million trees per year, produce young trees for planting in the various 

 national forest regions. 



The reforestation program of the Forest Service provided for the planting 

 of about 100,000 acres annually, but provisions for materially increasing 

 this acreage are needed, since some 2,500,000 acres of national forest land 

 are still in need of planting — a valuable reservoir of work for periods of wide 

 unemployment. 



Many of our western ranges have been so depleted by past overgrazing 

 that only reseeding to desirable forage species can restore the soil, watershed, 

 and forage values. The Forest Service has reseeded over 100,000 acres of 

 national forest range land. Much more needs to be done. The job is 

 being accomplished as fast as funds become available. 



FIRE PREVENTION AND CONTROL 



Fire is an ever-present danger on the national forests. The vast size of 

 the forests in relation to the size of the protective forces, the difficulty of 



Figure 9. — Determining: the location of a forest fire. 



reaching remote areas across miles of wilderness, the prevalence of dry winds 

 and light rainfall in parts of the West, the frequency of lightning storms in 

 the mountains, and the constant use of fire by people visiting, dwelling, or 

 working in the forests, combine to make fire a tremendous hazard. The 

 Forest Service has to fight and extinguish more than 10,000 fires within 

 national forest boundaries each year. Among the chief causes of fire are 

 lightning, incendiarism, careless smokers and campers, debris burning, lum- 

 bering operations, and railroads. More than half the fires are man-caused. 

 All fires are small when they start, but even a small fire may spread into 

 a conflagration. Care with fire, matches, and burning tobacco is the first 

 rule observed by good woodsmen. Fires may start in a remote locality and 

 reach vast proportions before a crew of fire fighters can get to the scene. 

 Under particularly dry weather conditions, the forests may be said to be 

 almost explosively inflammable. Because of this, the Forest Service lays 

 tremendous stress upon forest-fire prevention. 



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