V2I/33 



Along with the fire brfeaksj We haVe to have trails for men and horses, and 

 also trucli trails, to get men and fire-fighting supplies to the scene of a fire. 

 We already have a great many such roads and trails. Bat we still have thousands 

 and thousands of acres of almost unhroken wilderness. Tlfhen fire "breaks out in 

 one of those sections, the fire-fighting crews may s'oend hours and hours — or 

 even several days — pushing through hrush, and over rocks and ridges. In that 

 time, the fire burns over miles and miles of forest land. 



Then of course, v/e now use 'planes in the forest for special scout duty 

 after heavy thunderstorms and at times when the ground lookouts are unable to see 

 any great distance because of smoke or fog. We also use 'planes to check on the 

 direction and rate of spread of big fires — and to get special officers, and 

 provisions, and fire-fighting equipment to out-of-the-way places. So, we have to 

 clear out places in the woods as emergency landing fields. 



Another important link in our forest-fire-fighting system is the network 

 of look-out towers. Prom those look-out towers, the look-outs keep a steady 

 watch during the fire season for the first tell-tale signs of smoke. 



We already have hundreds of those look-out towers scattered over the 

 national forests. But we still have hundreds of "blind spots" in the woods — places 

 out of sight of any of the look-outs, A fire might burn in one of those places 

 for hours and hours before anybody discovered it. The foresters have those 

 "blind spots" mapped and places picked to build additional look-out stations. 

 In flat country and in high plateau country — especially in the East — they 

 usually pat up high metal towers that look much like the old-fashioned windmill 

 with a little cabin, or observation tower, on the top. But in the Western forests 

 where you find chains of mountain peaks sticking high in the air, th'e towers 

 aren't necessary; the standard loo2::-out station in the West is a small one-story 

 cabin, topped with a little glass-inclosed observation room, 



Then, of course, to tie together the look-out towers, and other links 

 in the fire-fighting system, we have thousands of miles of telephone lines. 

 But we still need many more miles of lines to complete the system. 



I've told you briefly of the plans to protect our v/oods from fire. 



But fire isn't the only enemy of our forests. We also have a big fight 

 to protect our forests from insects and disease. 



The forestry men tell me one of the worst of the insect pests is the 

 western pine bark beetle. In years when the beetles are especially bad, 

 pines in parts of Idaho, and Montana, and 7/yoming, and other Western regions 

 die off by the hundreds as though a big fire had swept through the forest. 



Wlien the beetles break loose in epidemic form, the foresters send out 

 crews to spot the beetle-infested trees. The crews may cut the trees and strip 

 off the bee tie- infested bark or cut the trees and expose the bark to the rays 

 of the sun, or submerge the infested logs in water. Sometimes they go after 

 the beetles with a spray of fuel oil, spraying the tree and then setting fire 

 to the oil to cook the beetles inside. No matter what method of attack the 

 foresters decide on, they have to have big crews of men to do the work. 



