366 REPORT OF THE FORESTRY COMMITTEE 



offered by the Federal Government to States actually engaged in forest protec- 

 tion, has had a beneficial influence far out of proportion to the amount of money 

 expended. 



Part 1. 

 mTRODUCTION 



THE past ten years have seen no phase of forest work so actively taken up 

 as forest fire prevention. 

 Logically this should be the case, for little would be gained by care- 

 ful cutting, or the planting of forest crops, if, while this was going on, fires were 

 allowed to burn and ravage our present supply of timber. Started but a few 

 years back by States and private owners in a haphazard, incompetent manner, 

 and by the Federal Government with an insufficient and often incompetent force, 

 having little hope of successfully combating a supposedly unconquerable element, 

 we have now arrived at a point where practical elimination of fire seems physically 

 and economically possible. This statement can be truthfully made, even though 

 existing methods of protection are incomplete and additional fire hazards are 

 created as new forested sections are opened up. 



In every State where competent patrols are maintained ten men are now 

 employed where there was one five years ago, and yet in few places is the needed 

 and economically feasible force available. Those important adjuncts to protec- 

 tion — trails and telephone lines — are seldom present in privately owned areas to 

 the extent desirable, though each year brings us nearer to perfection. 



Nor have we the required system of tool stations and supply depots, but 

 here, too, progress towards an ideal, which each fire association or other pro- 

 tective agency has in mind, is being made. The various agencies have, in other 

 words, gone far enough to know with reasonable certainty what is needed to give 

 the maximum of protection, and to know that this being given the possibility of 

 disastrous fires can be reduced to a very small percentage. 



Although pioneered by the Federal Government, private owners in some 

 sections are now spending considerable more money per acre to prevent fire than 

 the Government. In the main, however, and taking into account the number of 

 States in which work is being done, the Forest Service leads other agencies in 

 fire protection. 



The sub-committee on forest fires has collected considerable data regarding 

 fire preventive measures in various States, but to procure complete and accurate 

 information of this kind is a large task, requiring more time than the committee- 

 men could spare during a busy season. However, we. are presenting here such 

 information as has been compiled, in the hope that more detailed data can be 

 collected during the coming year. It will also be our aim to present in this report 

 certain essentials to fire protection systems, in the hope that these may be of use 

 to States which are backward in the movement, realizing while doing this that 

 local conditions require local remedies and that no hard-and-fast rules for drafting 

 legislation or perfecting organizations can be slavishly followed. 



