While some fire protection improvements had been constructed in the park prior to 1930, lack of funds and information limited such endeavors. In 1930 John D. Coffman, Chief of Forestry of the National Park. Service, prepared the first “Report on the Fire Protection Requirements of Crater Lake National Park.” The report, which served as a blueprint for the development of the park fire protection program during the next decade, surveyed fire hazards in the park and included recommendations on the need for fire equipment, a fire detection system, personnel placement, cooperation, training, and hazard reduction measures. Among other recommendations the report urged that the following be constructed to provide adequate protection against fire for park forests and facilities:
Protection telephone lines
Fire protection buildings (fire lookout on Watchman Peak)
Protection road (rim to Mount Scott)
Protection motorways (75.9 miles)
Protection trails (3 miles) [32]
In 1942 Associate Regional Forester Jack B. Dodd prepared a comprehensive “Report on Forest Protection Requirements for Crater Lake National Park.” The report presented an overview of forest protection policies in the park from the time of Coffman’s report until May 1942. The study found that there had been 152 fires in the park during the eleven-year period from 1931 through 1941–110 lightning-caused and 42 man-caused (smoker, 24; camper, 5; debris, 4; and miscellaneous, 9). As part of the campaign to promote fire prevention, efforts had been made to establish strict park regulations regarding fires and to promote general public awareness of the fire threat.
During the 1930s and early 1940s the park engaged in an active fire hazard reduction program using the services of Civilian Conservation Corps personnel. Clean-up to reduce the fire hazard was carried out along all major roads, power and telephone clearings, and some of the motorways. “Cat trails” were cut through the formerly logged Yawkey Tract and efforts to clean up the unburned slash and snags cleft by the clogging operations in the area were conducted to reduce the fire hazard and preserve the vegetative cover of the tract. Two primary fire detection lookouts were located in the park, one on the rim of the crater on the west side of the lake called the Watchman and the other on Mount Scott, a volcanic cone on the east side of the lake several miles distant from the crater rim. During the 1930s two seasonal fire guards were on the forest protection and fire prevention payroll, both of whom were stationed at park headquarters until 1940. In 1941 one remained at the headquarters to handle fire matters in the southern half of the park, while one was stationed at the North Rim Ranger Station. An extensive telephone and radio system was installed and proved useful in fire suppression work. Fire weather stations were maintained at park headquarters, the two lookouts, and Lost Creek Ranger Station during the fire seasons in 1938, and the U.S. Forest Service cooperated by providing weather data. The park purchased enough fire fighting equipment to supply 150 to 175 men. Annual firefighting training schools for park personnel were instituted in the late 1930s, and in 1935 plans were drawn up by the chief ranger outlining the duties of fire protection personnel and providing for the employment of transient labor to supplement the ranger organization, other park personnel, and CCC enrollees in fighting fires on an as-needed basis. In 1937 cooperative agreements were drawn up with the Rogue River and Umpqua national forests and the Klamath Indian Reservation for mutual fire suppression aid. These cooperative agreements were extended indefinitely in 1938. [33]
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