208 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



in the prevention of water contamination. A variation of this item 

 is found in the desirability of preventing the destruction of fishing 

 through the dumping of mill or mine waste into the streams. 



In the Lake States, considerable portions of the forest reserves 

 are now producing little save a huckleberry crop, but this is eagerly 

 utilized by the local population, which assumes that constant burning 

 over of the berry patches will improve the crops. As with the light- 

 burners of California and the Gulf States, the forester is directly and 

 sometimes desperately concerned. 



If the site is poor and dry, it may be that the debris of cutting 

 should be lopped and scattered. The presence of such material sets 

 up a large fire risk, the importance of which is dependent upon the 

 rapidity with which the wood-destroying fungi do their work. If 

 any of these saprophytes are facultatively parasitic, their unusual de- 

 velopment on the brush may result seriously for the remaining stand. 



The Pacific Coast Douglas fir stands originated after severe fires. 

 With fires kept out for a rotation or so, the accumulation of litter 

 and humus so changes the site that the fir drops out and its place 

 is taken by hemlock and abies, which become progressively poorer 

 as the humus and litter grow deeper and more acid. 



Lodgepole pine stands, almost without exception, have been burned 

 over repeatedly. Humus and litter in these forests is practically 

 wanting. In many cases, where fire has not run for some time, re- 

 production is of balsam and spruce. What may be expected in lodge- 

 pole if fires are kept out for a few rotations? 



Trametes pini does very widespread and severe damage in lodge- 

 pole, causing the red and white rots which so lower the scale of many 

 cuttings. It forms sporophores very seldom, if ever, in the pine, but 

 fruits heavily on the Englemann spruce scattered through the stand. 

 On the assumptions that it does not fruit on the pine and does not 

 spread by rhizomorphs, there is no danger in leaving badly infected 

 unmerchantable trees of lodgepole on the cutting areas, but it may 

 be imperative to prohibit the spruce in mixture or, failing this, it might 

 be necessary to lower the pine rotation by many years. 



It often happens that windfall or cutting or fires expose a stand 

 of eastern hemlock to strong side light. A species of "parch blight" 

 develops and the hemlocks on the edge of the opening die, exposing 

 those behind them, which die in turn, eventually killing a great amount 

 of good timber. 



