The Cispus Burn. 199 



of this burn. In time, a few Noble fir, Amablis fir or White pine 

 creep into the open spaces in the brush and by shading the brush 

 out and scattering seed the patches slowly become restocked by 

 coniferous trees. There is such an example near the head of the 

 Cispus river. It does not require so long a period for the growth 

 to become established in the berry patches as in chaparral, and 

 on the eastern borders of the burn there are many berry patches 

 which are becoming restocked. A good illustration is found be- 

 tween the forks of Cat creek. There once was a large huckle- 

 berry patch at this place as is evident from the numerous old 

 Indian camp ground and burnt logs where the berries were 

 dried, and by remaining bushes. It is now grown up with a good 

 stand of White pine, Amabilis and Alpine firs, saplings about 15 

 years old. There is no way of determining how long the berries 

 usurped the land before the growth reappeared, though it probably 

 required several decades for the transition. Unexpected species 

 and stands are sometimes found on old burns along the eastern 

 edge of the Cispus burn. The old burns are in a berry country 

 frequented by Indians who in former times burned the country 

 to expand the berry patches. As one Indian expressed it, they 

 used to "bum some country every year, sometimes a little bit, 

 sometimes a big bit." Near the Chain of Lakes there is a pure 

 stand of Lodgepole pine and in the same locality are specimens 

 of both Western larch and Western Yellow pine. This is one 

 of the very few places where these species are known to exist on 

 the west slope of the mountains on this Forest. Fire was un- 

 doubtedly the controlling factor in introducing these species so 

 far from their usual range. Reproduction is generally found 

 to start first in moist situations at the bottom of draws and other 

 sheltered places, and it often happens that seed trees survived 

 in such sheltered locations and the reproduction around them is 

 sometimes very dense. On the west side of Juniper Mountain 

 there are deep draws carved out by streams flowing down the 

 mountain; in these draws, especially in those with seed trees, 

 the Douglas fir and hemlock reproduction is excellent. On the 

 dry ridges between the draws White pine and Noble fir form 3% 

 of the reproduction, although there are no White pine or Noble 

 fir seed trees in the vicinity. The ages of the seedlings show that 

 most of them became established during the moist summers. 

 Very few four year old plants were found ; four years ago the 

 summer was an exceptionally dry one. 



