160 FOREST OUTINGS 



the fire had swept across the river and the cedar grove camp was in ashes. 



The trees themselves, their cool shade, their beauty, and the carpet of 

 woodland plants on the ground, and the bird and animal life — all destroyed, 

 and all in a few hours. Nothing remained save smoldering desolation — the 

 skeletons of trees standing dead, a tangle of down logs, and the hot sun 

 beating through to the blackened ground of an open burn. And dust, carbon 

 dust, billions upon billions of minute floating carbon particles; this is all 

 that remained of living trees, of vital forest cover. Products that might have 

 kept unborn generations alive and at ease — dust in the air now, to be dead 

 for centuries. 



It is hard to put into words the premonitions that dampen the everyday 

 working spirit, or the zest in seizing a carefree day in the open, when a forest 

 fire gets going, creeping or leaping, anywhere within 10 miles or so. A sort 

 of stoic panic grips all the people there, working and playing. It disrupts all 

 planned and purposed work and disrupts outings. The fire may be so far 

 away that no smoke is smelled or seen, but the telephone lines between the 

 fire towers buzz: the forest staff is tense, strained; the air is charged with 

 a sense of insecurity. Small animals and greater forms of forest wildlife 

 begin to cross the trails and roads leeward. Whether they see such signs of 

 the fire or not (generally forest visitors do not), a like impulse unsettles the 

 holiday spirit of forest visitors. 



In a bad fire season a pall of smoke settles over the whole country. In 

 such a season the mountains may not be visible for weeks. All distant views 

 are cut off; the major pleasure of being in the mountains is destroyed. The 

 mere report of large fires burning is sufficient to curtail greatly the recrea- 

 tional travel into the threatened country and often wisely so, for large fires 

 bring real danger. Through the course of the years many hundreds of people 

 have suffered terrible death in forests aflame. Campers or travelers do well 

 to keep out of the woods when large forest fires are burning. 



The fire season, or the driest time of the year, comes at different months 

 on different forests. In Montana, the greatest danger is in midsummer, 

 when cover is tinderlike and lightning strikes most often. In Florida, the 

 dry time is usually from February to April, before spring rains have greened 

 the scrub oaks and the brush and forest ground cover. Foresters have a 



