Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-10-22
Forest Fires
Teach Lesson
BY Fredcric J. Hsskin

worth of timber in Minnesota are pre-
vrntablc. BY expending sums of money
less than the average animal property
damage by forest fires III the United
states. this damage conld be greatly
reduced, and uncomfortable fires rendered
almost impossible.
This i- the comment Of experts in the
Bureau os Forestry here upon the disaster
IN the northwest. II lis not "A reflection
upon Minnesota. which has done as
much as most of the States in the way of
forest fire preyeniIou; but rather upon
the attitude Of the American public,
which, although periodically horrihed by
these great disasters, seems not to sec the
need for some adequate national measure
to prevent them
II Is impossible 10 prevent forest fires
from starting. The Minnesota fires may
have been started by enemy incendisres,
as has been suggested but they may just
rs probably have been started by careless
campers, by lightning, or by sparks
from a railroad locomotive. A similar
great fire occurred in 1910, when there
~as no reason to suspect any malicious
| agency.
| FAST QUICKLY FORGOTTEN.
After the 1910 fire the legislatures of
western States appropriated large sums
4
| providing for federal 20 operation with the
states in this work, was passed by Con
gress But the lesson of the fires was
| quickly forgotten, and no adequate
| system Of protection developed, as the
present h locaust shows
The thing needed is q national system
| ri patrols and hre-hghters strong enough
| 10 detect every blaze and extinglish 4
before il reaches dangerous proportions.
As long as forest FIRE IL only few acres
| IN extrnt, putting n out Is merely
| matter ri men and tools. But when 4
| has reached certain size. the heat
of the great fire generates winds which
carry il forward with such speed and fury
that il IS beyond all human control
The National Forest Service has per
fected system Of fire detection and
control. Nv means Of lookouts on ele-
| waited points, signals. telephone lines,
caches of tools. and organizations of
volunteer fighters who are ready 70
respond to an emergency call, 4 has
reduced danger from fIrea on many of the
| national forests IN minimum. But
| the sums which The Forest Service is
| able to spend on fire protection arp not
even sufficient 10 safeguard all of thc
national forests much less those III State,
and private ownership.
HIr~oR-mIss METHODS.
Some States and some private owners
| have taken adequate steps 10 protect
| their forests. and some have not Thus,
well patrolled forests are constantly
menaced by the danger of fire spreading
from Others which are not adequately
protected. II is obvious that the uniform
protection, which wo Id really safeguard
the forest regions, ran be- obtained only
through some system administered and
supported hy the national government.
II is a job which the national govern
rncnt ought To undertake for the further
reasons that the National Forest Service
has already perfected a system o! forest
fire protection. and that forest fires, bY
dcnudng watersheds, affect the flow Of
navigable streams. At glance 1T would
seem unfair that prairie State like
Missouri should contribute 10 the support
OF q national organization for fighting
fires. But AS a matter OF fact Missouri
would suffer heavily from the destruction
of forests in Montana, because the head
waters of the Missouri river are IN that
State. There is a direct connection
between forest fires IN the northwest and
floods in the southwest.
This fact IS recognized in the Weeks
Law, which empowers the federal govern
rncnt, through the Forest Service to
cooperate with the State governments
III the prevention Of fires on watersheds
he only trouble with the " eeks Law
is that IL does not provide enough money
TO make such system really effective
The sum Of 100000 a year. when dis
trIbuted among all OF the forest States.
does not accomplish much.
CONGRESS At FAULT
Congress seems not only unable to
grasp this tact, but even refuses the
Forest Service adequate sums for the
protection Of the national forest reserya-
tlons On some OF these. where coed
systems OF roads and trails have been
developed, the danger from great deStruc-
tive hres Is almost nothing But on
others. especially in the wilds OF the
northwest, il is impossible for the Forest
Service To control fires with the means
at Its disposal.
In some Of these great wilderness.
the development of an adequate system
of fire control is necessarily slow and
gradual process. For example, in
western Montana a visitor recently saw
a forest fire IN the distance, and asked
his companion, forest ranger. why
he did not go and cxtinguish IT The
ranger replied that il would take him
Just nine days to reach that FIRE by
roundabout route, which would include
going to railroad, travelling a hundred
miles, and approaching the FIRE from
another direction
Although the Forest Service must
work out slowly the problem of con-
seryation IN such wild sections as western
Montana, IL would accomplish great
deal more than it does with adequate
appropriations.
PREVENTIVE MEASURES FIRST
Every year Congress is forced to
appropriate from half million dollars
in the Deficiency Bill to paw for the
fighting Of fires which have occurred
during the year, and which the Forest
Service has not the means 10 fight in its
regular appropriation. If this money
were appropriated for preventive measures
IN the FIRST place, many of the fires would
never occur. A city council which
allowed buildings to burn down and
afterward appropriated sums to pay the
citizens who had tried to extingliish the
fires with buckets and garden hose, but
failed to provide for an adequate ERE
department, would hardly be returned to
office. Yet that is Just the attitude OF
Congress toward the forest fire problem
The whole amount expended annually
IN this country for ire protection is
scarcely three million dollars The
average annual damage from forest fires
has been variously estimated at from ten