328 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



rama extends from Mount St. Helens, 

 in Washington, to Diamond Peak, and 

 includes 10 snow-capped mountains, 

 with hundreds of lesser peaks. The 

 middle ground is of lakes, meadows, 

 cinder cones, and rivers of lava, and 

 the foreground would be in perfect 

 keeping with the picture if it were not 

 too frequently an unsightly burn." 



He estimated that 10 percent of the 

 area was covered by new burns and 

 that probably 90 percent of the entire 

 forest at some remote period had suf- 

 fered from fires, of which traces still 

 remained. 



In the beginning men were lacking 

 to do the job. Among the first super- 

 visors were men like Gy Bingham, a 

 westerner who combined the positions 

 of county judge and sheriff with his 

 Government work, and Tom Sherrard, 

 a young easterner who had studied for- 

 estry in Europe. Each field man had 

 about 500,000 acres to protect from 

 fire or trespass. On such large areas 

 one man could do little in serious fire 

 situations except to put out small fires 

 and report the acreage burned over by 

 the larger fires. 



The forests in the Douglas-fir region 

 always have been uniquely susceptible 

 to bad fires. The dry summers, the pre- 

 dominance of resinous trees, and the 

 great volume of inflammable material 

 on the ground create an acute hazard 

 all through the summer. The increas- 

 ing use of the forest by travelers, vaca- 

 tioners, loggers, and settlers has in- 

 creased the chances of man-caused 

 fires. Lightning storms can easily ignite 

 the material ; in critical fire weather, a 

 spark from a logging donkey, a burning 

 match, or the cigarette of a passerby 

 can set off a conflagration. 



Several bad fire years have occurred 

 on the Willamette National Forest 

 since it was created. One of the worst 

 was in 1919, when several fires burned 

 over about 31,000 acres. 



Through the years a systematic fire- 

 protection organization has been de- 

 veloped. The number of smokechasers 

 was increased. Lookout cabins were 

 built. The back country was made 



more accessible by new trails and 

 roads. New fire-fighting tools were de- 

 veloped. Portable pumps and hose that 

 could be carried by men or pack ani- 

 mals were used. Dropping men and 

 supplies from airplanes was then tried. 

 Agreements were made with hundreds 

 of experienced loggers, sawmill work- 

 ers, and other local cooperators for 

 getting trained fire fighters in a hurry. 



The effect of the organization is evi- 

 dent from the record for the 5 years 

 from 1943 to 1948. During the period 

 (when, it is true, the weather was fa- 

 vorable for fire fighting) , 391 fires were 

 started on the forest, practically all by 

 lightning, but the area burned aver- 

 aged only 139 acres each year. 



Another step came in the techniques 

 of burning logging slash. Fire experts 

 agree that slash from logging is the 

 most dangerous type of fuel. As a re- 

 sult of a series of large fires in slash, for 

 many years the controlled burning of 

 the slash was considered necessary. 

 The early logger was not particularly 

 skillful in his burning techniques, how- 

 ever; it was not unusual for a slash- 

 burning fire to get out of control. 

 Through experience, men learned that 

 in this region slash could be burned 

 safely only at certain periods of the 

 year usually after the first heavy fall 

 rains and then only by using careful 

 burning procedures. It has become 

 standard practice to postpone burning 

 until fuel under the green timber is 

 wet (usually after 2]/2 to 5 inches of 

 rainfall) ; to start burning in the after- 

 noons so that fires will die down during 

 the night; to burn downhill on steep 

 slopes. Thus fire hazard is reduced 

 with a minimum of damage to the for- 

 est. Recently improved cutting prac- 

 tices, such as partial cutting or area 

 selection, have tended to simplify the 

 slash-burning problem by breaking up 

 slash areas into small segments. 



THE HEADWATERS of the Middle 

 Fork Willamette, McKenzie, and San- 

 tiam Rivers are within the Willamette 

 forest. All are major contributors to 

 the flow of the Willamette River, whose 



