212 Forestry Quarterly. 



At the same time there is plenty of evidence to show that this 

 area is capable of producing a good yellow pine fo-'^st. The 

 surviving trees are of a merchantable type and the reproduction 

 now springing up in the openings is thrifty and of rapid growth. 

 The land is unfitted for agriculture and without the forest cover 

 it produces only a worthless cover of brush. The present stand 

 of pine is not disappearing from over-maturity, as very nearly all 

 of the dead trees are not of mature ages or diameters. Neither 

 can this condition be accounted for by fires. The loss can only 

 be satisfactorily attributed to the direct agency of insects. 



The result of this reconnaissance may be considered rep- 

 resentative of conditions not only on similar sections of the 

 Klamath National Forest but elsewhere in District 5. To make 

 such land as this productive is one of the biggest problems of 

 progressive forestry. But the saving of the merchantable tim- 

 ber now on the ground is a more immediate necessity. Were 

 it not for the attack of insects the older trees, even though 

 in an unthrifty condition, would probably have held their own 

 until market conditions made them available. Under present 

 conditions, they are a direct loss as the wood destroying fungi 

 and secondary insects render them unmerchantable very soon 

 after death. What is still worse these dead trees become veri- 

 table fire traps and are a constant menace as long as they stand. 



There are many other sources of insect loss besides that 

 caused by the girdling of living trees by barkbeetles. Insects 

 mine the tree seeds and retard reproduction. They may strip 

 the foliage from growing trees, and the finished lumber pro- 

 duct is sometimes badly damaged. Much of the injury of this 

 class is inconspicuous and is understood only by the specialist. 

 But the feature which concerns most the field men on the Na- 

 tional Forests is the loss of merchantable trees, and our first ef- 

 forts should be directed toward checking the inroads of insects in 

 the growing stands. 



There is reason to believe that our forests will continue to suf- 

 fer unless measures of relief are undertaken. To bring about 

 better condition attacks will have to be met as they appear and 

 checked before large invasions develop. These results can only 

 be reached as they have been reached in fire protection — by the 

 watchfulness of an organized force in the field. The duty of 



