SPECIALIZED FOREST PROTECTION 3 



forest protection force in Canada consists simply of an indefinite number of more or 

 less qualified men hired each year for the fire season only, and sent into the woods with 

 only the most meagre instructions. In general they are told to prevent or to detect 

 and suppress, so far as possible, forest fires in a specified district. Between rangers 

 even in adjoining districts there is little or no relationship. There is practically no- 

 differentiation of duties and no guidance or supervision except a very occasional visit 

 of inspection, primarily to determine that they are actually present in their district 

 and are not employed at some other work. Even this is successful only to a very- 

 limited extent because of the inherent difficulties of maintaining close personal super- 

 vision over a force which of necessity is widely scattered over a vast area of undeveloped 

 country. 



The total annual expenditure for forest protection by all agencies in Canada is 

 probably not less than $1,500,000. Single agencies spend as much as $350,000 per 

 annum and employ 800 to 1,000 men annually. The value of the resource protected is 

 of immense importance to the nation since fully 65 per cent of the country is capable 

 of producing no other form of useful commodity. This resource is the raw material 

 for the second largest industry of Canada. From this may be gained some idea of the 

 relative importance of a scientific study of the business of protecting forests from fire. 



Section 4 Analogy to Military Operations 



It requires but little knowledge of the operations involved in forest protection 

 under conditions existing in Canada to appreciate the striking resemblances which 

 exist between this work and military operations on a large scale. It is noted at once 

 that there exist the same problems of transportation, of commissary and supply, of 

 scouting and reconnaissance, of intercommunication, of camp management, and the 

 handling of men on the fire-line. Also there are frequently involved problems in 

 field engineering, and in animal management. Further, it is readily possible to 

 divide the actual process of placing a forest fire under control by frontal attack, flank- 

 ing trenches, or back-fires into two main sets of operations, namely tactical and 

 strategical. The present is perhaps an opportune time to point out the vital import- 

 ance of organization and discipline, of special training for individual units, of perfect 

 equipment, and of a skilled and scientific directive staff in military operations. Months, 

 even years, are spent in training men for the least responsible of military positions 

 and we know that an army without this highly perfected organization and equipment, 

 no matter how individually excellent, is a pitiable thing before a modern military 

 machine. It is little realized, however, that forest protection, which in all its essen- 

 tial operations bears such a striking resemblance to military operations, is susceptible 

 of just as intensive study and development and that an unspecialized fire-ranger staff 

 is, in its own sphere, just as pitiable an object when compared to a highly specialized 

 staff as is an untrained ill-equipped army when compared to our modern troops. 



As is well known, the extent and perfection of control maintained in modern 

 military operations is largely the result on the one hand of the perfection of functional 

 control secured through the General Staff and on the other of two elements of 

 mechanical eouipment, the gasolene engine as applied to transportation, and the tele- 

 phone and telegraph as employed in intercommunication. It is one of the aims of 

 this manual to indicate how these same highly developed means of intercommunication 

 may be applied at small expense to the operation of directing forest protection forces. 



Section 5 Functions of a Forest Protection Force 



A careful analysis of the operations involved in the protection of forests from 

 fire reveals the fact that a fire-control force exercises four principal functions. These 

 may be called Prevention, Detection, Suppression, and Supervision. In an unspecial- 



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