Recent Mechanical and Other Innovations in National Forest Fire Control

The year 1931 gave evidence that encouraging progress in fire protection is being made on the national forests. In spite of exceptionally unfavorable fire weather and an alarming increase in incendiarism, the acreage loss was held under the five-year average. Much of the success is due to improved organization and particularly to an impressive list of new tools and power equipment for building protection roads, fire breaks and fire lines. The author discusses these and other aids and how they have helped speed up fire suppression, and calls attention to further improvements that should follow present experiments.