Smokey the Bear's Historic Message Misses the Mark for Californians

By Tracy Dove, Ph.D
Editor, The Russia News Service

October 24, 2007

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is sitting in the Sacramento Control Center, where he dares not smoke one of his beloved cigars. Southern California is on fire, and this is not a San Diego real estate hippy trying to wax original about property valuations. Wildfires are once again ravishing the countryside, where deer and hawks, or the occasional bobcat or Davidian cultist once reigned supreme. While firefighters struggle to contain the blazes, should we be asking what could have done to prevent this catastrophe? Has the government been helpful at all in forest management? Yes and no is the answer, but let's start first with "yes", because it takes us on a little ride back in time to our childhood- back to the icon of icons in fire fighting- Smokey Bear.

That America even became interested in forest fires is thanks to our first conservationist President, Theodore Roosevelt. It was during his tenure that the Forest Service was charged with maintaining land that had been taken out of the national domain and reserved for purposes of "the greater good." This includes the management of logging, strip mining, recreational vehicles, camping and lastly- natural habitat. Without sounding too cynical, the Forest Service has had to bend to commercial interests, but it also tries to balance the interests of Americans watching birds and Americans counting profits on Wall Street. In order to stave off losses to both parties, the Forest Service has also been engaged in fire prevention, but once America was totally committed to World War II, it was seen as a patriotic duty to prevent fires from destroying national wealth. But how do you do it effectively?

Americans became aware about what forest fires could do to nature in the 1942 animated film, Bambi, but Hollywood wasn't about to loan their golden goose to the US government for propaganda purposes. So in 1944 the American Ad Council created the ultimate poster child for preventing forest fires- Smokey Bear. The first images of him depicted a ranger hat-wearing brown bear with a childish grin in green overalls pouring water over a campfire. This worked well, but it was the verbal message added to the image in 1948 that made Smokey a hit- "Only you can prevent forest fires." After that, America suddenly woke up to the smell of smoke everywhere, creating a new culture of the citizen fireman and amateur forest ranger.

Smokey was further popularized in 1952 when a hit song was released entitled "Smokey the Bear", adding the "the" to his name forever. This word was inserted, so the songwriters said, to provide rhythm and cadence to the melody, but whatever the reason, the new name stuck. Seeing gold in the Smokey Bear brand and not wanting to miss out on a good thing, the US Congress quickly muscled into the Smokey craze and doused it by removing his name from the public domain in 1952 with the Smokey Bear Act. This little modification was done to raise money for firefighting everywhere, and from then on any Smokey visits, images, songs or appearances had to have government permission first with royalties close behind. Millions of Smokey Bear dolls were sold with a paper pledge in the package that kids could write their names on and send in to become real fire rangers.

Times, change, fires change. In April of 2001, Smokey's shtick was updated to include, "only you can prevent wildfires," which was a rather lame attempt to shore up support for West Coast property values being crushed by wildfires. Did it help any? No, the answer resounds loud and clear, because people can't prevent wildfires. The developers in California have little to no respect for the edge of nature and the way it cleanses itself, and the residents are foolish to look anywhere than their local library for causes of the fires. Science now teaches us that preventing those forest fires actually results in more of them, since this build up of fuel creates huge fires when they finally catch, thereby destroying more than if forest fires were simply "managed."

So where is Smokey's message in all the loss of property in southern California? Nowhere, and good riddance, the residents would say. Selfish homeowners have no one to blame but themselves for building in places that are meant to burn regularly. It is sad for the people who ignore this, so let's change Smokey's historic message in the following way: "only you can prevent wildfires from destroying your homes."

Tracy Dove, editor of The Russia News Service, is a Professor of History and Dean of Summer Programs for the Lessing Institute. He also teaches history at the Anglo-American College in Prague.

See all previous articles by Tracy Dove here.