688 



CONSERVATION 



forest fires throughout the United 

 States, and particularly in the West, 

 where timber is most valuable, have 

 been alarming, almost appalling. 



"The actual destruction wrought can 

 hardly be computed in figures, and the 

 mental anxiety and physical suffering 

 endured by thousands of persons in 

 towns and villages touched by fire is 

 incalculable by any human measure- 

 ment. California has been one of the 

 worst sufferers. Her famous trees nar- 

 rowly escaped destruction and thou- 

 sands of square miles of valuable tim- 

 ber land were burned. In Washington, 

 Oregon, Nevada, Montana, Dakota, 

 Minnesota all through the Northwest 

 vast forest fires have raged. 



"These things ought not to be. Yet, 

 what is being done to prevent them? 

 Nothing.'' 



"What this government needs, and 

 what the exigencies of the situation de- 

 mand, is a fire department for the 

 entire nation ; a body of men trained 

 and equipped to the last degree to fight 

 the fires which are consuming the coun- 

 try's timber ; a department provided 

 with special trains and which can be 

 transported from place to place upon 

 the shortest notice, regardless of time 

 and careless of expense. It would be 

 costly, but look at the untold millions 

 it would save yearly. A forest may be 

 burned to the ground in a day, but it 

 takes a hundred years to grow." 



CANADA URGED TO PROTECT FORESTS 



In urging Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the 

 Canadian Premier, to advocate a policy 

 for the preservation of the Dominion 

 timber lands, the Toronto World de- 

 clared in a recent editorial : 



"For years the World has advocated 

 the promulgation of a new and compre- 

 hensive forest policy upon advanced 

 scientific lines, securing adequate pro- 

 tection of the growing timber from 

 fires, the harvesting only of mature 

 timber and the protection of the 

 younger growth and the reforestation 

 of the sections already denuded and un- 

 fitted for agricultural use. 



"Experts all agree that the world is 



within measurable distance of a timber 

 famine and the conditions in the United 

 States particularly are causing grave 

 anxiety to all public men who have 

 given the question attentive considera- 

 tion. Nor is it alone the result of the 

 denudation of the old forest lands in 

 creating a shortage in the supply which 

 has to be faced. 



"Denudation of mountain ranges and 

 wooded areas has a very important 

 bearing upon the character of the 

 streams and rivers, and upon the cli- 

 matic and soil conditions. When the 

 ground is forest-covered the water- 

 courses are not liable in the same de- 

 gree to sudden changes in volume. 

 Rivers rise and fall gradually and dis- 

 astrous floods are much less likely to 

 occur. Forests hold the water and help 

 to feed the springs whose existence is 

 so necessary in many parts of the coun- 

 try, and looking to a new and extraor- 

 dinary value now associated with water 

 powers, their maintenance at sufficient 

 volume throughout the year, and from 

 year to year, must become a question 

 of increasing importance and urgency. 



"The time has arrived for the do- 

 minion and the provinces of Canada 

 possessing valuable forest lands to pro- 

 tect the present and future interests of 

 the people in these assets and their re- 

 sponsible governments can find no bet- 

 ter way of laying posterity under 

 obligation." 



PINCHOT'S WARNING 



Calling attention to the warning 

 sounded by Gifford Pinchot, chief of 

 the United States Forest Service, the 

 Chicago Post said recently : 



"Forest fires in Wisconsin. Minne- 

 sota, and Michigan are destroying mil- 

 lions of dollars' worth of standing tim- 

 ber and are menacing a score of villages 

 with destruction. The states individu- 

 ally, by adopting the government's sys- 

 tem of protective patrols now in service 

 in the Federal forest reserves, can pre- 

 vent the repetition of the disasters of 

 the present year. 



"Gifford Pinchot, the government's 

 chief forester, said, less than six months 



