142 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



FORESTRY NOTES. 



How THE Forest Service The work that has received the most 

 Is Preparing for the attention for the last few months, 

 Fire Season.* from the District Forester to the re- 



motest ranger, is the perfecting and 

 tightening-up of the fire protective organization. Immediately- 

 after the close of the danger season last fall the supervisors, 

 under the general direction of the district officers, began working 

 up concrete detailed fire-protection plans for their forests. These 

 working plans go considerably farther into the subject than has 

 been done hitherto. A detailed study is made of all the factors 

 which make up the fire danger on each ranger district, the ranger 

 assisting in the study. When these are inventoried, preventive 

 and protective measures are devised for each class of danger 

 area. Thus for a logging slash or a government timber sale, fire 

 lines may be indicated; for a popular camping-ground, patrol on 

 the main routes of travel and cleaned-up camp-grounds; for a 

 remote, uninhabited region subject to lightning fires, a lookout 

 connected by telephone and caches of tools and supplies, and so on. 



While these plans are more or less ideal and work out the 

 organization of the protective force farther than it is possible to 

 go at present, they furnish just the guide that is needed to insure 

 the most effective use of the men and money available for pro- 

 tection work. The money allotments to the national forests 

 have been apportioned with the fire risk of each in view, and it 

 is thought that this study has resulted in meeting much more 

 closely the relative needs of the forests in the State. 



The short-term patrol men are now on their stations. Between 

 May 1st and June ist the national forest forces have been aug- 

 mented by the assignment of fifty-six additional forest guards, 

 as the total field force now on duty in the district is 459 men. 



During the winter some of the older rangers tried their hands 

 at designing a fire-fighting tool that could be easily carried on 

 patrol. An effective tool must combine a shovel, a hoe and an 

 ax ; so the task is no easy one. One model of a take-down tool of 

 this description was submitted and a sample made. This will be 

 tried out in the field and if it works well, it may be adopted as 

 the regulation equipment of Uncle Sam's fire patrolman. 



The rangers themselves have a very keen sense of their re- 

 sponsibilities in the matter of fire protection. At various ranger 



*Information furnished by the U. S. Forest Service, District 5. 



