OCR Text |
Show PAST AND PRESENT FIRES IN MANTI RESERVE The forest has no enemy (hnt is as destructive as fire. Millions of acres of the timber lands of the United States l have been burned over, leaving pructi- citlly nothing- behind but ruins and deso- lation It would bo extremely difficult to estimate the value of the timber thus j destroyed in dollars and cents, since the advent of civilization, saying nothing of the ruined cities, towns, homes and loss of life The advent of civilization into the region now known as the United States found the better land covereti with vast forests which it was necessary to remove in order to till the soil for the production of agriculture crops. Naturally Natur-ally the work of removing- the timber to secure tillable lands left about the : same pegree of sympathy for the Forest For-est as the western homesteader has for the sage brush when he is confronted confront-ed with the necessity of removing them before he can till the soil. Timber was found in such vast quantities that the resource was thought to have no limit. The impression was so instilled in the public mind that, as a nation, we have been slow to appreciate the necessity nec-essity of acton to prevent unnecessary destruction. To dicuss Forest fires as a general topic wouldbe too broad a subject for an article of this character. Therefore, this article is confined to a brief description descrip-tion of the fire situation on the Manti National Forest which will be more interesting and beneficial. Fires have been more or less common in the timber zones of the Wasatch range for ages. The origin during the early period can probably be attributed principally to lightning and firing by Indians in the pursuit of the game. The injury resulting from these early fires, it seems are not very conspicuous, judging from present indications.as the I evidence of the recent burns prior to the advent of civilization in this country are not numerous. The adveut of the portable sawmill and the camper, marks the conspicuous period cf the destructive fires of this region. Some of the timber was destroyed de-stroyed by a small element of millmen who were in the business for profit, regardless of the destruction that they left for the future. The practice in isolated cases was to burn timber on a logging unit before the logging crew was sent in to cut. The idea was to burn off the underbrush and windfall in order to make the track more accessible acces-sible to log. This was accomplished, but the future timber crop was also killed. Young trees that would have been mature and ready for the saw in 20 to 30 years were left dead on the stump to rot, and the reproduction was absolutely destroyed, making in the aggregate much more material destroyed destroy-ed than was actually moved and converted con-verted into lumber. Only when we consider con-sider that it takes from 150 to 200 years to replace the timber thus wasted, can we fully appreciate the extent of waste. It is not our purpose to criticise by any means, the methods of pioneer millmen of this section, nor tneir attitude attitu-de toward fire, because we are sure it can be said without contradiction that the loggers have expended more money and more time to the prevention and fighting of Forest Fires in the past than any class of citizens. In fact, such incendiary fires were the exception and not the rule, but when resorted to, were invariably in the best and most accessible accessi-ble timber tracts since the object was to securegood lumber at a low co6t. Large areas have been burned through negligence of campers leaving unextinguished un-extinguished camp fires. These were scattered and fanned by the wind and have probably been the cause of the greater number of Forest fires on this range. The fire when once started, was allowed to burn unhindered until checked by the elements or burned out because of lack of fuel upon whioh to continue. Thousands of acres of good timber has been allowed to go up in smoke without one iota of effort being put forth to stop the waste. Prior lo the creation of the National Forest, it was not unusual to see from one to three tires burning on the mountain sides during the fire season. It is well remembered how most of these were allowed to burn themselves out unhindered. un-hindered. What a disregard for valuable public resources! Hundreds of thousands of feet of valuable timber carelessly burned burn-ed and allowed to be destroyed with absolutely no effort to minimize the waste. The fires continued unchecked until the exterior limits of the timber tracts were reached when they would die for lack xf material. Such areas i may yet be located trom the blackened stumps and trees which stand as monuments monu-ments of distruction. Other fires have originated from lightning during electrical storms and during the period of indifference, were allowed to burn themselves out. All told.approximately 4,000 acres of timber land within the Manti National For- st have been burned, ami it is estimated that approximately 30,000,000 f.-et board measure of the important commercial com-mercial species, viz. Engelman spruce (white pine), Alpine fir (whi.e balsam) Douglas fir (Red pine), and white fir (Black Balsam) havj b;jen destroyed by fire during the past 40 vears. This would be sufficient timber with ; which to construct a walk of 2" plank. 3' wide, from Fort Douglas, Salt Lake , City, to Elpaso, Texas, on the Mexican j border; or from Manti City to San Francisco. Fires have the effect of not only injuring in-juring the timber, bat other vegetation is destroyed. The deep rooted forage plants are killed and later replaced by short root pjants. Under normal conditions, con-ditions, it will take approximately 30 years for the better plants to come back to the extent of again replacin the short root plants. After this long period of waste, the Government of the United States concluded con-cluded that such methods should be checked. President Roosevelt, on May 29,1903. issued a Proclamation creating the Manti National Forest. The administrative adminis-trative force of the Forest was immediately immed-iately organized and from that time to the preasent, the one most important dutv has been to watch for and suppress sup-press forest fires. Officers of the forest for-est reserve have no duty more important than protecting the forest from fires. During dry periods this work is given first place. j (To be Continued Next Week) -r |