324 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



the California Forest. This element, which set upwards of thirty 

 fires, invariably selected the hottest part of the day and the most 

 inflammable type of country. On Goat Mountain, a brushy hill in 

 the Sierra National Forest, the Shuteye Lookout Station spotted 

 a string of six fires set within fifteen minutes on a hot August after- 

 noon. In all, 212 incendiary fires occurred in the district. 



Summer travel in the mountains has vastly increased in the last 

 two years, because of road improvement and the greatly extended 

 use of the automobile for camping trips. The Supervisor of the 

 Stanislaus Forest reports that owing to increased travel the fire 

 risk in certain parts of his forest was fully ten times greater than 

 any previous year. 



DAMAGE DONE 



The total money damage done United States timber was very light, 

 comparatively and actually. It did not exceed $90,000. The damage 

 to property in private ownership within the national forests was 

 something over $70,000. One lumber company operating on private 

 lands within the Stanislaus Forest lost in a single fire, caused by 

 the carelessness of its own employees, timber and bridges, ma- 

 chinery and buildings, valued at $65,000. In 1910 the total money 

 damage from the forest fires was slightly more than $500,000. 



THREATENED DAMAGE 



The threatened damage to forest resources totals $3,013,000 — and 

 to property. Government and private, $1,820,000; a grand total of 

 $4,833,000. 



COST 



Figuring the total cost for both the standing and fighting or- 

 ganization ($309,830), against the value of United States property 

 they are maintained to protect ($165,000,000 worth of standing tim- 

 ber), it amounts to an insurance rate of eighteen cents on the 

 hundred dollars; and against the total values in public and private 

 property actually saved ($4,833,000), to $6.25 on the hundred dol- 

 lars during a season which created a war risk. 



The policy of fire-fighting is dictated by the values at stake. The 

 size of the organization and the speed with which it was moved 

 (or the expense), was increased when large timber values were 

 immediately threatened and a short, decisive fight was necessary. 



The Standard Lumber Company fire, on the Stanislaus Forest, 

 started at noon on September 11th. It jumped to the tops and 

 started up-country before a heavy wind toward an enormously 

 valuable body of Government timber. The Forest Supervisor as- 

 sembled 155 men from Columbia, Tuolumne, Angels Camp, James- 

 town, Sonora, and Murphys by automobile, covering distances of 

 eight to fifty-six miles, and started line construction by 5 p. m. 

 The fire was held by midnight, after 1640 acres of company land 

 and 280 acres of Government timber had burned over, at a cost to 

 the Service of $3,002. The Government's loss was $2,960, while 

 timber directly in the path of the fire worth $200,000 was saved. 



