Forests Need Better Protection 
eae 
One important aim of the forestry job ahead 
should be to stop unnecessary forest destruction. 
As pointed out earlier, this depends in part on 
better cutting practices, and on more intelligent 
use of forests. But it also means waging an all- 
out war against major enemies—fire, insects, and 
disease. 
These destroyers are a threat to all forest values. 
In varying degree they affect timber, water, forage, 
wildlife, and recreation, even the soil itself. Fire, 
for example, can wipe out timber growth, the 
accumulation of years, in a matter of minutes. 
And, in other less tangible ways, it can impair 
the forest—its beauty, usefulness, and capacity to 
perpetuate itself. 
Every day, on the average, 475 fires sear the 
forests of the United States. They burn 25 million 
acres yearly, an area as large as the State of Vir- 
ginia. They destroy small trees—tomorrow’s tim- 
ber—by the billions. Annually they send up in 
smoke over 850 million board feet of badly needed 
timber, enough to build 86,000 five-room homes. 
The direct monetary loss sustained in 1946 was 
conservatively estimated at more than 32.5 million 
dollars. ‘This does not include the enormous in- 
tangible and indirect damages to forests. What- 
ever the true losses, they represent an intolerable 
threat to forest abundance. 
Even more destructive of timber is the host of 
imsect pests and diseases that make unrelenting 
attacks on forests. “Ihe wood they destroy amounts 
to a huge drain: for the decade 1934—43, the esti- 
mated average yearly loss was 622 million cubic 
feet. [his compares with about 460 million cubic 
feet destroyed by fire. Yet it measures only the 
more obvious destruction occurring for the most 
part in major epidemics.*° 
“Of great economic importance, though not included in 
the forest insect and disease losses mentioned, is the decay 
in wood products to which both insects and disease con- 
tribute. Financially, such losses doubtless far exceed those 
in standing timber. 
Much is being done to curb fire losses. Indeed, 
a great deal of the emphasis and effort in American 
forestry has centered on protection against fire. 
But control of forest insects and diseases has made 
far less headway. 
The forest protection job is chiefly a public re- 
sponsibility. Fire, insects, and disease respect no 
boundaries. They attack forests on a wide front. 
Organized, collective action is required to suppress 
them, and experience has shown that this is best 
provided through public auspices. The problem 
is analogous to fire-fighting services and other 
public safety measures required in cities. 
Protection of the National Forests From Fire 
Organized forest-fire control began with the 
establishment of the national forests in 1905. Fol- 
lowing the great fires of 1910 which dramatized 
the need for better protection, the national forests 
have been gradually opened up with roads, trails, 
and telephone systems. An efficient detection and 
fire-fighting organization has been established. 
Equipment and facilities have been developed. 
And over the years, the policy of top-notch fire 
protection has won increasing public support. 
Meanwhile, the fire-control job has expanded, 
chiefly because of the establishment of many new 
forest units in the eastern and southern States. 
The acreage protected, which had been close to 
165 million acres between 1916 and 1930, has been 
around 184 million acres since 1941.91 Expendi- 
tures for protection other than fire fighting, which - 
did not reach 2.5 million dollars before the estab- 
lishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps, were 
more than 6.5 million dollars, or about 3.6 cents 
per acre protected, from 1943 to 1945. 
The new national forests have added much to 
the fire-protection work load. Some are poorly 
consolidated. Many are in regions where woods 
“This includes intermingled or adjacent lands in other 
ownership which receive protection. 
78 Miscellaneous Publication 668, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
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