Forest Protection 155 



A surface fire burns in the moss, leaves and underbrush. 

 In fact, in many regions it is such a common occurrence for 

 the forests to burn over in this way every spring and fall 

 that no one pays any attention to them. Some owners 

 even set these fires in their woodlots with the idea of im- 

 proving the grazing. It is the impression generally that 

 these surface fires do no damage because they do not very 

 obviously injure the mature trees. This impression is 

 altogether wrong. The surface fire does an enormous 

 amount of damage in any forest ; and more especially is 

 this so in the woodlot. The obvious injury to the mature 

 timber is, indeed, slight, but damage has been done. 

 The litter which should naturally increase the fertility of 

 the soil is destroyed, and land that is burned over every 

 year deteriorates steadily. The surface roots are injured 

 or killed by the heat and the trees rendered liable to wind- 

 fall. The trees are burned at the base so that considerable 

 loss is experienced in logging through the cutting of high 

 stumps and the butting of the bottom log the very best 

 timber in the whole tree. This is more especially true of 

 conifers. 



The greatest loss is in the young growth, which is very 

 susceptible to injury from fire in all species. A surface 

 fire every three or four years is sufficient to destroy most of 

 the young growth and the annual burning makes all 

 reproduction impossible. It also fosters the growth of 

 herbaceous weeds and sprouting shrubs to such an extent 

 that tree seedlings are crowded out completely. In the 

 virgin forest in which most of the timber is mature and 

 very little young growth is present, this does not matter 

 so much to the owner, for he counts on moving to another 



