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Successful Fire Season On California Forests

Rain and snow in the mountain regions of California during the past two weeks have materially reduced the fire danger within the national forests of the State, according to ' Regional Forester S. B. Shorv of the U. S. Forest Service headquarters in San Francisco. While the storms were insufficient to end the fire season, the likelihood of a serious fire situation developing is said to be remote in the northern timbered forests, and several forest supervisors have made a substantial reduction in the number of forest guards and patrolmen, while the Modoc and Stanislaus National Forests have removed the ban on smoking.

The national forests in Southern California, valuable principally for watershed protection and recreation, were not so fortunate as their northern neighbors and received much less precipitation during the late storms. Consequently, the risk of fires starting is still high and these forests are retaining their complete fire fighting organizations.

On the whole, the fire season of 1930 has been the most favorable in recent years, said Mr. Show. To a considerable de'gree this was due to the cooler weather conditions that prevailed in the mountains this summer. There were fewer protracted periods of low relative humidity than usual, which means that the moisture content of the air was uniformly higher and thus gave fires less chance to burn rapidly and lpread to conflagration size. Increascd Federal appropriations made it possible to emplo.'- more forest guards and patrolmen, and to buv much ireeded fire fighting equipment. This factor also had an important part in holding fires to a small acreage.

The seasonts record shows that to Sept. 3O a total of 1121 fires have occurred on areas protected by the U. S. Forest Service, or 71 more fires than during tte same Perid in 19?9. Only 166 of these 6res, however, reached a size ol ten acres or over, as against 2ll ten-acre fires last year, a reduction of 5 per cent in the number of large 6res.

An encouraging sign in the fire record, says the regional forester, is the reduction in man-caused fires from 789 to l9D to 717 in 193O. This indicates that the users of forest and brush lands are slowly but surely recognizing the incipient damage that lurks in the lighted match, tobacco and camp fire, and, as a rule, are observing the few simple rules for care with fire in the mountains.

Smokers' fires, which are the most prevalent of all causes in the national forests, dropped flrom ?ffi in 19?9 to 251 itt 193O, but still accounted for 35 per cent of all fires caused bv human carelessness with matches and tobacco.

-The area of government and private lands burned in 1930 within the boundaries of the l8 national forests of California was less than one-third of the total for l9D, or 28,055 and 90,133 acres, respectively. The cost of fire suppression in the national forests was $21O,00, or a reduction of $118,000 over the cost of fire control last year.

The four national forests in Southern California-Angeles,.Cleveland, San Bernardino and Santa Barbara----established a splendid fire record for the season. The total number of 6res in these forests, as compared with 1929, was reduced from 171 to ll9; and man-caused fires from llo to 81. Marked reduction in the area burned over was also made, as follows: National forest land, 21,899 acres in 1929 to 3,188 acres in 1930, and private lands inside national forests, 8,412 acres to 606 acres. Suppression costs were reduced from $95,49O to $3L,792.

While present conditions indicate the fire season should come to a successful conclusion rvithout further serious outbreaks, the experience of past years has also indicated October to be a disastrous period when the usual precipitation fails for that month. Should serious weather conditions again arise, states Mr. Show, the national forest 6re protective organization will be strengthened in sufficient numbers to meet the emergency.