so 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



est Service has ever had to reckon with. The bulk of 

 the down timber is outside the Olympic National Forest, 

 but if fire were once to get underway in this almost im- 

 penetrable mass of huge fallen trees its control would be 

 jiractically impossible, and large losses would undoubt- 

 edly be suffered by the National Forest. To meet this 

 situation the Forest Service, under authority of a special 

 deficiency item, has cooperated with the State authori- 

 ties and private owners in maintaining the most in- 

 tensive protection ever attempted in the United States. 

 This is mainly a matter of organizing the entire local 

 public to eliminate all human causes of fire. It is some- 

 thing of a triumph to have come through the first and 

 probably most dangerous season successfully. 



During the past 11 years, 42,000 "man-caused" fires 

 have started in the National Forests. These are more 

 than two-thirds of all the fires with which the Forest 

 Service has had to contend. In organizing for more and 

 more efficient protection, it would be the height of folly 

 to overlook the principal source of fire hazard, which lies 

 in human ignorance or indifference. 



The use of the National Forests for industrial and re- 

 creational purposes is rapidly increasing. Thousands of 

 people now traverse or camp in the National Forests 

 where there were but scores or hundreds six years ago. 

 The annual number of man-caused fires is a barometer 

 of the hazard occasioned by this enormous increase in 

 the use of the Forests, a barometer which must be 

 watched with the utmost care. If the number of man- 

 caused fires increases proportionately with the use of the 

 forests, the task of protecting them is well-nigh hope- 

 less. From 1914 to 1917 there were from 4,300 to over 

 5,600 man-caused fires each year. Since 1917, while vary- 

 ing to a considerable degree, on account of climatic con- 

 ditions, the movement has been downward. Last year 

 approximately 3,000 fires were of human origin. While 

 caution is necessary in drawing conclusions, it is probable 

 that this result is due in part to the efforts of the Service 

 in common with those of States and many private agen- 

 cies to educate the public on the necessity for care with 

 fire in the woods, to the increasing cooperation furnished 

 by the press and by many commercial and semipublic 

 agencies, and to a campaign of strict law enforcement 

 against offenders. 



There is no more important phase of fire protection 

 than that of inculcating by every possible means the 

 necessity for care in the use of fire on the part of every 

 citizen and every industrial enterprise which uses or tra- 

 verses the public forests. The forest fire evil, with its 

 long train of costly destruction and emergency expendi- 

 ture, can only be eradicated b/ public education. The 

 proclamation of a "Forest Protection Week" by the 

 President of the United States and by the governors of 

 many States and the wide observance of this week, 

 brought about through organized publicity and other 

 educational efforts dealing with forest fires, were un- 

 questionably of immense value. 



Aside from attacking man-caused fires at the source, 

 years of experience have only emphasized the truism that 



effectiveness in protecting forests is measured by the 

 speed with which fires can be discovered and reached. 

 The efforts of the Forest Service are concentrated on 

 rounding up all the big and little means of securing 

 prompt discovery of incipient fires and quick action in 

 reaching them. The main reliance for prompt discovery 

 must be a lookout service, well distributed over peaks 

 and other effective points and continuous during the day- 

 light hours. The second essential is a network of tele- 

 phone lines, inexpensively constructed by attachment to 

 trees, so that the lookout can instantly communicate the 

 alarm to the ranger, patrolman or guard who is nearest 

 the telltale column of smoke. About 3,000 fires are thus 

 put out on the National Forests every year before they 

 reach a quarter of an acre in size. But fires may be 

 fanned by heavy winds or may run in inflammable slash- 

 ings or may be so inaccessible that they can not be 

 reached quickly enough to be extinguished single handed, 

 particularly if many fires are started simultaneously by a 

 lightning storm or by a defective locomotive on an up- 

 grade. Quick action must then be possible in mobilizing 

 the available rangers and guards, in equipping them with 

 fire-fighting tools and supplies of food, and in drawing 

 upon local settlers, miners, stockmen and the crews of 

 lumber camps for fire fighters. Such situations frequent- 

 ly occur and necessitate a warehouse and supply service 

 whereby standardized equipment and foodstuffs can be 

 furnished promptly in the quantities needed and an or- 

 ganization put quickly into action which extends from 

 the base of supplies to the fire line, not unlike the organi- 

 zation needed for a military offensive. 



Success in suppressing large fires in National Forests 

 depends upon the completeness and perfection of this or- 

 ganization and its training in advance for dealing with 

 every fire in every stage, with the utmost speed and with- 

 out confusion or indecision. To bring its fire organiza- 

 tion up to or near this ideal is the most important task 

 of the Forest Service. It involves knowledge of technical 

 appliances and methods and effective use of the crystal- 

 lized experience gained in many years. Above all, it re- 

 quires trained men who know the game. One of the out- 

 standing needs of the Forest Service at the present junc- 

 ture is to provide, even on a limited scale, for the syste- 

 matic training of its field officers in the technique of fire 

 control and suppression. 



In recognition of the primary importance of an efficient 

 fire organization, every possible effort has been made to 

 increase the force of guards during the present fire sea- 

 son, at the cost of drastic cuts in other lines of work. 

 With the appropriations made for the fiscal year 1922 it 

 has been possible to add 68 m'en to the fire force in the 

 four worst fire districts. The average forest ranger and 

 guard in these districts, however, must still cover 52,000 

 acres. Experience has clearly demonstrated that this 

 force is inadequate. Even during the average season, 

 disregarding exceptional climatic hazards of frequent 

 occurrence, it is not possible for the existing organiza- 

 tion to reach and put out promptly a considerable num- 

 ber of fires which thereupon become large blazes and re- 



