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Show FOREST FIRES (Continued from page f .') Forest conservation not only preserves the forests from fire but provides food and shelter for game animals and birds, it preserves pre-serves the ground cover which regulates the flow of streams, the pasturage of large numbers of domestic stock, the building material for homes and industries. indus-tries. The practice of forestry not only preserves the forest but provide food for birds and game. Berries and other sun-demanding food plants come in when the sun reaches the soil through a forest covered area, and the cutting of mature trees in any producing forest lets the sunlight sun-light in upon the soil at the end of v each generation of trees, thus berries and other sun-demanding plant life is a part of the producing forest, and are better distributed when they rise from cuttings than when w.-&f- jfOTi-i;fiiar.SVttfril'TTWlhi iMtBir-iiiwr they rise from regions swept by fire. This and many other reasons rea-sons point to .prevention of forest for-est fires, and why game conservationists conser-vationists must ally themselves with forest officers and conservationists conser-vationists before either can accomplish ac-complish much in protecting our great heritage the forests. This community of interest induced by the existance of a common enemy is however only part of the story. There are deeper and more . significant reasons why forestry and game management must work together and learn from each other the true meaning mean-ing of conservation. The fundamental thing in both forestry and game is that we the public, must grasp the idea of production, if conservation does not mean production then it means nothing at all. I do not mean production alone but production pro-duction through use. The true meaning of conservation is to conserve or preserve from injury ana to utilize the resources through regulated use, which protect the resources from the onslaughts of fires the lawbreaker, lawbreak-er, the individual who would gladly cut the last tree, kill the only surviving wild goose or duck, shoot the only remaining deer, or crop the last spear of grass, and then smile at the great devastated devastat-ed regions stretched out before him. The former needs our cooperative co-operative support, the latter our earnest attention. Today the northwest is facing one of the worst fire seasons the forest service has had anything any-thing to do with, thousands of acres of forested areas are on fire, villages and ranches are in immediate danger thousands of men are battling the great forest for-est enemy "FIRE" hundreds of miles of fire lines are being built only to have fires sweep over them, thousands of dollars of the taxpayers money is being expended ex-pended every day in an effort nlTMriliiirirtiMMMrttiMnifTfraJnrfrr-inri j to control these fires, and in I some instances their only hope I is rain. Yet many of these fires I were started by man perhaps not intentionally but through care-I care-I Iessness with camp fires, matches, ! cigaretts, etc., which could have been prevented. True Joel fully described the condition of today when he cried, O Lord, to thee do I cry, for a fire hath devoured the pasturage pas-turage of the wilderness, and a Same hath burned the trees of the field. |