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SAM' S MTUIlALIST.S .,-tp>fflt *{ Agn#M^£y. Octoter 11, 192S 



Spealcing Time: 10 Miii- ut-e-s.. 



MITOUjTCEI.'iBNT ! Every other week at this time our Wilds Man tells us alDout 

 his visits with Uncle Sam's naturalists. This week, however, he went to 

 the forest Service to see just what the Forest Service does to protect our 

 forests from fire, and how it does it, Well 



If there is anything likely to make a lover of the wilds wild, it is 

 a forest fire, I guess you have all "been reading about these "big fires 

 we've been having, A month ago, it had already cost the government way over 

 two million dollars to fight the fires in our western forests. The fires 

 had already burned over 650,000 acres of timber land. A lot more has been 

 burned since, and now we are in the fire season in the Eastern forests. 



Why just in one district in northern Idaho and northern Montana, 

 there were 2700 men fighting forest fires at one time. At the same time, 

 there were hundreds of others fighting fir?s in other districts, Tliis 

 thing of fighting a forest fire is a man-size job. 



During dry weather, when the litter on the floor of the forest 



gets dry, it is mighty easy to start a fire-r and mighty hard to keep 



it ■'onder control. In the West, when there is drought and high winds, the 

 forest may soon get to be a hell-roaring furnace. Burning brands and 

 sparks flying through the air from the original fire may start new fires 

 in a half dozen other places. Sometimes, the fire-fighters themselves 

 are trapped between fires. 



In the East the fires are usually not so spectacular, but they 

 do a tremendous amount of damage just the same. The fires are generally 

 ground fires which feed on the dead leaves and burn through the young 

 trees, or scar the older ones so that rots and insects can get in to finish 

 the work. 



But the loss is not as big as it might be. About 70 per cent of 

 our forests now have organized protection against forest fires, Mr. C. E. 

 Randall, the information man of the U. S. Eorest Service, tells me. Of 

 course, they ha;Ve fires where there is organized protection. But the 

 damage done by forest fires on the protected area is less than one-eighth 

 the daraage done on the 30 per cent yet to be protected. That shows it 

 pays to protect, 



Tlie first thing in protection is to have an organized system of 

 detecting the fires, For that reason, on the National Forests the Forest 

 Service has lookout stations located on high ground to spot fires. The 

 idea is to locate the fire as soon as possible after it starts, and get men 

 to it to put it out before it does much damage. 



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