Canadian Forestr}) Journal, July, 1919 



327 



CLEARING THE FOREST OF DEBRIS 



By Ellrvood Wilson, Laureniide Company. 



Can Fire Rangers be Used in Winter to Follow Crews and 



Eliminate the Slash? 



The one thing that every fire ranger fears 

 is a large fire in cut-over lands, which, fanned 

 by a high wind, will attain such proportions 

 before help can be obtained that many square 

 miles will be burned over before it can be 

 stopped. Single fires in the past have gone 

 over tracts of 1,000 square miles and with 

 weather and wind conditions favoring, the 

 same thing could possibly happen again. How 

 can we prevent this? 



The records of fires for six years past, show 

 that the majority of fires occur in cut-over 

 territory and on old burns. That means that 

 cut-over territory is responsible for the greater 

 majority of the fires, for this burns over and 

 the land so burned catches fire very easily for 

 at least two successive seasons after the first 

 burn. Of the area burned over each year 

 about forty per cent is cut-over territory and 

 forty-two per cent old burn, making a total 

 of eighty-two per cent chargeable to the lum- 

 ber operations. Practically all of the fires 

 which require labor other than that of the 

 rangers to extmguish start in cut-over or burnt- 

 over lands. 



Logging Areas. 



The way to eliminate these fires is to burn 

 the debris from logging at the lime the logging 

 is done, or shortly after. This will cost some 

 money, but will materially cut down the cost 

 of fire protection, and in time, cut down the 

 cost of patrol so that it is probable the in- 

 crease in expense would not be large. Then 

 to, the value of the forest lands w'ould con- 

 tinually increase, as now timber left after log- 

 ging is destroyed by fire, and once burned 

 over, the lands are very liable to burn over 

 again, destroying the seed stored in the soil 

 and postponing the reproduction of valuable 

 kinds of trees for many years. I his burning 

 of the brush might logically be left to the log- 

 ging crews, but it has been shown that any- 

 thing that adds to the cost of making logs is 

 violently opposed by woods managers and their 

 staffs, as their efficiency is judged by the price 



at which they are able to deliver logs and they 

 do not consider that it is their business to do 

 more than cut and haul the logs. 

 Fire Rangers Avai/able. 



If this cleaning up were made part of the fire 

 protection work, it could be done by the 

 rangers in winter, by men who understand how 

 to handle fire in the woods, and who under- 

 stand the danger of it. These men could fol- 

 low the loggers and pile and burn the brush, 

 so that when spring came, the danger from 

 the cut-over debris, would be entirely elimin- 

 ated. Of course it would be necessary to ap- 

 portion the cost to the different operators on 

 the basis of acreage, but this would not be 

 difficult and the measurement of the amount 

 of land cut-over each year would be of an im- 

 mense value to the holders. Lands so handled 

 would immediately begin to reforest themselves 

 to the great benefit of the holders and of the 

 country in general. By preventing the burn- 

 ing of these lands they would reproduce the 

 valuable species instead of coming up in poplar 

 and jack pine, as they now do after fires. 

 Many years in the regeneration of these lands 

 would also be saved. 



Insect and fungus enemies of forest trees 

 are spreading at an alarming rate and are 

 now probably as serious a menace as forest 

 fires. It has also been shown that burning the 

 logging debris is one of the best possible ways 

 to eradicate these pests so that from every point 

 of view it seems that slash burning should with- 

 out delay be made a part of our protective 

 work. 



It may well be asked if burning is the only 

 was of disposing of logging debris. Taking out 

 logs down to three inches top diameter would 

 help the situation and would reduce the waste. 

 Top-lopping has been tried and found to cost 

 about 40 to 50 cents per thousand feet board 

 measure of logs cut, but hie fire hazard is very 

 little reduced. The advantage is that the 

 brush rots quicker and so the land is not in a 

 dangerous condition for as long a time as with 

 unlopped tops. This does not do away wth 



