Forest Protection Week is Related in Verse to Aid Cause

Historical reproductions by Dick Perue

It takes 30,000 days to grow a forest and one day to burn It.

Saving the forests saves the game – one match is more deadly than 100 cartridges.

Thus were the headline and subheads in the May 19, 1921 issue of the Laramie Daily Boomerang.

In 2020, after experiencing the worst forest fire season in history of my beloved Snowy Range, it only seems fitting to relate the efforts being made 100 years ago to save our forests. The following proclaims:

A burning match, a cigarette stub,
tossed from a passing four-wheeled “tub” –
this is the way some careless dub
starts a forest fire.

God made the forests for you to enjoy,
to play ’mid the pines where quiet streams lurk;
but one unquenched spark from your fire may destroy
hundreds of acres of God’s handiwork.

Welcome to your playgrounds
’mid the forests green,
camp and hunt and fish and hike,
but keep your campsite clean;

Watch your fire and cigarettes,
“Care with fire” – your text;
leave the forests healthy for
the fellow who comes next.

F-orests of green for you to enjoy
O-nly be careful you don’t destroy
R-uin follows a forest fire
E-asily started but loath to expire;
S-ee that your campfire is out ere you go,
T-he forests are yours so help them to grow.

P-reach and practice care with fire
R-egrets won’t help the outcome dire,
O-ne spark may start a conflagration
T-hat leaves behind black desolation.
E-ach little match with a burning tip,
C-igarette butts tossed with thoughtless flip,
T-hese are the things that leave each year,
I-n spectral columns, bleak and drear,
O-n countless acres, thru man’s careless whims,
N-aught but charred and blackened limbs.