74° 



The National Geographic Magazine 



$30,000. This means protecting approx- 

 imately i6S,ooo,ooo acres. The value of 

 the timber destroyed will not be known 

 until the fire reports are made at the end 

 of the year, though it is estimated that it 

 will be larger than last year. But it will 

 be insignificant when compared with the 

 appalling fire losses outside of the na- 

 tional forests, on unprotected areas, or 

 with the destruction which would have 

 come to the timbep in the national forests 

 had they not been protected. 



These results have come through the 

 increased efficiency of fire patrol and 

 methods of fighting fire and through the 

 cooperation of settlers and users of for- 

 ests who understand that the forests are 

 their property and that a loss from fire 

 is a personal one. 



After timber is cut the regulations re- 

 quire brush to be compactly piled at a 

 safe distance from living trees. Some- 

 times this brush is burned under direc- 

 tion of a forest officer ; but even if it is 

 allowed to stand, no fire that starts finds 

 fuel by which it can spread. 



In order to provide rapid means of 

 travel between the various parts of the 

 national forests and to facilitate the 

 massing of large forces of men to fight 

 fire, as well as to furnish vantage points 

 from which the fires may be fought suc- 

 cessfully, 160 miles of road and 3,300 

 miles of trail were built during the last 

 fiscal year. In several cases fire-breaks 



from 16 to 100 feet in width have been 

 constructed, from which all timber and 

 inflammable material is removed, to fur- 

 nish obstacles to the spread of fire, or 

 straight lines of defense in fighting the 

 fire once started. Several miles of such 

 fire-breaks now exist on the national for- 

 ests in southern California, where it is 

 especially important that the forest cover 

 on the watersheds of important irrigation 

 streams be protected. 



Just as rapidly as possible each national 

 forest is supplied with shovels, axes, and 

 other tools, which are distributed over 

 the forests, and cabins and tool-boxes are 

 placed at points where there is the great- 

 est danger of fire and where they can be 

 easily reached by trail. Field glasses are 

 also furnished, since their use in discov- 

 ering small fires at a considerable dis- 

 tance has proved very helpful. 



Upon the basis of the Forest Service 

 experience on the national forests, on 

 which the total administration per acre, 

 including fire patrol, amounts to only one 

 cent, the whole forest area of the United 

 States could be protected from fire at a 

 total cost of less than $3,000,000. This 

 would save an annual loss of $20,000,000 

 for timber alone, to say nothing of the 

 enormous loss of life, the loss to new tree 

 growth, the loss of soil fertility, the dam- 

 age to river courses and adjacent farm 

 country, and the depreciation in forest 

 wealth and land values. 



