of fire 

 prevention in the country is in California, because there the 

 season during which there is little or no rainfall lasts from 

 three to six months. The lack of rain combined with fre- 

 quent hot, dry winds make the forests excessively dry and 

 inflammable. 



In every forest region, however, there is a great variation 

 of seasonal conditions of m.oisture. In the first place there is 

 a general cycle of wet and dry periods occurring at intervals 

 of from 10 to 15 years. The series of dry years corresponding 

 to the period of minimum precipitation is accompanied by the 

 greatest forest fire damage. Ihere is also in every region an 

 occasional year of exceptional drought when the usual sea- 

 sonal rains do not occur. It Is in such years that our greatest 

 forest disasters have occurred. These critical dry years are 

 not confined to the West. They occur also in the East. I 

 have only to refer to the great fires of history. The Miramichi 

 fire of Northern Maine and New Brunswick, in which over two 

 and one-half million acres were burned, 160 lives lost, six 

 towns wiped out, and great loss of livestock. It occurred after 

 an unusual drought. The great Peshtigo fire of Wisconsin 

 and Michigan in 1871 followed a prolonged dry period. The 

 same condition existed at the time of the Hinckley fire in 

 Minnesota in 1894, as also in 1903 when such damage was 

 dono by fire in the Adirondack Mountains. The critical dry 



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