The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-10-15
Frederick Haskin's | Atter
tspec&aI Correspondence of The Arms,
Fighting Fire From, the Air.
Especial Correspondence Q

Washington, D. c., Oct. ia
Hunting forest fires from airplanes
which has proved one of the most
| effective methods of reducing the
fire loss of timber. is about to be
| discontinued after several seasons
of use, because the army air service
will no longer lend its planes and
pilots to the forest service for this
purpose. The Aerial Forest Patrol
| IS still in existence, but an order
has gone forth for its discontinu-
ance after this year.
Forest service men are disap-
pointed They say that the air
service is missing a great oppor-
tunity to develop peace-time use
for planes which will more than
Justify maintaining a large fleet of
them. And the progress of aviation
is largely dependent upon the de-
Velopment of other than purely
military uses for planes. At the
same time the help of the planes in
reducing the forest fire damage is
most seriously needed. Anything
that will help in the struggle with
forest fires is invaluable to the
whole country.
For the forest fires, the experts
say. are the uncomfortable factor
IN the struggle they are making to
establish a permanent wood supply
within the United States. Most of
the continent has already been de-
nuded of timber. and the cost of
lumber and wood products has ris-
en- steadily as the timber supply
has shrunk. Before 1850 most of
cur timber was cut in New Eng
land In 1870 the center of the
business had shifted to Pennsylva-
MIA By 1890 it was in the lake
states, where the supply of white
pine was described as inexhausti-
BILE. By 1900 this inexhaustible
supply had been so far depleted
that the country was looking to
the south for pine lumber, and now
the south is yielding precedence to
the northwest and specially to Ore
gon. In that region is one-fifth of
all the standing timber left in the
United States. An aerial observer
can look over all of this fifth of
our forest wealth in one day.
Fires Crucial Factor.
Wasteful cutting. leaving moth |
ing to reproduce the forest, is of |
course primarily the cause of this |
Better forestry is now
being practiced by the great lum- |
Der companies. and the forest serv- |
ice is carefully conserving the for
ests under its. supervision, so that |
they will provide permanent lun-
Der supply. Even SO, the supply is |
dwindling, and fire is |
largely responsible for this. The
fire loss in 1919 was estimated at
over billion cubic feet of lumber.
and while this was high, it was not
! great deal higher than the aver
age annual loss. Besides this, whole
owns have been wiped out by for
EST fires, and many persons killed.
The ACTUAL mature standing tim
Der, which might otherwise be cut,
5 but small part of what forest
ire destroys. 1t does its greatest
lamage in areas which have been
ut, and are being overgrown with
mall trees. These small trees, /
which should form the lumber sup
'ly of so years hence, grow so
hickly that fire, once well started,
ages through them as through dry
,rass. By these cut-over fires, the !
eproduction of our forests over /;
.reat areas has been prevented. I
borrower. a ground fire burns up !
ne soil to such an extent that !
the area could not be |
eforested artificially. There are {
reat areas in this country which {