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Show FOREST FIRE MENACE TOLD BY RANGER BEN SWAPPINNEWS STORY By lienj. Svt'iipp It is "a day of clouds and thick darkness." A forest lire is raging through the hills like the dawn spread upon the mountains. moun-tains. As a great people, set in ha I tie array. "The names advance, ad-vance, and the appearance of them is as horses, and as horsemen, horse-men, so do they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap; they run like mightly men; they climb the wall like men of war; and they march every one on his way. They break not their ranks; neither dost one thrust another; they march every one on his path." " . . . O Lord, to thee do I cry, for a fire hath devoured the pasture of the wilderness, and a flame hath burned all the trees of the field. Yea, the beasts of the field pant unto thee, for a fire devonreth before them, and behind them a flame burnetii; burn-etii; the land is a garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness. Thus doth Joel describe that ouuuige oi an living inmgs, tne forest fire. Joel knew, as all woodsmen know, that fire is the enemy of the forests. This article ar-ticle attempts to set forth the manner in which fire effects game, fish and all wild animals of the forest, and to point out certain fundemental ideas which must underlie successful conservation conser-vation both of forest and game. Severe fires soniptimes surround sur-round and desvPTv-"'. large game animals and in many instances they fall a prey to the advancing fires from which it is impossible for them to escape, and kill them outright: but the greatest loss and damage occurs through the destruction of eggs and young, the ruin of coverts, without which game fall an easy prey to vermin and hunters. Fire also al-so causes important disturbances among food and plant life upon which game is dependent. Instances of outright destruction destruc-tion of game by fires are numerous numer-ous and reveal some unanswerable unanswer-able and puzzling questions as to the actual effect of fire and smoke upon the minds and behavior be-havior of animals. The following follow-ing is quoted from a report by W. T. Cox on the big fires of Washington and Oregon of 190S, in the dense smoke hundreds of grouse, quail and mongolian pheasants were surrounded by fire and roasted to death, hundreds hun-dreds more had their wings scorched, and now upon the blackened floor of the forest fall an easy prey for prowling vermin, large and small mammals mam-mals fared no better, carcasses of deer, bear, cougars and lynx were also found, and literally thousands of dead squirrels. Wolves and lynx are now appearing ap-pearing upon the scene in unusual un-usual large numbers since the fires, evidently attracted by the numbers of ready-prepared roasts to be had in the forest, while thousands of dead fish are found along the streams, scalded by the waters made hot by the intense in-tense flames. It is safe to say that the direct di-rect loss of nature game is heavy in large fiercely burning fires, but 'for the country as a whole, such loss is slight compared com-pared with the loss of eggs and young which take in every fire, (Continued on page six) FOREST FIRES (Continued from first page) even the so-called "light burning ground fires. The sailent point about loss of young and eggs is that in most regions the fire season corresponds with the breeding and. nesting season and accordingly destroy all the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds on the burned area, as well as many of the fawns, which during that season of the year are young and are left '"cached out" while their mothers seek forage and water. The spring burning of stubble, brush patches, patch-es, ditch banks and waste corners cor-ners of farms not Only make a clean sweep of eggs and' young of quail but leave the birds without cover at the exact time of season when, livestock has usually grazed off all the corners cor-ners of the unburned ground or else the farmer has plowed it up. Then comes the spring mi-: gration of house cats and kawks and vermin, the birds are either exposed and. defenceless or else so crowded into such small covers cov-ers that breeding is impossible. Sportsmen will: not solve the problem of quail production until un-til every farmer is persuaded or paid to leave cover, spring cover, on the waste corners of their farms; until spring burning and vermin are controlled in the interest in-terest of game, refuges established establish-ed and winter feed provided to insure the surviva-l of seed stock. Universal appreciation of these truths would produce more quail than a universal year-long closed season throughout the United States, It is only too, true that itpon areas where fires: have occured, that all browse and young plant file has been burned and killed. Once the ground is laid bare erosion begins to make inroads upon the surface, the new plant life is inferior and irt many cases useless to game, and the browse which is destroyed by fire and which game are dependent upon for winter feed has gone. |