The wood waste exchange was established in 1914 by the Forest Service. It consists of two lists of manufacturers, which are sent out quarterly to persons desiring them. One of these is of "Opportunities to Sell Waste" and contains the names of firms which use sawdust and small pieces of wood. This list is sent to people having waste for sale. The other list is of "Opportunities to Buy Waste," and gives the names of concerns which have waste to dispose of. This list is sent to people who wish to buy material. No charge is made for this service, and at the present time over 500 coöperators are using this exchange.
By the use of this exchange, makers of wooden novelties have been successful in finding supplies of material near their plants. Other wood-working industries have been able to dispose of their waste at higher prices than they could otherwise have obtained. Many firms were located within short distances of each other, but until recently have had no way of getting together. A Philadelphia firm, engaged in the manufacture of composition flooring, has been able to obtain a portion of its sawdust from a New York lumber company. A New York woodworking establishment disposed of its waste pieces of white oak and sugar maple to a maker of wooden novelties in Connecticut for use in the manufacture of furniture knobs. A clock maker of Connecticut secured waste material for making clock boxes from the planing mill of a New York lumber company.
[CHAPTER III]
THE PROTECTION OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS
The resources of the National Forests may be injured or destroyed in many ways. Fire may burn the timber and young growth; insects and tree diseases may damage or kill timber, and certain persons may innocently or willfully commit trespass on National Forest land and use the resources without permit. Then also, the fish and game of the Forests must be protected from unlawful shooting and trapping, and the water issuing from National Forest streams must be kept free from pollution, to protect the public health.
PROTECTION FROM FIRE
Forest Fire Danger on the National Forests. Practically all the resources of the National Forests are subject to severe injury or even to entire destruction by fire. It is an ever-present danger on the National Forests, due to their great inaccessibility, their dry climate, and to other unfavorable conditions. There are probably few forest regions in the world where the danger of fire is greater than on the National Forests. The great size of the individual Forests, as compared with the size of the available patrolling force, the difficulty of reaching remote areas across miles of wilderness, the dry air and light rainfall in most parts of the western United States, the prevalence of lightning storms in the mountains, the sparseness of the population, and the constant use of fire in the industries and the daily life of the people, all combine to make the hazard exceptional.
Importance of Fire Protection. Forest fires when uncontrolled mean the loss of human lives, the destruction of homes, live stock, forage, timber and watershed cover. Besides the direct damage to the National Forest resources it defeats all attempts to practice forestry; it nullifies all efforts of forest management, such as regulation of cutting to insure a second crop of timber, the planting of denuded areas, and the restriction of grazing to assist reproduction. Fire destroys the very improvements which are constructed annually at great expense. In other words, protection from fire is the first and most important problem on the National Forests without which no operation or transaction, however small, can be undertaken.
If the problem of fire protection is the most important task confronting a Forest officer on the National Forests, then certainly fire prevention is next in importance. Obviously it is easier to prevent fires than to fight them. All large conflagrations have their origin in small fires which if they could be reached in time could probably be put out by one man. But in regions remote from water and supplies fires may start and reach vast proportions before a party of fire fighters can get to the scene, no matter how promptly the start is made. By far the best plan, therefore, is to prevent fires rather than to depend upon fighting them after they get started. To this end the Forest Service has given the most earnest consideration. During the dangerous season the main attention of Forest Supervisors and Forest Rangers is devoted to preventing fire. Extra men are employed, the Forests are systematically patrolled, and a careful lookout is maintained from high points. Roads and trails are so built that every part of the Forests may be quickly reached with pack animals. Tools and food for fire fighters are stored at convenient places. The Ranger stations and lookout houses are connected with the office of the Forest Supervisor by telephone, so that men may be quickly assembled to fight a dangerous fire which the patrolman cannot subdue alone. Each Forest Supervisor endeavors to secure the coöperation of all forest users in the work of preventing fires and in reporting and helping to fight them in case they get started.