24 MISCELLANEOUS CIRCULAR 94, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



the total of Federal funds expended to date on this work is in excess 

 of $7,800,000. 



The Bureau of Public Roads, in cooperation with the Forest Serv- 

 ice and the State highway commission, locates and constructs the 

 more important road projects. In the building of the cheaper roads 

 and in trail work the Forest Service utilizes its field organization of 

 supervisors, rangers, and other officers and correlates this work with 

 its fire-control activities by placing construction crews where they 

 will be available for fire suppression during danger periods. 



FOREST FIRES 



There are only two main causes of fires in the forest — lightning 

 and the human race. 



THE CALL OF THE OPEN ROAD 



PHOTO BY C. M. HILLER 



Nearly $1,250,000 is expended each year by the Forest Service on roads and trails in the 

 national forests of California, and the total of funds expended to date on such work is 

 in excess of $7,000,000 



The record of the past has been read in the fire and lightning scars 

 found in the annual rings of the trees themselves. In California the 

 giant Sequoias show that fires occurred as long ago as the year 245 

 A. D., and there is plain proof that since 1685 fires have swept the 

 pine forests periodically. 



There is a tradition that the Indians in past centuries burned 

 the forest more or less regularly for protection and the easier hunting 

 of game. For this they are praised with an ulterior motive as the 

 first foresters. The records of early explorers and the testimony of 

 the oldest miners, however, contradict this tradition and indicate 

 that extensive man-caused fires began in California after the advent 

 of the settlers. The early reports of forest fires by Hough and the 

 California State Board of Forestry make it clear that fires caused 



