1919-20 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FOEESTS AND MINES. 117 



A reduction in the number of fires traceable to carelessness in land clearing 

 and as regards camp fires will be a matter of slow education. Lightning fires 

 as a rule do not reach large proportions. While fires caused in summer logging 

 show a small percentage, these fires are frequently very costly. To reach the 

 camps in operation it is necessary to pass over tote roads which are frequently piled 

 up with slash from the previous season's operation. The question of general 

 slash disposal should be considered, but in the meantime regulations should be 

 adopted requiring the disposal of slash along main tote roads, about camps and 

 dump grounds. Summer operators should also be required to give special assist- 

 ance in fire patrol during dangerous periods. 



The machinery for reducing railway fires exists. Various protective measures 

 are required of the railways such as special patrol, clearing the right-of-way and 

 keeping up proper protective appliances in locomotives, yet within a few feet of 

 the right-of-way timber operators are allowed to create fire hazards which make 

 fire prevention almost impossible when small grass fires get away from the right- 

 of-way. Again, slash disposal within reasonable distance of railways is imperative 

 if the problem is to be solved. Accordingly, we conclude that the problem is one 

 of eliminating the causes as much as possible and then controlling fires which 

 do get a start. 



The public as a whole seem very slow to realize that forest fire protection 

 differs in no way from general property fire protection as provided for in cities. 

 The same principles underlie both — reduction of inflammable hazard, familiarity 

 with conditions in all parts of the area under protection, early detection and speed 

 in reaching the scene of the fire, and fighting by men specially trained for that 

 work. Applying these in turn to forest property, we note that the hazard must 

 remain high till the operation of logging carries with it as an integral part the 

 disposal of the slash nuisance it creates. Early detection and early fighting is a 

 matter of lookout towers, telephone systems, and strategic systems of roads and 

 trails; while fighting forest fires is no more the work of an amateur than fighting 

 city fires. 



These considerations lead to the argument that forest protection calls for 

 specially qualified men. The direction of the protective work in any district 

 must be in the hands of a man who knows the basic principles of fire protection; 

 who will make it his business to become thoroughly familiar with conditions of 

 timber, hazard, settlement, etc., in every part of his district; who is capable of 

 planning and constructing a system of lookout towers, telephone lines, roads, trails, 

 etc., so as to make his district relatively safe at the least cost. Along with these, 

 he must be able to follow instructions, to give an intelligent report on any field 

 matter, to estimate burned timber, to administer the forest laws, Railway Act, etc. 

 In short, he must have been previously trained in the principles and work of 

 forest protection. 



Turning to the existing system in Ontario, we find that each spring a tem- 

 porary organization of around 1,000 men is built up, only to be disbanded every 

 fall. During the last three seasons about one-half the ranger force has been new, 

 inexperienced men each year. Any protection system must depend upon a per- 

 manent skeleton organization for efficiency. Moreover, this skeleton force must 

 be made up of men with capabilities of the order outlined in the preceding para- 

 graph. This is impossible if appointments are made on any other basis than the 

 applicant's fitness for the work. 



