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made up of timbermen and federal and state forestry 

 officials from Oregon, Washington, California, 

 Idaho and Montana. This organization concerned it 

 self mainly with bringing together for discussion 

 men and ideas in the field of forest fire protection. 



One of the first things presented to me by 

 members of my staff responsible for private coopera 

 tion was the undisguised indifference of timberland 

 owners to what happened to their cut-over land. 

 I made many a speech to timbermen and other groups 

 on the subject of the future value of the young 

 growth that followed cutting, especially in the 

 Douglas fir type on the west side of the Cascades. 

 Here the practice was, and still is, to burn over 

 cutting areas in order to remove the heavy volume 

 of inflammable slash left after logging. This 

 practice diminished the danger of subsequent 

 accidental fires and also prepared the soil for 

 Douglas fir reproduction from seed in the soil, 

 A second fire, after young growth had become estab 

 lished, and stored seed no longer existed, was 

 almost sure to turn the cut-over areas into a 

 brush field. Too many timberland owners wrote 



