<o2 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



for rebuilding settlers' homes (this involves the waiving 

 of the provisions of rule No. 21 of the Non-War Con- 

 struction section of the War Industries Board which 



of the burned district ; making a complete survey of the 

 live stock situation and preparing to restock the district ; 

 helping banks in the burned district to weather the 



Photograph by T. J. Horton, Courtesy of the Minnesota Forest Service 



THE RUINS OF AUTOMBA 



This progressive little town on the edge of the forest was almost totally destroyed by the fire, only a few of the buildings being left. Tents 

 are being used as temporary shelters by the survivors and relief was sent to them as soon as possible. So rapidly did the fire advance that 

 the residents who got away saved practically nothing except the clothing they wore. 



prohibits new construction to cost more than $1,000) ; 

 supplying labor for the rebuilding and reconstruction 



situation and reopen for business ; rebuilding of factories 

 burned in Cloquet and homes needed in Duluth. 



EDITORIAL 



MINNESOTA'S FOREST FIRE DISASTER 



/~\NCE more disaster in the form of a forest fire has 

 ^^ overtaken Minnesota. Eight hundred lives and ap- 

 proximately one hundred million dollars in property 

 were wiped out of existence. Surely a heavy responsi- 

 bility rests somewhere. Had there been no warnings in 

 the past the plea of unpreparedness might have some 

 weight, but in the light of the destruction of Hinckley, 

 Chisholm, Spooner, and Baudette the argument falls 

 flat. These fires proved conclusively that death and 

 destruction ever await forest and town alike if necessary 

 precautions are not taken. In the light of this past 

 history, the greatest conflagration in history has been 

 allowed to develop and carry misery and poverty to 

 thousands of people. 



Whose is the responsibility? 



The prevention of all forest fire in such a country as 

 northern Minnesota is probably an impossibility ; the pre- 

 vention of a great conflagration is not only altogether 

 possible, but the occurrence of such a fire is criminal. 

 According to all reports the ground was exceedingly dry 

 and the wind reached the proportions of a hurricane, but 

 these alone cannot make a great conflagration. There 

 are only two ways in which a conflagration can arise ; 

 from many small fires united, or from one small fire 

 long neglected. Either one implies neglect, criminal 

 neglect, when the terrible warnings of the past twenty-five . 

 years are considered. The responsibility for that neglect 

 seems very definitely placed in this instance. 



When the Minnesota Forest Service was created in 

 191 1 a careful estimate placed the needs of the Service 

 at $150,000 per year. The legislature appropriated $75,- 

 000. The experience of the first two years of operation 

 showed clearly that $150,000 was the minimum for ef- 

 ficient service. The legislature of 1913 appropriated 

 $75,000. In 191 5 the minimum of $150,000 was again 

 asked, and the appropriations committee of the Senate 

 cut the appropriation to $40,000 in spite of the pleadings 

 of all the foresters in the State and of all others inter- 

 ested. The dangers were pointed out, and the present 

 disaster clearly predicted. The same committee in 191 7, 

 when the management of a new state forest of 300,000 

 acres had been added to the duties of the Service, 

 held down the appropriation $50,000. In the face of 

 all warnings and pleadings the fire patrol service 

 in the north woods was cut to one man for every 

 million acres. 



Long before the fatal disaster of October 12 it was 

 very well known that the north woods were full of small 

 fires. The rangers knew it and they did all that was 

 humanly possible to put them out. They extinguished 

 many of them ; but for one man to put out all the fires 

 on one million acres in a dry season is an impossibility. 

 Given an adequate luce of patrol men the small fires 

 would have been ta. .are of promptly and such a 

 holocaust as we have just witnessed would have been 

 an impossibility. 



