Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1908-09-24
The Great Forest Fires.

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 81. The forest
fires which have just laid waste whole
counties in Minnesota, Michigan, and
extended into Wisconsin, destroying
many towns and making thousands OF
persons homeless, have focused the at
tention of both government and state
forest officers on the enormous losses
of forest wealth which will be checked
up to the year 1908.
In the whole northern half of the
United States throughout the vast ter
ritory extending from coast to coast,
the reported destruction by forest fires
has been terrific and it is likely that
the year will go down as one OF the
worst in the last quarter century. 1t
seems that no part of the country has
escaped the work of the devastating
flames. The latest disasters in Mime
sofa, Michigan and Wisconsin are the
worst of the many that have visited the
Lake States this year. Other sections
have also suffered from forest fires dur
ing the spring and summer months,
and the people of the Pacific Coast, the
Rocky Mountain and the New England
states, and Canada have had
thorough, and in some cases, continu-
Gus experience in fire fighting.
Officers in the United States Forest
Service here say that it is doubtful if
this years actual losses from forest
fires in all parts of the country will
ever be known, but it is certain that
they will run up so high in the millions
that the country will be startled when
a compilation of statistics at the end of
the season makes it possible to give
even the most conservative figures.
Suffice it to say, were all the timber
burned up this year in all parts of the
country converted into cash, it could
provide for good sized navy of first
class battleships.
The fires have done good in one way;
they have focused the peoples atten-
ton on the seriousness ofthe forest fire
problem, practical foresters say, and
have started a wide spread movement
in many states to check them by adopt
ing national systems of fire protection.
Among thinking people there has been
awakened an intense interest in throw
ing a better protection around the
forests, which grow more important as
a natural resource as the timber supply
dwindles.
The government has had lot of
work in the fire fighting line on the
National Forests, but serious as the
fires have been, careful patrol and the
organization of a force to battle with
the flames as soon as discovered has
hold the losses down to point, where
they are insignificant when one consid-
ers the fearful destruction which would
have come about had there been no
protection.
Although the fire menace has been
serious in all sections, officers of the
Forest Service estimate that the total
cost of the forest fires on the National
Forests for the season, exclusive of the
salaries of forest officers, will not be
more than $50, 600. This sum is small
when it is remembered that it means fire
protection orapproXimately 165, coo, 900
acres of National Forests less than two
tenths of mill per acre. Progressive
state fire wardens and forest officers,
individuals and private corporations
having large timber holdings have or
ganized fire fighting forces along much
the same line as the government in
many cases, and in this way they hane
given protection to millions of acres of
timber which might have been destroy
ed had it been left unprotected.