Forest Fires

DURING last year's drought, fires caused considerable damage in plantations in Great Britain; also to the beautiful heaths and commons which form so picturesque a feature of certain English counties. This year, apart from official statistics, the reports in the Press afford evidence that this fire damage persists. When forest conservation was introduced into the tropical and sub-tropical portions of the British Empire, fire protection was considered to be one of the first important steps to inaugurate. The success achieved in India in this respect is well known; but, efficient and energetic as the forest service of that country showed itself in the fine system of fire protection introduced into the State forests, it would never have achieved success without vigorous official support. A Science Service Mail Report (Washington, D.C., July 30) states that owing to the drought, there has been a 66 per cent increase in forest fires for 1934 over the average of the past three years. National and State forests have, it is said, become like tinder in a great many areas, and the smallest spark is sufficient to light them. In 1933, there were 140,722 fires, the area burnt being 43,889,820 acres, the total damage being estimated by the U.S. Forest Service at 60,274,960 dollars. If the number of fires increases at the same rate as already experienced this year, the totals will exceed those of 1933. Attention is directed to the fact that a sum of 75,000,000 dollars has recently been earmarked for the 1,300 mile shelter belt of trees extending from the Canadian border to Texas, and the work is expected to continue for ten years. A comparison of the annual expenditure on this new forest belt with the destructive losses from forest fires shows that eight times the money spent each year for the next decade on planting trees would barely equal the value of the loss by fire in 1933.