Summary: The use of flying boats and seaplanes to help prevent forest fires in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, in the early 1920s.
Description: The film stresses that timber is an important national resource, and forest fires a great danger. There are flying boat bases at Parry Sound in Georgian Bay (part of Lake Huron) and at Whitney on Cache Lake in Algonquin Park. The base at Whitney is shown. It has two flying boats, a two-engined Curtiss/Felixstowe type, probably a Felixstowe F5, and a single-engined Curtiss H5; it has also a number of Avro 504s fitted with floats. The pilots pose for the camera, "the same dashing, daredevil, lynx-eyed fellows that used to spot the 'Boche' battery positions". The two large seaplanes set off on patrol, following the waterways of the park. One of them acts as a camera plane. They see smoke rising from the forest and come in for a closer look. The F5, which carries a crew of five and fire-fighting equipment, lands on a nearby lake. The crew attack the fire, using a small motor to pump water from the lake for a hose. This time they are successful. The patrols, typified by one of the Avros in flight, continue.