A TYPICAL SCENE OF DESOLATION AS THE RESULT OE EOREST FIRES: MINNESOTA 



scious for a time, but finally one who 

 had received less injuries than the others 

 was able to crawl out of the tunnel after 

 the fire had passed over them and drag 

 himself into the town of Wallace to 

 notify the forest office of the situation. 

 This was about 3 o'clock in the morning. 

 A crew was immediately organized 

 and sent to the tunnel. All of the men 

 were saved with the exception of five, 

 who had been smothered before relief 

 came. Had not Pulaski known of the 

 location of the tunnel and handled the 

 situation with the skill and courage that 

 he did, his entire crew would have per- 

 ished. 



ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS 



DESTROYED EVERY YEAR TA' 



FOREST FIRES 



During the same year there were many 

 fires throughout other parts of the West, 

 including California, Oregon, and Wash- 

 ington. These occurred both on private 

 lands and on the public forests. 



On the national forests alone there 

 were over 5,000 fires. Most of these 

 were extinguished by the organized 

 force of rangers, the chief damage being 

 done by a few fires which could not be 



controlled on account of lack of trails, 

 telephone lines, and other improvements. 

 The damage to the public forests alone 

 amounted to over 14 million dollars in 

 the destruction of timber, besides exten- 

 sive damage to young growth. 



If there had been no organized force 

 of men to fight the fires, practically the 

 entire forests in many regions would 

 h.ave been destroyed. It is certain that 

 the damage would have reached 100 

 million dollars and perhaps twice that 

 amount. 



But the great loss by forest fires is not 

 by any means confined to these great 

 conflagrations. The scattered smaller 

 fires destroy also a large amount of mer- 

 chantable timber, but the very greatest 

 damage, often overlooked, is in the kill- 

 ing of the immature and small trees and 

 the prevention of new growth. 



The indirect injury by forest fires is 

 also enormous. The fire risk removes 

 incentive to the practice of forestry by 

 private owners. The rapid destruction 

 of the forest by fires results in the short 

 life of many industries, a reduction in 

 land values,' and after a time the actual 

 depopulation of forest regions. Still 

 another serious result of forest fires in 



