FUNGI AS CONTRIBUTORY CAUSES OF WINDFALL IN 

 THE NORTHWEST 



By Ernest E. Hubert 

 Scientific Assistant, Forest Pathology, Bureau of Plant Industry 



Each year a large amount of direct damage and loss of valuable tim- 

 ber is produced on the forested areas of the Northwest through the 

 violent action of winds. Great areas of immature and mature mer- 

 chantable trees are blown over in regions as yet inaccessible to profitable 

 logging. The trees in such windfall areas remain on the ground and 

 decay, or are left to form menacing tangles of inflammable material 

 which invite lightning and other factors to the kindling of a destructive 

 forest fire. Even in regions accessible to profitable logging, windfall 

 areas, especially the smaller ones, must often be logged at a loss in 

 order to save the timber. The cost of operation on such an area often 

 results in the forced harvesting or premature cutting of the entire 

 forest unit. This is sometimes done before the unit has reached its 

 intended cutting age, and so deprives the owner of the added value 

 which the stand would have returned if it had been left to complete its 

 growth. Other factors concerned in the logging of comparatively 

 small and ioslated windfall areas enter into the economic consideration 

 and too often turn such an operation into a loss. These factors, such 

 as distances from the market, the mills, and ready transportation, are 

 mainly based on the location of the windfall area within the forest. 

 The breakage of the merchantable timber, the increased cost of logging 

 due to the tangled position of windfalls, and the presence of consider- 

 able unmerchantable down timber, all add considerably to the risk of 

 logging such areas. Heart-rotted trees are very easily broken by the 

 force of high winds, and considerable damage is caused in this manner. 

 The breakage of tops of healthy trees is brought about by the falling 

 of trees thrown by the wind, but more often trees broken in this man- 

 ner are also found to be rotted. Aside from the damage due to fire, 

 the loss through forced logging and the attendant loss through break- 

 age of merchantable windfalls, breakage and wounding of standing 

 trees, the windfall area, if unaltered by fire or logging operations, 

 quickly forms a breeding place for forest-tree insects, and later becomes 

 an area of fungous activity. 

 696 



