THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 91 



CHAPTER IV 



FORESTRY AND THE FIRE HAZARD 



THE SLASHING MENACE 



The function of fire as an aid to reproduction of the forest 

 in some instances has been discussed in a preceding chapter. 

 The protection question is of even greater importance, for 

 whether we consider mature timber or reforestation, no forest 

 management is worth while if the investment is to burn up. 

 It can be divided broadly under two heads, reduction of risk 

 due to operative methods and general protection. Whichever 

 we consider, the interest of every lumberman is at stake. The 

 fire question affects him in many ways beside the danger of 

 direct loss. The sale value of timber in any region is in- 

 creased by knowledge that progressive protective methods pre- 

 vail among those operating there. Nothing more effectively 

 removes public carelessness with fire, or lack of helpful sym- 

 pathy with the lumber industry in general, than evidence that 

 the lumberman himself is devoting every effort to safeguard- 

 ing instead of wasting this great public resource. 



Of operative methods reducing fire risk, one of the most 

 important is disposal of logging debris. The deliberate ac- 

 cumulation of immensely inflammable material, almost al- 

 ways where extremely likely to be ignited, is a form of ac- 

 tually inviting disaster practiced by no property holders ex- 

 cept lumbermen. Nowhere is it carried to such an extreme 

 as in the West, where the refuse left on the ground is of so 

 great volume as to preclude human control if it is once fired 

 at a dry time, and where accidental fire is often more of a 



