_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.