75 years of wildfire prevention

Smokey Says: " Only You!"

By Stella Wenstob

There is truth to the old adage, “fighting fire, with fire.” Not only is it a good fire suppression technique, as it eliminates fuel from the path of future fires, it also creates a more biodynamic forest. Many plants and trees found within the Olympic National Forest rely on fire for promoting growth by reintroducing nutrients to the soil through ash, and opening up sunlight to the forests’ understory. Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii, a predominant tree in the Pacific Northwest has specially adapted bark that tolerates extreme heat from burns, allowing Douglas Fir to be one of the first plants to recolonize the landscape after a fire.

Before European settlement, Native Americans had established practices of fire management to shape the landscape. Their controlled burns cleared meadow areas for important root crops such as camas and opened up the forest floor allowing sun-loving berry bushes to flourish. They also used low-impact burning to encourage fresh growth of useful plants such as beargrass used in basketry. Fire management also supported hunting as new green shoots would attract grazing animals such as deer, elk and bears.

This regular burning discouraged lightning fires from occurring as the accumulation of volatile forest floor surfaces made up of dry twigs, needles and leaves (often called duff) would be minimal since they were regularly burnt away leaving a fairly fire resistant surface behind. According to Kay (2000) the whole natural landscape of North America (not just Washington State) was carefully maintained by Native American burns such as these, and the mid-century threat of wildfires could not be easily putpractice of non-interventionist forest management, which discouraged controlled burns, has been more harmful to the forests biodiversity and has likely fostered a greater flammability of the forest.

Since the Olympic National Forest was established in 1938, lightning has accounted for starting about half of the fires and is responsible for almost two thirds of the total burned acreage. Conversely human-caused fires have covered less area, but they have been more frequent. This is likely because human caused fires are usually detected and doused more quickly than lightning strike fires, which often burn in remote locations for quite a while before they are spotted.

The longest running public service advertising campaign in the U.S. has been combatting this problem of human caused fires for 75-years. The Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention campaign began during the Second World War in 1944 when most able bodied men were away fighting and the out. It was also feared that enemy threat sent via balloons would target the forests of the Pacific Coast. Slogans "Forest Fires Aid the Enemy," and "Our Carelessness, Their Secret Weapon” were produced by the Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention (CFFP) program which was organized by the Forest Service with the help of the War Advertising Council and the Association of State Foresters in the hopes that vigilance and greater care would decrease the threats posed by wildfires.

In 1942, Walt Disney loaned the characters of “Bambi” to the program for one year. After the year was up they decided a black bear would best serve as a mascot to the fire prevention cause. The first poster was created by Albert Staehle, which showed a bear in blue jeans and a hat pouring water over a campfire. In the spring of 1950, a black bear cub was rescued from a charred tree which he had fled to as the Capitan Mountains fire of New Mexico had blazed. Suffering burns on his paws and hind legs, the orphaned bear was treated in Santa Fe. Public interest in his recovery was so great that the little bear was quickly adopted as the living symbol of Smokey Bear. He served as mascot at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and received so much mail that he was given his own zip code. When he passed away in 1976 his remains were returned for burial at Smokey park in Capitan, New Mexico.

From 1930 to 2014 the average annual number of wildfires in the U.S. has decreased from 167,277 to approximately 63,000. However, a 2016 study shows that nationally nine out of ten wildfires are caused by humans— a statistic also true in the 1930s.

Now controlled burns, or prescribed fires, started in the cooler Spring and Fall months are part of the Olympic Forest's management process. Native American tribes such as the Skokomish, Squaxin and Quinault have begun again to use controlled fires to promote meadow landscapes along the Hood Canal, South Puget Sound and Lake Quinault. In 2001, Smokey Bear’s message of “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires” was changed to “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires” to reflect the difference between human-caused wildfires and beneficial prescribed fires.

75 year old Smokey Bear appeared in the 75th Annual Forest Festival in Shelton in June.

ARTWORK MADE OF WILDFIRE ASHES

DID YOU KNOW LEAVING HOT ASHES AT YOUR CAMPSITE CAN SPARK A WILDFIRE? SPARK A CHANGE, NOT A WILDFIRE.

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