92 PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN 



certainty than a liability. Of late, however,, the more pro- 

 gressive lumbermen of the fir region have adopted the practice 

 of firing their slashings annually at a time when the sur- 

 rounding woods will not burn, and the pine men of Idaho and 

 Montana have quite widely endorsed brush piling.^ Idaho has 

 a piling law. Oregon already has a slash burning law which 

 is partially observed. The greatest objection to such a law 

 is that neither reforestation nor economical protection indi- 

 cates the same practice in different types of forest and it is 

 extremely difficult to make the law both flexible and effective. 

 More will be accomplished by voluntary adoption of the 

 method best suited to each condition. 



BRUSH PILING 



In the more open pine stands of the interior, where both log- 

 ging debris and original combustible ground cover are small, 

 slashings threaten the adjacent timber less than in denser 

 forests, but are of peculiar danger to the valuable young 

 growth usually left on the area itself. As we have seen in a 

 previous chapter on western yellow pine, reproduction in dry 

 localities may require scattering the brush over the ground 

 and keeping fire out, and there may be abnormally dense 

 stands suggesting clean slash burning, but as a rule brush 

 piling is the best course. In view of the importance of this 

 subject the following extracts are taken from a circular issued 

 by the Forest Service: 



"Advantages of Brush Burning 



"The greatest advantage of brush burning is the protection 

 it gives against fire. In many cases brush burning is the only 

 practicable safeguard against fire. After the average lumber- 

 ing operation the ground is covered with slash, scattered 

 about or piled, just as the swampers have left it. This, in the 

 dry season, is a veritable fire trap. Probably 90 per cent of 

 all uncontrolled cuttings are burnt over, which retards the 



