OCR Text |
Show Forest Loss By Fire Losses by forest fires in northwestern north-western United States and in Canada during recent weeks have taken on the character of a major disaster. From a wide area have come reports of fruitless efforts to check the flames in which a number of the courageous fire fighters have lost their lives. Several thousand American troops were called out to aid the forest guards and volunteers who have been fighting a losing battle with the raging rag-ing flames in Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and as this is written the end of the conflagaration is not yet in sight. Unusually dry weather in these sec tions have caused a fire once started to spread with great rapidity. The careless dropping of a lighted match under such conditions might easily mean the destruction of thousands of acres of valuable timber. The prevention of forest fires is one of the country's great economic problems prob-lems at a time when the depletion of timber through ordinary use is causing caus-ing grave concern. The most distressing dis-tressing feature of the situation' is that it seems almost impossible to prevent this appalling annual waste of a great natural resource. |