Fire

The threat of forest fires helped propel the U.S. government to set aside national forest reservations to protect watersheds, and future timber supplies. The U.S. Forest Service gained control of these lands in 1905, and in 1910, faced devastating forest fires in Idaho and Montana. Based on that experience, the agency began to set fire policy. The Forest Service developed ways to forecast fire behavior, inform citizens about fire prevention, extinguish the flames, and provide federal aid to state and private landowners for fire protection.

The Forest Service Headquarters History collection contains documents on fire research, smokejumping, fire lookouts, pioneers of forest fire science, controlled burning, and famous fires where lives were lost.

Please contact the staff, if you need help retrieving documents found in the collections database.

Famous Fires

Mann Gulch

Pyne, Stephen J. "Green Skies of Montana" (2000) [pdf]

Turner, Dave. "The Thirteenth Fire" (1999) [html]

Pioneers in Fire

Harry Gisborne

Fire Research

Instruments

Anemohygrograph

Asman aspiration psychrometer

Blinkometer

Double tripod heliograph

Visibility meter

Prevention & Control

Photo Gallery: The "Real" Smokey Bear

Buck, C.J. "Forest Roads or Forest Fires?" (1936) [pdf] [html]

Greeley, William B. " 'Piute Forestry' or the Fallacy of Light Burning." [pdf]

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The following links take you to external websites containing historical
information about fire and the U.S. Forest Service.

• U.S. Wildfire Policy

• Idaho Smokejumping Oral History Project