Forest fires have been epidemic across much of the western and southern United States for the past several years. High winds and drought conditions team up to turn trees, brush and grassland into tinderboxes. They cause extensive damage to property, human and animal life. Damage to the environment although as serious is not emphasized as much as the aforementioned injuries but in my opinion it should be.

Two main things determine the severity of wild fires; they are fuel and wind conditions. The Adirondacks in the not too distance past had its share of wildfires. In the early nineteen hundreds thousands of acres or forest land burned. They were responsible for the formulation of a united force trained and equipped to combat forest fires.

A forest fire is described as, any fire burning upon forest land or threatening forest land. In 1885 the state formed such an organization. The men who serve in that organization are known today as Forest Rangers.

When I joined the ranger force in 1958 the rangers’ main specified duty was in the prevention and suppression of forest fires. It was an integral part of the overall protection of state land. The time of year when the ground was not protected with snow was potentially fire season.

The danger of fires in the woods has caused various Governors to issuer closure proclamations in various counties fifteen times since 1924. There were three closures during my tenure in the 1960s which accounted for three of those. They were stressful times when people had good cause to be concerned for their property and businesses. The rangers had their hands full and so did local fire departments particularly volunteer departments since most of them are located in remote sparsely occupied areas of open land.

Enough cannot be said about the importance of local volunteer companies in the control of wildfires. The conservation departments division of fire control is blatantly unprepared to adequately handle fire suppression on a large scale. It takes vast numbers of people and resources to handle open fire under extreme conditions. New York and the eastern states are fortunate in that they do not have the same weather conditions or forest topography as the southern and western states. Weather is the principal component when it comes to open fires, fuel type and density is the other. Hardwood forests although potentially hazardous under extreme conditions do not present the overall danger coniferous forests do.

One of the most formidable obstacles in fire suppression in the Adirondacks is the vast rugged and remote areas of our forest. It is virtually impossible to get the resources needed to the site in the case of fire under extreme conditions. In the past these conditions and the experience gained from the early fires caused the state to implement policies to help overcome those conditions. They instituted a series of fire towers and constructed forest fire truck trail roads to aid in early detection and access.

Experience showed that with the advent and increase in private modern aircraft the towers were no longer essential in detection. The modern floatplane—combined with the abundance of lakes and waterways they could operate from—helped immensely in detecting and fighting fires. They also became a useful tool in rescue operations and in overall supervision of state facilities and property. In the sixties float planes in particular were the single biggest asset available to the ranger in fire suppression and rescue operations.

They have lost most of that aid with the present policy regulating use of the forest preserve. The question now, to me, as someone who was there and done that, is what the results will be when we once again experience the same conditions.

As I look back at my time with the ranger force the one thing that jumps out at me is the debt of gratitude I owe to those whose help I depended on to do my job. There are very few rangers with many more duties then we had to contend with and they need the public’s help as badly, or more so, than I did. The big question is with the present policies regulating the use of state facilities will they get it? The one thing I did absolutely learn was that none of my duties was more important than maintaining a good rapport with the general public. The other thing was that the Albany hierarchy at times seems to care less.