NATURAL AGENCIES DESTRUCTIVE OF TTTE FORESTS. 6\5 



directions, but owing to the oscillating movement of the point from 

 wbich the storms come we tind areas which have been partially denuded 

 in all stages of repair and others which show all degrees of destruction. 

 Tin- agency of snow in destroying the Ooeur d'Alene forests is seen 

 in the great number of broken trees, both young and old, which one 

 meets constantly in traveling through the timber. To successfully 

 resist the snow, it is necessary the tree should have a vertical stand. 

 Even a slight degree of inclination is pretty sure to end in the uproot- 

 ing of the individual by the weight of the snow which will accumulate 

 on the crown during the storms of early winter. 



Snow slides occur at various places, especially around the high, bare 

 peaks— such as Stevens, Wiessner, and Sunset— but they are insig- 

 nificant and not at all dangerous, except where the timber has been 

 destroyed. The occurrence of destructive snow slides in the settled 

 portions of the Cceur dAlenes is a direct consequence of forest destruc- 

 tion in those localities. On the areas where it is untouched no slides 

 can occur. The snow is firmly held, melts slowly, and there are no bare 

 spots on the slopes or on the summits where a loosened mass can acquire 

 momentum. 



The lightning operates by following the trees to the earth and tiring 

 the humus, or, in cases where they are dead and standing, the trunks 

 or limbs are set on tire. Many of the tires which rage in the Cteur 

 d'Aleues are ascribed to this cause. The supposition, however, is in 

 the main fallacious. There are occasionally during summer high 

 winds accompanied by electrical phenomena, lightning and sometimes 

 thunder without rain. If lightning strikes a tree during such a storm 

 and lires the humus, there is a probability of a forest tire. The largest 

 number of electrical storms, however, are accompanied by downpours 

 of rain which drench the humus and the foliage of the conifers so 

 thoroughly that they can not burn. 



Diseases of the trees come last among the more prominent of the 

 natural influences which destroy the forests in the Cceur d'Aleues. 

 They are the results of the attacks of various kinds of fungi. Every 

 species is subject to them, but come more than others. Of the varie- 

 ties that are particularly useful the white pine is, perhaps, more liable 

 to such attacks than any other. Great bodies of this pine are often 

 attacked simultaneously over considerable areas by some obscure fun- 

 gous disease and invariably succumb. 



We come now to the cause of the most extensive depredations on 

 the growing forest— man. He employs two potent weapons, the ax 

 and saw and lire. The methods and the motives of and for his work 

 on the timber are infinitely varied. Among the former, sawmills and 

 logging operations stand preeminent. There is not now as much activ- 

 ity in these industries throughout the Cceur d'Aleues as there formerly 

 was. The reason for this is partly to be found in the diminishing 

 supply near the centers of consumption and partly in the failure of 



