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Show Forest Fires Sabotage War Plans by Destroying Lumber, Hastening Frosion, Diverting Manpower mit and the law before burning grass, brush, fence rows, ferns, trash, or before starting any fires in forests. 3. For everybody to put out small fires and to report all others quickly to the nearest ranger or fire warden. Geographical Aspects. With an eye to the tremendous value of timber in our all-out war production activities, the United States has been divided into three broad zones, each of which has been weighed and its relative importance indicated on the map which also shows the Forest Service administrative adminis-trative regions. Before the broad zones and administrative regions were determined, war industrial activity ac-tivity and national defense considerations consid-erations were studiously, reviewed. Zone 1, with a relative importance of 60, includes: 1. Three Pacific coast states plus western Montana and northwestern Idaho. 2. Most of the three Great Lakes states. 3. All or parts of 26 states from Missouri, Arkansas, east Texas and Louisiana to Maine. Zone II, with a relative importance impor-tance of 30, includes: 1. The area lying east of the Pacific Pa-cific coast portion of Zone I and west of the Great Plains states. 2. The area lying between the Lakes states and the Atlantic coast-Gulf coast-Gulf of Mexico portion of Zone I. Zone III, with a relative importance impor-tance of 10, includes parts of Montana Mon-tana and Minnesota, and all or parts of the Great Plains states of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma. I Over 90 Per Cent Of Conflagrations Called Preventable Each year loyal American citizens, through carelessness and thoughtlessness, start an average of some 190,000 forest fires in the United States. This tremendous annual destruction destruc-tion of our timber resources has been going on relentlessly year in and year out. Now that these resources are so critically needed for the successful suc-cessful prosecution of the war, the number of forest fires must be reduced drastically in the interest of national security. se-curity. . In addition to its effect on our war production activity, forest fires further complicate our manpower shortage problem by draining away from critical war industries those wasted man-hours necessary to extinguish ex-tinguish and fight the thousands of fires that rage yearly throughout the country. The problem is one of personal per-sonal interest to every American. Forest fires speed up erosion of farm land by denuding watersheds. On millions of acres, forest fires induce in-duce swift run-off, and heavy seasonal sea-sonal flooding, resulting in serious property damage, less water stored for irrigation or power, and thus less food to fight for freedom. These fires also destroy wild life along with its food and cover. Untold Un-told numbers of deer, birds and other oth-er wild life as well as fish (in streams polluted by wood ashes) are crippled and killed annually because be-cause of forest fires. billion board feet below requirements require-ments of that year) is slowed down every time woods and mill crews fight fires. Forest fires are real and potential threats to war plants and cantonments, canton-ments, many of which are located in and near forest, woodland or brush-covered areas. They are potential po-tential threats too, to the efficient operation of defensive air and sea patrols, training pilots, etc. They threaten the nation's war program by diverting manpower from war industries, training camps and farms to the fighting of fires. Every patriotic citizen should regard re-gard helping prevent forest fires as an essential wartime duty. Lieut. Gen. John L. DeWitt, while head of the Western defense command, listed list-ed reasons why the forest fires endanger en-danger our national security: (1) Smoke-palls from forest fires along coastal areas limit visibility of air and sea patrols. (2) Smoke haze reduces visibility from aircraft warning stations and fire lookouts. (3) Many defense plants and military mili-tary establishments are located in or adjacent to forest areas and might be damaged or destroyed by major conflagrations. (4) Forest fires serve as beacons for the enemy. Prevention. Objectives of the 1944 forest fire prevention program are to help speed victory by: 1. Reducing greatly the more than 210,000 forest fires occurring each year, 90 per cent of which are man-caused man-caused and therefore, preventable. 2. Releasing manpower of which nearly one million man-days are tied up yearly in fighting forest fires. 3. Cutting down on actual and potential po-tential dangers and losses to such critical war materials as timber and feed for domestic stock and wild life. One Third of U. S. Is Forest. The forest empire of the United States, exclusive of Alaska, is larger than the combined area of France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, The Netherlands and the British Isles. It constitutes one-third the area of the continental United States. No region or zone is without its forests, although. 