FOREST GUIDES DEPARTMENT 



SOLAN L. PARKES, EDITOR 



The Boy Scouts of the United States are rapidly enrolling as Forest Guides. In a short time it is 

 expected every troop will be a member. The Editor of this department, now Chief Forest Guide for 

 Pennsylvania, will furnish in "American Forestry" Magazine each month information, advice and instruc- 

 tion to the Forest Guides, and hopes that this department will soon be read by every Boy Scout in the 

 United States. 



FOREST GUIDES can do no more important 

 work than prevent forest fires, extinguish 

 them and report to the authorities the names 

 of people starting forest fires. 



In many of the States the spring and the fall 

 are the periods when most forest fires occur, and 

 this month is the time for Forest Guides to learn 

 the cost of forest fires and how to guard against 

 them. 



No better instruction in these respects can be 

 given than that of C. P. Wilber, state firewarden 

 of New Jersey, who says : 



Fire not only destroys our homes and build- 

 ings, but burns up, in our forests, timber, which 

 would make thousands of homes, wasting it be- 

 fore it has been made into lumber, or into paper 

 and the multitude of other things for which we 

 use wood in our daily lives. It has been said 

 truthfully that every year there is more lumber 

 burned up in forest fires than all of America's 

 sawmills manufacture in a year. 



Besides this awful waste, these fires cost many 

 human lives, cause untold suffering and do mil- 

 lions of dollars damage by destroying crops, 

 and homes and even whole towns. They like- 

 wise kill multitudes of birds and wild animals 

 and drive away those which escape by ruining 

 their homes and feeding grounds. Also the 

 blackened wrecks of woods drive away and keep 

 away all sorts of people; the woods worker, the 

 home seeker, and the pleasure seeker. They 

 leave the countryside a deserted waste, idle and 

 unproductive, and worst of all, it must stay so 

 for years. The ruins of the biggest fires in our 

 cities are replaced by new buildings in a few 

 months or at longest in a year or two, but it 

 takes from 30 years to 150 years to rebuild a 

 ruined forest. 



Too many people believe that the little fires 

 crawling among the leaves or burning quietly in 

 the underbrush are harmless. And yet they in- 



jure even the larger trees and kill the young 

 growth and seedlings from which the next forest 

 must come, they also rob the forest of nature's 

 sponge for holding moisture and her fertilizer 

 for feeding the trees, by burning up the humus. 

 No fire is so small that it is insignificant or harm- 

 less. A few moments spent by some "good citi- 

 zen" who finds one will certainly prevent some 

 damage. It will often avert a big conflagration, 

 for any such fire, if left untended, is more than 

 likely to be caught by some sudden gust of wind 

 or to reach more inflammable cover and become 

 a roaring furnace. 



Like other fires, nearly all forest fires come 

 from someone's carelessness or ignorance. Here 

 are two examples from actual occurrences which 

 show two of the main causes of fires and how 

 easily they may make trouble. 



A fire recently burned up more than 2,000 

 acres of fine woodland. When the man who was 

 responsible for it was found this was his story : 

 "It was an absolutely quiet morning and I had 

 just a few weeds and briars to get rid of after 

 cleaning up the garden, so I lighted them and 

 watched the fire carefully. When it was almost 

 burned out, there came a sudden whirl of wind 

 and the fire seemed to scatter and start up every- 

 where at once, so that I could not put it out 

 before it got to the woods and got too big for 

 me." This man had never heard that it is always 

 unsafe to start a fire for any purpose near the 

 woods or fields when things are dry, and espe- 

 cially so in the spring and fall. He didn't know 

 that it is always more dangerous to build a fire 

 in the morning than in the evening. He'd never 

 learn that even on the quietest day, a little fire 

 may start the air to move or that the wind 

 will often suddenly change direction or grow 

 stronger. He had neglected to have water or 

 a shovel or even something to beat out fire 

 handy in case the unexpected did happen. He 

 didn't realize that, for even the smallest fires, 

 grass and leaves should be raked back so that 

 there is a big ring of soil around the fire. He 



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