Forest Fire Control in the South 
Fire has always been an important force shaping southern 
forests. The use of fire by Indians to clear land and 1m- 
prove hunting contributed to maintaining the pine forests 
found by early European explorers. In natural succession 
without fire, various tree species compete with pines in a 
process that yields first mixed pine—hardwood and, in time, 
hardwood forests. 
Woods-Burning vs. Fire Protection 
Colonial settlers and their descendants adopted the Indian use 
of fire and expanded the practice for such purposes as im- 
provement of grazing and control of pests. Use of fire grew 
into a deep-seated part of the southern rural culture, and 
early efforts at fire-prevention education and legislation faced 
strong opposition, particularly from users of the forest 
range. Arson was also common over much of the South. 
Lack of funding was the major handicap to early efforts by 
State and Federal agencies to change the woods-burning hab- 
its of southerners. Although the Weeks law offered match- 
ing financing for fire protection, the amount of Federal fire 
control spending came to only a few thousand dollars in 
1920. Passage of the Clarke-—McNary Act of 1924 gave a 
needed boost, and Federal cooperative funding for control 
of wildfire in the South grew to about $5 million (1982 
dollars) in 1930. State funding had increased more rapidly, 
to nearly $10 million (fig. 2.4 and app. table 2.10). Re- 
sults accrued quickly as the annual number of acres burned 
dropped below the low of a decade earlier. Federal fire- 
control spending continued to grow rapidly, to nearly $18 
million during the 1960’s, but thereafter dropped sharply 
in the early 1980’s, to only $3.6 million in 1983. 
State expenditures in the South rose from about $9.7 mil- 
lion (1982 dollars) in 1930 to over $90 million in the early 
1980's. 
The increases in funding for forest fire protection enabled 
fire protection organizations to steadily increase the area of 
State and private land given protection from wildfire. Areas 
protected rose from 70 million acres in 1930 to more than 
233 million acres in the 1980’s (app. table 2.10). 
These increases in funding and areas protected over the past 
half century resulted in a great reduction in acreage burned 
by wildfires. After 1930, acreage of timberland burned 
dropped from more than 2 million per year to as low as 
279,000 acres in 1983 (fig. 2.4 and app. table 2.10). The 
reduction in area burned through more effective fire protec- 
tion was the most important single factor in obtaining natu- 
ral regeneration in the South’s second and third forests. 
Much of the success in meeting the problem of wildfire 
must be attributed to both Federal and State forestry agen- 
cies and forestry associations in their crusades to persuade 
rural people to stop woods-burning. In 1916, for example, 
various conservation groups in the South, together with the 
American Forestry Association and the Society of Ameri- 
can Foresters, organized a Southern Forest Congress to work 
for the protection of southern forests—the first of a series 
of similar congresses that were held through 1930. These 
were later replaced in a sense by the founding in 1920 of 
the Association of State Foresters, which continued to work 
to advance forestry programs throughout the South. in the 
1950’s, a conference, also sponsored by the American For- 
estry Association and dealing mainly with fire legislation 
and law enforcement, helped bring about legislative and 
court action to curb fire-setting by arsonists. The Ameri- 
can Forestry Association and various other associations and 
conservation groups have continued to play a significant 
role in fire prevention through publications, meetings, 
conferences, and reports on the forest situation and policy 
alternatives. 
