During March, April and May, forest fire wardens and local fire companies become busy with brush fires and larger forest fires. This springtime danger comes when bright sun, strong winds and warming temperatures quickly increase wildfire dangers across Pennsylvania’s forests and brush lands.

When things turn green later in the spring the fire season will slow down.

The Bureau of Forestry within DCNR is responsible for the prevention and suppression of wildfire on the 17 million acres of forest lands throughout the commonwealth. Today the bureau aids fire companies across the state when wildfire occurs.

At the end of the 1800s, the state’s forests were rapidly being depleted. After lumbering operations were completed, vast areas of land were left completely denuded and unproductive. This idle land became a big problem, and the only answer was for the state to take ownership of the land.

On June 13, 1898, Pennsylvania purchased its first forest land and during that year, 314,572 acres were bought. By 1930, the state had 1,290,692 acres of state forest land under their control. Today, Pennsylvania has over 2.1 million acres of state forest land.

While the commonwealth began to buy forest land, attempts were made to control the many forest fires. To combat these forest fires, the Bureau of Forest Protection was organized within in the Department of Forestry in 1915, with the primary purpose of developing a state-wide protection system.

Although a forest fire warden’s duties have not changed throughout the years, the tools have. In 1905, the first forest fire observation tower (a wooden structure) was erected in Franklin County by the Department of Forestry.

In 1933 during the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt formed the Civilian Conservation Corps, consisting of young men and veterans of World War I. It was during this time that the CCC set about building fire lookout towers, and access roads to those towers.

The U.S. Forest Service took great advantage of the CCC workforce and initiated a massive program of construction projects, including fire lookout towers.

The following excerpt comes from a 1934 article in the Tunkhannock New Age:

“The new fire tower on the top of Kellogg Mountain, near Weston, is now complete. It was built by the boys of the C.C.C. camp at LaQuin. The mountain is 1350 feet high, and the tower rises 82 feet above that, with a 100-foot flagpole surmounting all. From the top of the tower, one gets a sweeping view as far as Elmira, Canton and other towns in every direction.”

The heyday of fire lookout towers was from 1930-50. During World War II, the Aircraft Warning Service was established and operated from mid-1941 to mid-1944. Fire lookouts were assigned additional duty as Enemy Aircraft Spotters, especially on the West Coast of the United States.

To help reduce the number of acres destroyed by forest fires, observation towers were erected. By 1930, there were 115 such towers located across the state. Usually, these towers were built of steel and were 60-80 feet high. The towers were connected to the local district forester or forest ranger by more than 800 miles of state-owned telephone lines.

Thirty-one of these towers were situated on state forest lands and 84 on privately owned forest lands. Today there are still approximately 50 towers across the state, although many of these towers are no longer in use. However they do have historical and aesthetic value.

From the 1960s through 1990s, the towers took a back seat to technology. To replace some towers, they began using rented airplanes. However the planes were $1,000 an hour and often not available when they were needed. Improvements in radios and the promise of space satellite fire detection and modern cell phones tried to compete with the remaining fire lookout towers, but in several remote areas the technology failed.

However, just recently a new satellite called FireSat’s was launched. When the full constellation of 50 satellites are live in the coming years, it will detect a fire that’s merely 5 by 5 meters, about the size of a classroom, within 20 minutes.

Today some fire lookout towers remain in service because having human eyes being able to detect smoke and call in the fire report allows fire management officials to decide early how the fire is to be managed. The more modern policy is to manage fire, not simply to suppress it. Fire lookout towers provide a reduction in the time of fire detection to time of fire management assessment.

In 2017, the Forest Department spent $4.6 million to build 16 new towers. These new towers were made of wood and not as high but the new fire towers were sturdier to meet today’s structural and foundation code requirements. They are safer to ascend, with improved stairs and railings, and be topped with weather-proof cabs.

Mountain-top fire towers continue to provide an excellent advantage for spotting wildfire smoke along the horizon and conveying fire locations to bureau-led firefighting crews. Fire detection relies on fire towers, aviation and people on the ground. They did not want to put all their eggs in one basket. Because of their location and elevation, many of the towers will be outfitted with various state and federal radio communication antenna systems. These towers are anticipated to remain safe and functional for many decades.

The Bradford County Commissioners have received a gift of the Kellogg Fire Tower, which has been dismantled. The commission have plans in the works to put the tower on Mount Pisgah at the county park.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.