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Show Utah Forest Fires During Year 1923 The general forest fire situation in the Intermountain Region was remarkably re-markably good last year according to District Forester R. H. Rutledge of the U. S. Forest Service. It was marked by the smallest area ever burned in the history of the U. S. Forest Service in this region, a total of only 682 acres. The average over the past 15 years has been approximately approxi-mately 40,000 acres a year. While Utah suffered only 19 forest fires out of a total of 260 in the entire Intermountain Inter-mountain region, one of the most peculiar circumstances in last year's fire season was the large area burned burn-ed over" on the Fishlake Forest in Utah. On this Forest a total of 360 acres of National Forest land, nearly half the total burned over in the entire en-tire Intermountain region is recorded. This goes far to show that Utah forests for-ests are not without fire hazard as is sometimes claimed owing to the fact that large forest fires are infrequent in-frequent in this region. Such vegetation vege-tation as grass and sagebrush becomes be-comes very dry and inflammable at certain times of the year nad fires in such material run with great speed and are difficult to control, and may threaten large timber bodies very quickly. The experiences of last year go far to show that greater care is necessary in Utah Forests on the part of the public in dealing with fire. The less hazardous conditions in this region and the small amount of timber at stake often lead to a feeling of false seucrity and result in great carelessness on the part of those visiting the National Forest areas. Few people understand how quickly a forest fire may become destructive in this region. In general gen-eral there was a very good reduction in man-made fires throughout the Intermountain region as a whole last year, although the State of Utah shows about the same per cent of fires caused by human agencies as been the average in the past 15 years 75 per cent, the remainder being due to lightning, which is a further indication in-dication of the failure of the general public in Utah to understand the great importance of human care in eliminating forest fires. On the Manti National Forest, last year one fire occurred, this was deliberately de-liberately set by a land owner who owned adjoining lands, from which he was burning brush. This fire covered less than 2Vz acres. A large acreage of his private lands outside of the Forest was burned, at the same time more than 60 acres of I timber and young growth on privatc-I privatc-I !ly owned lands were burned over, in 'Twin Creeks. Both fires were due i .to human carelessness. |