To give further fire protection a gasoline launch—­the Ranger—­twenty-six feet long and with a carrying capacity of fifteen men, and a speed of about nine miles an hour, was placed on Lake Tahoe in 1910, at the Kent Ranger Station, located a mile below the Tavern.  The guard who is in charge of this boat is on the Lake about eight hours each day, going up the Lake in the morning towards Tallac and taking the northern end of the Lake in the afternoon.  The launch is put in service each year about the 15th of June and kept there until the fire-danger is over in the fall.  Normal years this is about the 15th of September, but in 1913 the launch remained and the patrolman was on duty much later.

If the guard sights a fire anywhere within the watershed of Lake Tahoe, he immediately obtains men at the nearest point and proceeds to the fire.  Since the launch has been on the Lake there have been no serious fires.  Every fire has been caught in its infancy and put out before any damage has been done.  There has been only one fire of any size on the Lake since the launch was installed.  This burned about 20 acres just east of Brockway.  Numerous small fires of an acre or less have been put out each year.

The Forest Guard in charge of the launch for the years 1912-13 was Mark W. Edmonds.  Mr. Edmonds is the son of Dr. H.W.  Edmonds, who is now in the Arctic doing scientific work for the Carnegie Institute.

The force of men at work on the Reserve varies in number according to the season of the year.  When the fire-season is on many more men are on duty than in the winter-season.  The year-long force consists of the Supervisor, Deputy Supervisor, Forest Clerk, Stenographer, thirteen Rangers and two Forest Examiners who are Forest School men engaged chiefly on timber sale and investigative work.  The force in 1913 during the season of greatest danger was fifty-six.  Some of the temporary employees are engaged for six months, some for three months and others for shorter periods.  The longer termed men are generally Assistant Rangers who cannot be employed the year around, but who are considered first for permanent jobs that occur on the statutory roll on account of their Civil Service standing.

Forest fires are caused in a variety of ways, but chiefly through inexcusable carelessness.  Now and then lightning produces fire, but the throwing down of lighted matches by smokers, the butt ends of cigars and cigarettes that are still alight, leaving camp-fires unextinguished, or building them too large, allowing fires for burning waste land or brush to get from under control—­these are the chief sources of forest fires.  Accordingly the local and federal authorities constantly keep posted on Forest Reserves notices calling attention to the dangers and urging care upon all who use the forests for any purpose whatever.