Fire-Fighting Equipment 



Airplanes are now extensively used in scouting and patrolling large fires, 

 and in detecting them during periods of low visibility. Planes are also em- 

 ployed for the rapid transport of forest officers and fire fighters. The 

 Forest Service sometimes operates its own planes, but usually they are 

 chartered from commercial companies. 



Men and supplies are dropped by parachute for prompt attack on fires 

 in remote and inaccessible areas. This is now a regular part of the protec- 

 tion program in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rocky Mountain 

 regions and will be extended to other areas as rapidly as funds and trained 

 "smokejumpers" become available. Where the fire hazards are great and 

 communication difficult, portable short-wave radio sets, specially designed 

 by the Forest Service, are used. Radio provides communication with field 

 crews not within telephone reach, and enables the fire chief to keep a close 

 watch on the progress of the fire and make the most intelligent use of man- 

 power and equipment. 



Weather Bureau observations are made regularly at many Forest Service 

 stations. Forecasts of fire weather are sent at regular intervals to forest 

 officers, and when critical conditions are indicated, special preparations to 

 meet them are made. Weather Bureau trucks, equipped with radio and 

 meteorological instruments, are dispatched to the major fires, where special- 

 ists collect information for local interpretation and communication to the 

 forest officer directing the fire fighting. 



Other significant developments in fire prevention and control are: Train- 

 ing of forest personnel and recruits for the fire-control organization ; techni- 

 cal research in fire-control plans, standards, and instruments ; improvement 

 of fire-fighting tools and mechanical equipment; and the Nation-wide fire 

 prevention campaign conducted each year in cooperation with State forest- 

 ers, civic and conservation associations, women's and youths' organizations, 

 and many other groups, business enterprises, and individuals. 



FOREST-INSECT AND TREE-DISEASE CONTROL 



Aggregate losses from insect damage in the forests of the United States 

 are enormous. The principal pests are bark beetles and defoliating insects. 

 Among the former are the western pine beetle, the mountain pine beetle, 

 the Black Hills beetle, the Engelmann spruce beetle, the southern pine 

 beetle, and the eastern spruce beetle. The gypsy moth, spruce budworm, 

 and larch sawfly are serious defoliating insects. Beetle outbreaks frequently 

 follow forest fires when, because of damage by burning, the trees have low 

 resistance. 



Where insect attacks reach epidemic proportions on the national forests, 

 control measures are undertaken by the Forest Service in cooperation with 

 the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine of the Department of 

 Agriculture. Experimental work in insect control is also carried on in 

 cooperation with this bureau. 



Tremendous losses of timber and young growth are caused by tree 

 diseases, some of the most destructive of which have been brought into the 

 United States on foreign-grown planting stock. Efforts are now being 

 made to combat those already imported and to prevent, by quarantine, the 

 importation of new blights. 



One of the most destructive and widespread of tree diseases is the white 

 pine blister rust, of foreign origin, first discovered in New York State in 

 1 906. This fungus attacks eight species of white pine in the United States, 



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