60, and exceeded 75 in 1936 and 1940. Although 
the fact is partly masked by the growing size of 
the job itself, fire control on national forests has 
become much more effective. The downward 
trend in acreage burned shows this (fig. 22). The 
average size’ of all fires 1937-46 was held below 
25 acres, whereas for the decade 1921-30 it was 94 
acres and for 1911-20, 174 acres. 
Between 1933 and 1945 the Civilian Conserva- 
tion Corps made available, for the first time, ample 
manpower and facilities for fire control. Termi- 
nation of the CCC in 1941 left a gap which sub- 
stantial military assistance and increased appro- 
priations during the war did not wholly overcome. 
It will be difficult to maintain the good record 
of the past 13 years. Equipment, badly depreci- 
ated during the war, is still below par. Costs have 
outrun appropriations. And rebuilding an ade- 
quate fire-control organization poses many prob- 
lems. Partly offsetting the less favorable factors, 
however, are technological advances such as planes, 
parachutes, and other facilities which enable men 
to get quickly into remote mountain country and 
hit fires while they are small. 
But how adequate is national-forest fire protec- 
tion? Roughly indicative is the ratio of the aver- 
age annual burn to protected area for a recent 
5-year period (table 25). Of 184 million acres 
protected, an average of 317 thousand acres burned 
annually—a little over 0.17 percent. This is 29 
percent more than in the prewar period, 1937-41, 
when abundant CCC assistance was at hand. 
TABLE 25.—Average annual burn on national 
forests, 1941-45, by major sections 
Acreage 
Section under Acreage burned annually 
protection 
Thousand Thousand 
acres acres Percent 
North): <2 eet 19,252 33 17 
South Svea 17,717 146 82 
Westar ina on tesucel 146,978 138 09 
United States... 183,947 317 LT 
The area burned ranges from a negligible per- 
cent in New England to more than 1 percent in 
the South Atlantic and Southeast regions (fig. 23). 
Undoubtedly, an over-all average annual burn 
of 0.20 percent or less is a good showing. It 
should not appreciably reduce timber yield, pro- 
vided the damage is evenly distributed. However, 
New England___... 
Middle Atlantic___ 
Central. MMMM 
South atlontic... WY. 
southeast... V/A 
west cut. WY 
Pacific Northwest 4 
California_________ WYUUJtéc:M:;¢: 
No. Rocky Mtn._ 
So. Rocky Mtn.__ 
United States____| Wf Poe 
° 10” 1.2 
0.4 0.6 0.8 
PERCENT OF PROTECTED AREA 
FicurE 23.—Average annual burn on national forests by 
regions, 1941-45. 
a low national rate of burn often obscures high 
rates of regional and local damage. 
Even locally, a small average annual burn does 
not necessarily mean satisfactory fire protection. 
A large fire once in 25 years may not be tolerable 
even though the average burn remains small. And 
small fires may cause intolerable damage in critical 
high-value areas, such as the watershed lands ad- 
joining Los Angeles and other California cities. 
In such situations adequate protection means vir- 
tual exclusion of fire. 
Much the same applies to key timber-growing 
lands. Where recurring fires have converted much 
commercial forest to worthless chaparral—as in 
the California Sierras and the white pine type in 
northern Idaho—virtual elimination of fires may 
be required to conserve enough productive grow- ~ 
ing stock to sustain the local economy. 
These and other variables make it difficult to 
generalize as to adequacy of national-forest fire 
protection. However, nearly all the commercial 
acreage is receiving good protection which, in 
every region, compares favorably with the best of 
that attained on forest lands in other ownerships. 
On the debit side, there are many localities 
where a great deal of improvement is needed. 
80 Miscellaneous Publication 668, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
j 
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