R-USIT 



*. 3 - 



9-25-31 



ITatioiial Forests are closed to snoking during bad fire seasons. Sone arc 

 even closed to camping nhen the danger gets too great. 



naturally a lot depends on the weather. For tliat reason, Weather 

 Bureau and Forest Service experts axo v/orking togother in various places in 

 the attenpt to uake predictions of lightning sterns and inportont changes 

 in weather conditions noro reliable and nore uscfial. 



Fires are fought in nany ways, depending on the nature of the groamd 

 and the nature of the tj-ber and inflamable debris in which the fire spreads. 

 As a rulo a barrier or narrow "trench" must be dug or scraped so tliat a foot 

 or noro of ninoral soil is exposed. This fores a base fron which to start 

 backfires against the approacliing r.iain fire. Clearing away of tinbcr logs 

 and brash so that this narrow trench can be nade is often the biggest part 

 of the job. 



Machinery is being used in fire fighting nore and nore. Wlicre the 

 country is not too rou^i, ploYPj»like tools pulled by tractors arc very efficient 

 i :inald.ng the trench at a rapid rate. Such equipr.:ent is often able to crush 

 thj-ough undergrowth tliat would have to be cleared by liand if the trench were 

 to bo TiSde Irr hand. Where the co\mtry is too rougli for tractors, horses and 

 plows are being used with increasing success. IThon nen and aninals know 

 hov7 to do it, a single heavy horse and a light reversible plow will do the 

 v/ork of fifty nen in trcnch-naking on groimd so rough tl::at the average person 

 night say that a horse could not even stand up on it. 



Standing dead trees, or "snags", are anong the worst fire liazards of 

 the forest. They not only catch readily, but fom a pillar of fire fron 

 wliich flaning bran.ds Liay bo liurlcd by the wind and start ne;7 fires past the 

 fire lines. Tfhen. such trees are rotted and hollov;, they are veritable chim- 

 neys for sparks. So another job in fire protection is to cut down such 

 standing dead trees, so they will rot more quickly and be less of a menace 

 to the sound timber. 



In the southern forests, the old custom of woods burning still per- 

 sists T/ith nany people, the \isual res^alt is that fire set perliaps to bum 

 over a few acres of pasture spreads over extensive and valuable forest areas 

 and results in serious damage to timber, especially to yovmg forest growth 

 much of which may be destroyed. 



So the United States Forest Service, in protecting the national 

 forests, has not only to maintain an elaborate system of lookouts, and often 

 recroit a sr.oll army of fire- fighters, and manage the forests so as to de- 

 crease the danger of fire, but it has to educate the hunter, and the camper, 

 and the tourist, and the woods-burner. 



A:n:0-j1-:ca,I5i-TT ; our Wilds Man will be back in two weeks to tell us more 

 about the visits he makes v/ith the naturalists of Uncle 

 Sam, in the United States Bopartment of Agriculture. 



