1434 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



than 10 years) of uncut timber, in strips along watercourses or ridges, 

 or in compact blocks, aggregating up to 5 percent of the area, but 

 normally much less. In addition to providing seed, this standing 

 timber, if strategically located, will reduce the chance that fires will 

 run riot in the slash over great areas, or will reburn land already 

 reproduced. 



SEED TREES 



Where areas more than 1,500 feet in width between timber that 

 will stand for another decade are to be clear cut, a conscious effort 

 should be made to leave seed trees singly or in clumps. These should 

 be trees whose real conversion value will not amount to more than 

 two or three dollars apiece. Where there are defective or low-grade 

 trees in the stand, economic selection would indicate that these should 

 be left standing. 



SLASH DISPOSAL 



The slash on clean-cut areas in this type should ordinarily be burned, 

 but with precaution and judgment that will enable confining the 

 fire to the compartment to be burned. Small bodies of logged land 

 well isolated from causative agencies or well surrounded by uncut 

 timber or firebreaks may be left unburned. The seed crop of the 

 previous year should be given consideration when deciding when 

 and where to burn. Broadcast burning is far from ideal, and steps 

 should be taken to improve the technique of burning by some form 

 of spot burning, possibly with machine piling and real control of the 

 fires. 



FIRE PROTECTION AND PREVENTION 



All snags over 15 feet high and 20 inches in diameter should be 

 felled on all logged land in this type. Debris about camps and along 

 rights of way should be disposed of at the time of clearing to lessen 

 the chances of fire starting. Protection of logged land during and 

 after logging must be more intensive than at present. It should 

 consist of more watchmen, more equipment, more water supply, 

 more patrol, maintenance of means of travel over the areas, exclusion 

 of the public, etc. 



Colonization of small tracts in great logged-off areas should be 

 discouraged. Areas to be devoted to timber growing should be classi- 

 fied as such and no encouragement given to farmers to settle on the 

 incidental patches of good land that may exist. Such settlement 

 increases the danger of fires from land-clearing operations and eco- 

 nomically imposes a needless burden on the timberland owner for 

 roads and schools. 



COSTS 



The costs of leaving douglas fir land productive instead of devas- 

 tated are difficult to state, because of the difficulty of predicating 

 just how effective the necessary measures will be. If such measures 

 are not nullified by uncontrolled fires, their cost may be repaid many 

 tunes over by assuring sustained yield to a company that must other- 

 wise liquidate. A rough estimate of costs is as follows : 



Economic selection cutting. This is a saving rather than a cost. 



Leaving blocks or strips of timber to break up a big clear-cut 

 area. With stumpage at $150 an acre, the reservation of as much 



