2IO 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



fire season each member receives a circular letter from the district 

 ranger telling him the names, addresses and officers of his company 

 and the boundary of its fire division, the number of pack horses and 

 saddle horses available at each ranch, the duties of each member on 

 report of a fire, the rates of pay for labor, horses and teams, the loca- 

 tion of tool and grub caches, a brief resume of the district fire plan 

 and a statement of the objects of the organization and the bearing of 

 fire protection on local interests. As the men selected are all small 

 local ranchers and are all connected on farmer phone lines, these 

 organizations have worked almost automatically. Although twenty or 

 more fires have occurred in the area covered by these volunteer com- 

 panies, we have never had an opportunity to see how they work in a 

 bad fire because they have never let one get bad. 



"In sparsely settled locahties, highly-organized volunteer help is out 

 of the question, of course. We are meeting such conditions with what 

 we call the stationary patrol. During the peak of the fire season as 

 large a number of short-term forest guards are employed as can be 

 squeezed out of the forest allotment. These are stationed at centers of 

 accessibility throughout the ranger district and in every case at a 

 phone. They are given strict orders not to get out of ear-shot of the 

 phone bell and never to leave their stations except under orders from 

 the district ranger. Each station is fully equipped with tools and kept 

 provisioned for two weeks ahead. The entire district is commanded 

 by lookouts, who are in communication with the district ranger. 



"A lookout locates a fire. He reports it to the district ranger, giving 

 its size, exact whereabouts and the speed with which it is spreading. 

 The district ranger telephones one or generally two of the nearest 

 guards, who start immediately with two days' grub on their saddles. 

 The ranger then organizes a crew and a commissary to follow the 

 guards and holds them until the lookout, who is watching the progress 

 of the fire, advises him to forward the reserves. In a remarkably large 

 number of instances the first detachment controlled the fire. In one 

 instance where it did not, the excellent team work on the part of 

 lookout, ranger, guards and a hastily drafted volunteer crew put 

 twenty-five men on a fire line far back in an inaccessible gulch six hours 

 and a half after the first smoke raised, or at midnight. The fire was 

 under control by daylight, and when the men had eaten breakfast they 

 finished the last of the supplies that went out with the crew. The 

 pack train, with a reserve of grub, sent out by the ranger immediately 

 after the men had started, arrived before dinner." — American Forestry. 



Work There must be better protection against forest fires, a more 

 FOR 1914 vigorous campaign against tree-destroying insects and dis- 

 ease; far-reaching educational work, including teaching 

 school children the value of forests, and proper forest laws must be 

 passed in several States where there is now no adequate protection. — 

 American Forestry Association. 



