FOREST RECREATION DEPARTMENT 



Arthur H. Carhart, Editor 



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than anyone in the whole fabric of Forest organization. 

 For, he it is who fits land surfaces for human use and 

 by thus bringing the human family to the forests, produces 

 greater beauty return to the Nation, a greater appreciation 

 of nature and greater health in mind, body and spirit. 

 And the greatest destroyer of natural beauty values in 

 the Forest is fire. In order to preserve this beauty to 

 give to the people the landscape man must join hands 



with all against this common 

 enemy. 



The majority, the greater 

 majority, of campers are 

 good forest residents. They 

 know the rules of the game 

 and they play them. They 

 leave a clean camp. They 

 are clean in their whole 

 makeup, physical and) mental. 

 And they are careful with 

 fire. This attitude comes 

 from being in close contact 

 with the outdoors for several 

 seasons and in that way be- 

 coming so respectful of nat- 

 ural beauty and loving it so 

 intensely they treat it prop- 

 erly. 



The great family of trans- 

 THE FIRE DEMON'S BANNER state tourists who bring their 



were a few subjects that set n ^^^ ; such a country as this that the Woodrock Fire raged, camping outfit with them 

 our tongues going Much of the gruelling heart-breaking work of stopping these are almost wholly educated 



Then fire and forest land- '^'" "''" ^^ eliminated when more people are careful with fire. ^^ ^^ ^^^^^^j ^.^^ f^^^ j^^^ 



scape became the theme of the discourse. It developed know what it is to leave the Fire Demon loose in the 

 that the landscape architect in charge of great natural timber of the hills. They have either seen the flames 

 landscapes is if anything more an enemy of the fire demon licking up the timber and with it the beauty of the hill- 



WHY do they do it?" almost wailed Corey. 

 I admitted I did not know. 



Corey is not the name of one of the best landscape 

 architects in the west, but it will suffice to designate the 

 man who left his work last year and paid the San Isabel 

 Forest the compliment of directing some of the recrea- 

 tional work there. He is one of my best friends, an 

 artist of the highest ability and a newly developed lover 

 of the great landscapes of 

 the Rockies. 



Night as black as that 

 darkness found in an un- 

 lighted cavern had settled 

 down on the camp as we 

 talked. In the next tent 

 some of our crew who were 

 building the Cascade Trail 

 played cards. In the far dis- 

 tance the lights of Pueblo 

 twinkled, and from up the 

 canon came the treble roar 

 of the small falls of Squirrel 

 Creek. Talk had swung idly 

 from one subject to another. 

 A mutual friend's views on 

 parallelism in musical and 

 landscape compositions, the 

 economic situation, law in 

 city plan, and color blending 



Fire in forest lands does much damage that is directly computed in board feet of lumber and then reduced at once to a 

 cash basis founded on current lumber prices. Or it can be shown that so much watershed protection is destroyed by fire 

 each year. 



But there is a great value which cannot so readily be put in figures which is just as surely destroyed by a forest fire. And 

 that value is the beauty which is present in any tree-clothe* section of the country. 



The recreationist is justly blamed for many fires being unleashed in forests. Perhaps too much blame is heaped on his 

 head. It is none the less true that in the aggregate he does no insignificant amount of damage to the very qualities which call 

 him into the forests each year. 



It is possible to almost wholly eliminate all man-caused fires if sufficient care is exercised. To bring home the 

 seriousness of the offence of leaving a fire unquenched or a cigar butt still alive these stories are offered. They represent 

 three views and are based on facts. Mr. Ancona has presented the outlook of the field administrative man. Mr. McLaren 

 outlines a vivid story of one fire he helped kill while on the job of fire suppression in one of the western districts of the 

 Forest Service. The third represents a landscape architect's thoughts relative to tjie destroying of beauty by fire. If they 

 make you use care with fire they have done their duty. Arthur H. Carhart, Editor, Recreation Department. 



