704 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



although this latter character is not always present. The fruiting body 

 is principally confined to the roots, appearing as resupinate bodies hav- 

 ing a white under surface of fine pores and a projecting edge of a light 

 gray brown color. Occasionally distinct shelf-shaped conks are found. 

 A fine mycelium occurring under the bark scales of the roots indicates 

 the presence of the fungus. 



Sparassis radicata and Armillaria mellea are also found to attack the 

 roots of conifers in the Northwest, causing decay and subsequent weak- 

 ening of those parts, v?. radicata, a new species recently described by 

 Weir,^® is found attacking the roots of western white pine and Douglas 

 fir. Armillaria mellea does the greatest injury when attacking very 

 young growth, but is also found occasionally attacking the roots of ma- 

 ture western white pine, western yellow pine, western larch, Douglas 

 fir, western hemlock, and grand fir. 



AMOUNT OF DAMAGE, CAUSED BY WINDFALL AND WINDBREAKAGE 



The amount of damage caused directly and indirectly by windfall and 

 windbreakage is to be reckoned in millions of feet board measure an- 

 nually. This loss is important, in view of the ever-decreasing timber 

 supply and increasing inaccessibility of the remaining stock. Very 

 little data covering the entire forested areas of the United States are at 

 hand giving specific figures upon the amount of loss in board feet due 

 to the destructive action of wind. Often the loss is not direct, but 

 comes indirectly through the forced logging of windfall areas or as a 

 consequence of forest fires. Figures upon the latter losses are not 

 available, but, if so, would undoubtedly throw some valuable light upon 

 this phase of the problem. 



Of the purely windfall and windbreakage losses the following are 

 good illustrative examples as occurring upon national and privately 

 owned forests of the Northwest: 



Smith and Weitknecht^* state that "upon an area cut over by the 

 selection system 20 per cent of the thriftiest, soundest, and youngest 

 trees of the original stand were left." After two storms, one in 191 3 

 and the other in 1914, "969,876 board feet, or 17.5 per cent, by volume 

 of the reserved yellow pines over 12 inches d. b. h. had been wind- 

 thrown on this one sale area — a loss in two years which, if continued, 

 would mean in a few years more the total loss of the reserved trees," 

 This, it is stated, does not include loss by wind of larch, Douglas fir, 

 lodgepole, and white fir, which are even more susceptible to windfall 

 than yellow pine. A total of 3,621 windfalls of all species were re- 

 corded on an area of 4,000 acres of cut-over land 20 per cent stocked. 



