Title: Bulletin (Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters), no. 35
Identifier: bulletinpennsylv35penn (find matches)
Year: 1923 (1920s)
Authors: Pennsylvania. Dept. of Forests and Waters
Subjects: Forests and forestry
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa. : The Department
Contributing Library: Penn State University
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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GQ H o En O a H *<! Q w cc 5 2 X a: C LESSON SIX THE FOREST FIRE FIEND Fire destroys not only present and prospective forest growth, but also destroys other values of immediate importance. Fire causes the loss of felled timber. Felled trees represent time and money The further the process of manufacture is carried the more valuable is the product. Every year thousands of dollars worth of lo^s bark, cordwood ties, poles, posts, and sawed lumber are destroyed. The workman loses his wages; the owner loses the wages paid and the profits • the user must so much the sooner pay a higher price for his wood because the supply IS decreased; the Commonwealth at large suffers because property is destroyed; everybody concerned is made poorer, and no fur- ther wages, taxes, or use are possible. Fire causes a loss to equipment for forest operations, to live stock to tarm crops, to buildings and fences. Every year the timber operators ^se a great amount of property of various kinds by reason of forest fire iMgures on this loss are hard to obtain, but if the value of mills, engines tools, buildings, and tram roads, completely or partly destroyed by fire were known it would greatly astonish lumbermen themselves. The same wonHl:!nH'"ti V m f^t ^^'"^^ ^"^ ^^""'^ ^^ P^^P^^^y adjoining sTanri hi U^ '"^'vidual loss may or may not be large in any one in^ fi res '" "^' ^""^ ^^ ^^^^ "'" """^ ^"^ unbelievable Fire in the forest causes the loss of homes. Not infrequently have n7tJ^?' furnished the spark that burned the homes and possessions of families living within or near the forest. Occasionally whole towns have been chngerously threatened, and in some instances completely ren^r • Zu^ T' "^ ^""^^ "^ '^' ^ '" '^'^ Northwest are heTrt^ ^roSy'dttro^ed" '""' '" ""^'^ " " ^^'"^^^^' ""^"^^^^ ^' Fire causes the loss of human lives. The fire which start one s brush pile or careless act may be the direct cause of any number of human lives, as witness the results of many conflagrations in the West, in Canada, and occasionally in tew years ago fires in Minnesota and Wisconsin took a human life and will go down in historv among the horrible resulting from someone's thoughtlessness. But here aeain not be counted in dollars. s from some- snuflPing out of the awful the East. A large toll of catastrophies the loss can- Fire destroys game ami fish. Spring fires, especially are fatal to NT^fTern^r'.r" ;'^' r' ™">^ ^^^^ ^^ .ame^^ird^are"es oU s^ffiS to^k^^^ 1 T' "^ '^ r^" '^'^' ^^' ^^^" heated sumcient y to kill hsh. By destrovmg the factor which largely rejrulates the steady flow of streams and by making the banks of ^strUmf bare of heir natural protection fish life is seriJxisly affected A Secretary of the Pennsylvania Game Commission has stated that forest fire, do more to destroy game than all other forces put together. A Pelfyl^^^^^^^ Fish Commissioner has stated that the native brook trout of the East is almost a thing o the past because the waters are too warm for it The California trout is being planted instead. 19

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