60 per cent is east of the Great Plains in an area containing con-taining four-fifths of our population. The other 40 per cent is west of the Great Plains and includes most of our remaining virgin timber. It is evident therefore, that forest fires constitute a national problem which can be solved only by nationwide action. Statistical information on hand which was gathered over a five-year period, 1936-41, shows that an average aver-age of 210,970 forest fires rage each year throughout the nation and burn over an average of 31,233,000 acres. This represents an area much larger larg-er than the land area of New York state. This wartime waste represents repre-sents three billion feet of timber killed or enough to build 215,000 five-room homes for war workers. Ninety per cent of all forest fires are man-made. The remaining 10 per cent are caused by lightning. Careless smokers and campers are responsible for starting 30 per cent of all our forest fires. Other forest fires are INTENTIONALLY set for such purposes as clearing plow-land, burning off weed catches, logging These zones have been subdivided subdivid-ed into regions as follows, with the particular fire hazards briefly listed: Region I: (Montana and Northern Idaho) : Ninety per cent of all fires here are caused by lightning, with the greatest damage done to white pine timber. The resident problem is more important than the visitor problem. Region 2: (Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas): Thirty four per cent of all fires in this region are man-caused. The visitor vis-itor problem is more important than the resident one, with carelessness more of a factor than intentional fire setting. Region 3: (Arizona, New Mexico): There is less of a fire problem here than in any other region. Region 4: (Utah, Nevada, most vof Idaho) : In this region man-caused fires run from 17 to 57 per cent, varying with the locality. Careless smokers, logging operators, campers, camp-ers, land - clearing farmers and ranchers, are the causes. Serious erosion is often caused by fires in many localities. Grass fires are a great hazard. Region 5: (California): Three-fourths Three-fourths of all fires are man-caused. Part of this is due to the great influx of war workers, but the majority of fires are caused by residents rather than newcomers. Region 6: (Oregon, Washington): Most forest fires here are due to careless smokers, but forest industries indus-tries and incendiaries cause the largest larg-est area burned and the greatest damage. Region 7: . (New England and Middle Mid-dle Atlantic states plus Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia): Again the local resident and the smoker are mainly to blame also the farmer farm-er who burns to clear land. Region 8: (The South, from North Carolina south and west to and including in-cluding Texas): The intentional burner who has believed in burning for years is the greatest problem. He is the local resident, not the visitor the white man rather than the Negro. Region 9: (the Great Lakes states. North Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Illi-nois, Indiana, Ohio): Diverse conditions condi-tions exist in this region with large numbers of fires and tremendous acreage burned. Ninety-seven per cent of all fires are man-caused in the following order of importance the smoker, the incendiary, the debris de-bris burner. The Government's Part. There are 160 national forests with about 178,000,000 federally owned acres in 42 states and two territories. terri-tories. All are under 10 regional foresters (one in Alaska) and their staffs. National forests are protected protect-ed from fire by a decentralized organization or-ganization that is in close and constant con-stant touch with local conditions, problems and people. Normally, this organization includes in-cludes about 4,000 year-long forest supervisors, forest rangers, forest guards, etc., and another 4,000 short-term short-term smokechasers, lookouts, etc. But the manpower situation has been so acute during the war that the Office of Civilian Defense established estab-lished the "Forest Fire Fighters Service" to help the established forest for-est fire protection agencies. It is reported that more than 185,000 recruits re-cruits have joined the FFFS to date. There are 281,000,000 acres of state and privately owned forest land. Federal aid, through the Forest For-est Service, goes to 41 states to help state foresters and private owners own-ers give organized cooperative forest for-est fire protection. Funds from state and private sources are greater than those from the federal government. However, there are over 146,000,000 acres that need, but still lack, organized or-ganized forest fire protection. In their efforts to prevent forest fires, the federal government and state governments have operated on a regional and state-wide basis. Their educational efforts on a local level have been carried through the media of newspapers, radio stations, motion picture theaters, civic organizations, organ-izations, etc. And in addition, they have used exhibits, lectures, pamphlets, pam-phlets, admonition signs and posters. post-ers. The Public's Part. Above all else there is need to impress upon the public that every individual has a patriotic stake in this EMERGENCY that the problem prob-lem can only be solved through individual indi-vidual action. Specifically, the need is: 1. For the public to be careful with matches, smokes including cigarettes, cigars and pipe ashes and campfires. 2. For victory gardeners as well as farmers, ranchers, stockmen and forest industries to ask about a per- slash, brush or debris, and although many of these fires are started lawfully, law-fully, great numbers of them get out of hand because of carelessness and ignorance on the part of the burner or because of his willingness to "take a chance." Forest fires in this category cate-gory constitute 40 PER CENT OF THE TOTAL. In its wartime activities for 1942 the United States used more wood than steel. According to R. W. Patterson, Pat-terson, undersecretary of war, 120,-000,000 120,-000,000 tons of wood were used as against 100 million tons of steel. As a further indication .of its importance im-portance in our wartime activities, we have the statement of Rear Adm. E. L. Cochrane in the International Woodworker, 9-22-43 that "Every naval vessel, from the log battleship battle-ship of the North Carolina class to the small mine sweeper, depends on wood." " It is a problem then of national concern when the production of lumber lum-ber (estimated in 1943 to be four p 1 Zone 1 Relative L. Importance 60 jsWr'y V 1 I I Zone 2 Relative Importance ziWf 1 ,.; 1 Zone 3 Relative Importance 10 |
