Forest Fires in the Intermountain Region. Tt 
tain that one rush of water would come down in the spring and that 
the streams would dwindle away to nothing in the summer, except 
when some heavy summer storm caused another rush of water and 
a local flood. It is also clear that the water would carry with it 
tremendous amounts of loose earth, rocks, and sediment of all kinds. 
Under these circumstances, the usefulness of reservoirs would be 1m- 
paired, the cost of maintaining canals and ditches would be excessive, 
and the amount of usable water would be greatly reduced. Probably 
half of the wonderful agricultural values of this region that have 
been built up through irrigation would disappear. If the amount 
representing this loss be divided by the number of acres from which 
irrigation water is secured in this district, it is found that the value 
of a well-protected watershed amounts to something like $8 an 
acre. During the last 14 years 602,000 acres have been burned over 
whose value for watershed protection at this rate would be nearly 
$5,000,000. 
It is not often that all of this value is lost permanently, however, 
for nature always “stages a comeback” and tries to restore a cover 
of vegetation to the denuded hillsides. But, although in 5, 10, or 20 
years, depending upon the location of the burn, the new cover may 
afford a degree of protection to the watersheds, the full protection 
of a mature forest 1s not regained for many years. Through south- 
ern Idaho and central Utah, where the forests are least thrifty and 
the climate is driest, the process of reforestation is slow indeed. 
The greatest losses occur, therefore, in the region where they can be 
afforded least. 
There is still another form of loss, and although its value is very 
hard to reckon in money, it is perhaps the one most keenly felt by 
most of the public. This is the loss of recreational values. The 
forests are loved for their own sakes, for the beautiful scenery con- 
tained in them, and there is a very keen sense of disappointment and 
loss when these playgrounds are found burned, blackened, and de- 
stroyed. The camper who has once spent a happy vacation in some 
tree-filled hollow feels a sense of personal loss when he comes again 
upon the place and finds only a few blackened snags and a dirty 
mud-filled stream. This loss outweighs in his mind the loss of 
timber, watershed protection, and everything else. It is hard to 
say what this recreational use of the forest is worth in money, but 
the value is very real. ; 
Fires destroy hunting of all kinds. Wild animals find their 
forage destroyed and their hiding places left open. The game 
birds can find no food and no hidden places in which to nest and 
rear their young. The naked soil is washed into the streams after 
the first rain and carries with it lye from the leached ashes, which 
kills the fish and renders the streams unsuitable for their propaga- 
tion for many years. In this way fires at the headwaters of the 
Salmon River, where the salmon spawn, are capable of exercising a 
very real influence upon the salmon industry of the Pacific coast. 
The average fisherman, however, who goes out into the woods to 
fish, feels more keenly his personal loss. He would willingly go 
without canned salmon forever if he could find a well-stocked 
stream flowing through an attractive country in which to camp. 
