Well, what are you doing way back there . Come on up here. [laughs] better. s i am glad you dropped by. I have a little story. It is about a fourlegged friend of mine. No i dont mean copper back , there. Here in thed Back Mountain country of new mexico, in the Lincoln National forest. An,was may time on the capit and all the animals in the forest were having a grand old time in the sunshine of spring. There was one little, threemonthold fella in particular who did not have a care in the world. He was spending his time having fun, agrowlin and aprowlin and ascratchin. Thats right. That bear cub did not have a in the world, and somebody, a twolegged somebody, got careless. It took several hundred men five days to lick that fire. 17,000 acres of timber were destroyed, timber that could have been used for homes and furniture, along with the mills that could have turned it out. A lot of wild animals lost their homes. Many lost their lives. But there was one little fella who somehow survived that terrible fire. Yes, the little bear cub came through and was found clinging to what was left of a small tree. New mexicos game warden rushed that burned and frightened cub to the nearest Animal Hospital by plane. Warden bell saw to it that he was given the best of care. His burned feet responded to treatment, his hair grew back, and with a little belly full of food, he grew fat and sassy. They named him Little Smokey, and a special piper cub plane took him on another trip by air. This time, it was clear across the country, over americas farms, factories, and cities. This time, tiny Little Smokey and his plane landed in washington, our nations capital. Here, along with his official escort, the new mexico game s,rden, homer c. Picken Little Smokey was greeted in the rain by enthusiastic company. The chief forrester accepted the Little Smokey as a gift to the foresters and Forest Service from the new Mexico Department of game and fish. For our little hero, that welcome in the rain was only the beginning of a new and worthwhile life. On the first sunny day, Little Smokey was presented to the national zoo in washington and became a living symbol of forest fire prevention. The kids went for the whole idea honey,bear goes for the smokey seem to like the new setup, too. . It was really a big occasion. Senator sanchez from new mexico was there to welcome the new constituent to his home in the zoo. The state foresters joined in dedicating the life of Little Smokey to the schoolchildren of america to serve as an honesttogoodness reminder of the dangers of forest fires and the need to save force from destruction of fire. [chuckles] youre probably wondering if Little Smokey lived up to all of what was planned for him. You can take my word for it, he has. You see, i had a personal invitation to visit Little Smokey a while back. Of course, he is kind of a big smokey now. A year or so will do that to a bear. I was mighty excited to visit him, and i was not the only one. Little smokey is a famous character, all right. He sure liked the oranges i brought him, but i would do that for any forest fighting pal. I hate forest fires worse than all of the diamondback rattlesnakes in the world. Thats why try to do my little bit towards preventing them. I guess thats why the forester boys were on hand too and gave me a certificate making me an honorary forest ranger. Proud, because it put me right on smokeys team. Of course, smokey had to check the document to see it was genuine and to scratch his seal of approval on it. On that trip, i learned just how much good smokey has done in preventing manmade forest fires, mostly as a model for those postcards and posters you see everywhere. Smokey and his Important Message sure get around. On mail trucks around the city streets. In the buses and trolley cars. In the woods. Comics. N in the aboutw, there is a song smokey that schoolchildren all around this country of ours can sing and take to heart. Smokey the bear, smokey the bear prowling and growling and sniffing the air he can find a fire before it starts to flame thats why they call him smokey that was how he got his name you can say. Beary, the they call him smokey that was how he got his name and then you know what smokey remember, its the least that you can do smokey, the bear smokey, the bear roundnd you can find a fire before it starts to blaze and that is how he got his name bear, a living reminder that we need to protect our forest from wildfires in the future. That is the story of smokey bear, your friend and mine. Smokey needs our help, so lets all be careful of fires in the forest. Remember, only we, you and i, can prevent forest fires. So long for now, partners. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute,