194 FORESTS AND MANKIND 



and whose smoke obscures the sun for miles, but they are not 

 the only destructive fires. 



Even the light fires that run along the ground just scorching 

 the bark of the larger trees and then dying, even these are in- 

 juring the forests of today. But they are injuring still more the 

 forests of tomorrow. For the larger trees are able, partially, 

 to protect themselves by the thick bark that grows about the 

 base of their trunks, but the seedlings the trees that are a year 

 old or five years old, the infants of the forest communities, 

 these, even the lightest of fires destroy utterly. And, even 

 though next year a new crop springs up, even then nature's 

 past work has all been wasted and she must begin again and 

 this time under less favorable conditions. 



Even the larger trees that are not killed by the average fire, 

 are weakened and scarred and rendered less resistant to their 

 enemies. For most trees have a long, hard struggle to survive, 

 even when unhandicapped and, ever so slight a fire may turn 

 the tide against a tree and be the deciding adverse factor in its 

 struggle for life. Fungus and insects enter the fire wounds 

 bringing diseases and decay. Fire-scarred trees are less valuable, 

 less productive trees for the flames have taken away some of 

 their strength. Fire-damage is often a cumulative process. The 

 first fire may just scar the tree a little, perhaps, not even burn- 

 ing through its protective bark, but the next fire burns with a 

 hotter flame, for it is fed by the resinous gum that the tree 

 has exuded to cover the first scar. So as fire follows fire, the 

 tree may at length be burned through and through. Then a 

 sudden savage wind storm and a snap and the tree crashes to 

 the ground just as truly a victim of the flames as if it had been 

 burned to ashes in one great conflagration. Today in a very 



