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Show "RED" MENACE IN THE FORESTS The "Red Terror" is the chief enemy of trees and forests. Sweeping through a timberland, the red flames of a forest fire which has got beyond control may wreck untold havoc, damaging valuable mature trees, destroying young growth, laying waste grazing lands, injuring protective watersheds, wa-tersheds, and converting to a blackened, fire-scarred waste what were cool, inviting in-viting woodlands beckoning to the nature-lover and outdoor recreationist. The United States Forest Service places the average annual number of forest fires in the United States during the past 10 years at 51,000. The average aver-age area swept by fires each year stands at 15,000,000 acres. The annual damage runs up to $20,000,000, not taking tak-ing into account the damage to young growth, watersheds and recreational facilities, which can hardly be estimated It is believed that much of the prairie country and perhaps some of the plains of the United States and Canada were converted to their treeless state by forest for-est fires swept over them repeatedly In bygone ages. If the fires occur frequently, the young growth, the seeds and the' fertile top soil itself are destroyed. des-troyed. The forest fire risk greatly increases with civilized settlement. 90 of the forest fires today are man-caused. Hunters, campers and tourists are often careless with their camp fires, their matches and tobacco; settlers who set fires to clear land or to dispose of brush frequently allow them, to get out of hand; activities of mining, lumbering and railroads are often causes of fire. Under favoring wind and humidity conditions, forest fires frequently attain an enormous speed of advance; the front often leaps hundreds of feet forward, for-ward, and burning brands and sparks "lay establish branch fires miles ahead of the main conflagration. Populous communities in the paths of such fires are sometimes wiped out in a few minutes min-utes with great loss of life and property, 'n the Hinckley and Cloquet fires in Minnesota in 1894 and 1918, many hundreds hun-dreds of lives were lost; in the Pesh-go. Pesh-go. Wis., fire of 1875. 1,500 persons w killed. It is probable that in the l 125 years more timber in the United Unit-ed States has been destroyed by fires '"an has been used in all the wood industries. in-dustries. Every citizen of the country, says the forest Service, can contribute to the oppression of this destructive "red terror" by using care when he frequents , forests in allowing no fire to start UKh atlv act of his. in stamping out w drenching with water any small fire ie might discover, and in reporting Promptly any large blaze to forest of-wers of-wers or landowners. In the National ForesUs of the coun-ry. coun-ry. the Federal Government maintains orSanized force to give battle to any re which might break out, as soon as 1 S discovered. Under the Clarke-icNary Clarke-icNary law of 1924. the Federal Government Gov-ernment is now cooperating with 33 j-wes and with private timberland ners in forest fire protection. Under , Provisions there are available for re protection this vear a Federal appropriation ap-propriation of $710,000. State funds . n0UZlUng to $2,000,000. and $557,000 in Ll funds- " estimated that $9.- V ati n 8 year u discreetly and system-nrnt system-nrnt used would afford ample fire lanrt to m the country's forest s. This would amount to only two ts as aore. |