534 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



forest officers residing on or near the 

 carriers' routes. Thus, the carriers as 

 instructed by the postmasters will con- 

 stitute a valuable supplement to the 

 regular patrol maintained by federal 

 and State officers, who are often unable, 

 through lack of numbers, to give full 

 protection. The plan is purposely ex- 

 tremely simple; the carrier will not 

 necessarily be compelled to leave his 

 vehicle or deviate from his course. 



As can readily be seen, the effective- 

 ness of the work will depend in a large 

 measure upon the ability of the Forest 

 officers and the postal employes to co- 

 operate closely. Star route contractors 

 and carriers are not ordered, but are re- 

 quested, to co-operate. 



The special order is as follows : 



"In accordance with the request of 

 the Secretary of Agriculture, this De- 

 partment has arranged a plan of co- 

 operation with State and National For- 

 est officers whereby rural and star route 

 carriers shall report forest fires discov- 

 ered by them along their routes to 

 persons designated by the State and 

 National authorities to receive such in- 

 telligence. 



"Co-operation with State officers will 

 be given in the following States : Maine, 

 New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu- 

 setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 

 York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary- 

 land, West Virginia, Tennessee, Ken- 



tucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 

 Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Cali- 

 fornia. 



"The National Forest officers will be 

 co-operated with in the following 

 States : Florida, Arkansas, South Da- 

 kota, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, 

 Arizona, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Wash- 

 ington, Oregon, and California. 



"The State and National authorities 

 will inform postmasters as to whom the 

 discovery of fires should be reported, 

 and each rural carrier should be di- 

 rected to co-operate to the fullest ex- 

 tent with such authorities in the man- 

 ner agreed upon, namely, that the car- 

 rier shall report a fire to the nearest 

 State fire warden or National Forest 

 officer on his route, or, if no such war- 

 den or officer lives on the route, to ar- 

 range through some responsible citizen 

 to have him notified, by telephone, if 

 possible. Star route contractors and 

 carriers are included in the plan of co- 

 operation and should be requested to re- 

 port the discovery of fires in the same 

 manner as will be done by the rural 

 carriers. 



"Postmasters in or near National 

 Forests are also directed to report fires 

 to the nearest Forest officer." 



Respectfully, 



(Signed) P. V. DEGRAW, 



Fourth Assistant Postmaster General." 



THE PRESENT FIRE SEASON ON THE NATIONAL 



FORESTS 



aP to the middle of July the forest 

 fire losses within the National 

 Forests during the calendar year 

 1912 have been unusually light. A late 

 spring, with plentiful rain, has char- 

 acterized the general climatic conditions 

 in the West. 



The most serious fire of the season 

 so far occurred on the Olympic Na- 

 tional Forest, Washington, where 640 

 acres of cedar and spruce were covered 

 by a crown fire which killed twenty 

 million feet of Government timber and 

 ten million feet of private timber. It 

 was caused by the carelessness of 



settlers in burning brush, and the whole 

 area was devastated in about two hours 

 because a strong wind was blowing at 

 the time. Another fire destroyed 350,- 

 000 feet on the Rainier Forest. 



Outside the National Forests, espe- 

 cially in portions of Washington, fires 

 have been quite frequent in old slash- 



ings. 



The total number of fires within Dis- 

 trict 6, which comprises the National 

 Forests of Oregon and Washington, re- 

 ported to the middle of July, is 43, of 

 which only the two mentioned above 

 caused much damage. 



