Weekly journal-miner., 1911-11-01
(From Saturdays Daily


 The record made in the protection of the Prescott National Forest from forest fires for the season just closed is the best since this forest was ere ated in 1897 and naturally the Su- pervisor and forest officers on the Prescott National Forest feel proud of this remarkable record.
 During the entire dry period from April 15, 1911 to October l, 1911, only nine forest fires were reported. The entire area burned over by these fires was only 4S acres, which is .OOOO3O6 per cent of 1,57O,OOO acres, the total area of the forest. Forty five acres of the area burned over was chaparral or brush land, the re- maining area was timbered. The to- tai damage resulting from these fires in the destruction of merehantable timber was $1S.1O. Seven of the fires discovered were extinguished before they had burned over one-half an acre. The cost of fire fighting to the service in forest officers time was $16.36; for the hire of fire fighting assistance outside the ser vice, $17.5O.
 Owing to the vital importance of the somewhat limited supply of the timber and range resources of the Prescott National Forest and the de- pendence- of the local mining and stock interests upon these resources; the protection of these resources from destruction by forest fires is easily the most important problem in its administration The protection of these resources can be seen to be rather difficult if one is familiar with the fact that most of the tim bered portion of the forest is GOV cred with a very thick growth of yellow pine reproduction which, coup led with the unusually dry and windy season prevalent in this portion of the southwest, makes the fire danger extreme.
 To accomplish the best results in the protection of the forest, a defin- ite systematic fire plan was prepared for each of the ten ranger or admin istrative districts, and these detailed plans in turn formulated as a defin- ite plan for the entire forest. The supervisor of the Prescott National Forest is favored and particularly fortunate as related to the protection feature of the forest in that the en- tire timbered portion of the forest is covered thoroughly by a complete system of telephone lines, wagon roads and trails. Every portion of | the timbered area is easily accessible from the point from which supplies zand fire tools can be secured.
 , The fire plan on the Prescott Ma tional Forest was carried into effect in the following way:
 First: To prevent forest fires, the entire timbered portion of the forest was thoroughly posted with fire warn 'ings so that the careless or unex perienced camper or traveller would be reminded of the extreme danger and the penalty for violation of the i ordinary precautions. Lists of all the forest residents and users were made and the forest officers instruct ed to personally interview each one and secure his cooperation in report ing and suppressing forest fires.
 Second: To discover forest fires in the timbered areas a complete sys- tenn of patrol through the timbered | portions or by discovery from lookout l points, was established. Experience | on this forest in the past has proved | that daily visits to a lookout point constitutes a more effective system of patrol than many miles of riding through the timber. For this reason | the fire plan for the Prescott Ma tional Forest provided, during the past fire season, for permanent con- stant lookouts on the top of the | Sierra Prietta range at the Derby | mine and from the top of Mt. Union, the highest point in the Bradshaw mountains, and on the forest. In ad- l dition to these constant lookouts, | daily visits were made by forest l officers for patrol duty to the top of | Thumb Butte, Spruce mountain, Tow CT mountain and Mingus mountain. The fire danger is greatest on this | forest on the Sierra Prietta and Brad | shaw mountain ranges. From the two permanent lookout points, to- gether with the daily lookout from