NORTHERN IDAHO FOREST RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES 



The Fire Problem 



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public and private, began to be made available for fire 

 protection. In each of the years 1926, 1929, 1931, and 1934, 

 burning conditions again reached the critical point, and 

 large areas of timber were consumed by fire (fig. 30). 

 Constant improvement in the fire-protection facilities and 

 organization was, however, reflected in losses very much 

 smaller than in either 1919 or 1910. For example, 1931 is 

 ranked by some authorities as potentially as bad as 1910, 

 yet the acreage loss within the boundaries of the national 

 forests was 92,000 acres as compared with 1,590,000 acres. 



FLAMES have eaten a tattered pattern across the 

 map of northern Idaho. Signs in the timber bear 

 evidence ot the extensive fires in times beyond the 

 memory of living man. For the shorter period since the 

 advent of early settlers and prospectors, the records cover 

 thousands of small fires, many large ones, and a few all- 

 consuming conflagrations. It is known that during the 

 past half century tar more forest land has been burned 

 than has been logged. 



To picture the fire situation, one should think of the 

 losses occurring not regularly year after year, but in waves. 

 Comparatively small fire losses tor a number of years have 

 usually been followed at unpredictable intervals by peak 

 burning conditions and a tury ot fire that leaps to disastrous 

 proportions. This state ot affairs tests the mettle and 

 nerves of the fire-control organizations and makes fire risk 

 a discouraging item in the forest management of northern 

 Idaho. 



In the 30-year period, 1910-39, six years have been com- 

 monly considered as critical, in which the losses have been 

 catastrophic. Probably the most tamous as well as the 

 most disastrous burns were those of 1910, collectively 

 known as the "1910 fire" (fig. 29). Killing" 77 men and 

 casting a smoke pall into the Middle West, these fires 

 covered an estimated 1.9 million acres in northern Idaho, 

 and destroyed 6 billion board teet of saw timber. It must 

 be recognized that the damage estimates ot that time were 

 crude and possibly high. Yet the devastation of nearly 

 one-fifth of the forest area in a single year is so many times 

 greater than the forests can stand and still support a 

 forest industry, that no possibility of overstatement can 

 minimize the seriousness ot the threat to the industry at 

 that time. 



A similarly critical combination of physical factors 

 occurred in 1919, and approximately 1 million acres burned 

 over within the national forests alone.' With the 1910 

 holocaust still lingering in public memory, interest and 

 opinion then reached the point where greater tunds, both 



^ Because some of the national forests lie in more than one State, 

 the estimates of area burned and protection costs for the national forests 

 cannot, in all instances, be broken down exactly along State lines. The 

 fire drain estimates given later, however, apply to all the national-forest 

 area in northern Idaho and no more. 



Figure 29. — The great devastation in 1910 was the result of extremely 

 severe weather conditions plus an inadequate protection system. 



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