



FIRE PROTECTION FOR FOREST LANDS 

 Necessity of Saving Young Growth; Plan for Conservation 



EDMUND SECREST 



Ohio's forest problems. Protection against all of the external 

 influences which destroy forests is the basis of any program of 

 forest development. These influences are quite numerous but in 

 Ohio may be narrowed to two factors forest fires and forest graz- 

 ing. It is true that Ohio is outranked by many other states in the 

 amount of forest destruction by fire, and still fire is perhaps the 

 greatest menace to Ohio woodlands, because it affects the largest 

 continguous non-agricultural areas in the State. 



The rough lands not suited for agriculture should be devoted 

 to growing timber. Such areas may be classed as inherent forest 

 land. They exist for the greater part in five or six counties of 

 southeastern Ohio, and are covered with young timber, chiefly be- 

 cause they cannot be profitably cleared for tillage or pasture. Some 

 750,000 acres of this type are menaced by fire, and it may be con- 

 servatively stated that 300,000 acres of woodland burn over at in- 

 tervals of from 1 to 10 years. 



Damages from fires. In Ohio we are concerned almost entirely 

 with the hardwood forest. Fires are usually not as destructive in 

 this type as in the coniferous woods composed of pine, spruce or fir, 

 where large trees are destroyed by heavy crown fires. Hardwood 

 fires in Ohio are largely confined to the burning of the forest floor 

 and to the destruction of the small trees and the scarring of the 

 larger ones. There are conditions, however, in which the trees in 

 the forest are entirely killed. Forest fires occur in Scioto, Adams, 

 Lawrence, Ross, Jackson, Pike, Vinton and Gallia Counties and in 

 a more isolated degree in other parts of Ohio. The injury caused 

 by burning it not apparent to the casual observer because the stand- 

 ing timber is not killed outright; or the succeeding growth soon 

 obscures the evidence of the burn. The trees in a hardwood forest 

 may be virtually ruined by fire scars and yet from a short distance 

 the damage may not be apparent to casual observation. Again the 

 injury which is the least apparent and the most insidious of all 

 occurs in the soil. Not only is the loose-leaf litter destroyed, but 

 the humus itself is consumed, impoverishing the soils and render- 

 ing them susceptible to erosion. 



Fires kill young trees outright and scar the older ones in such 

 manner that their capacity to produce good lumber is greatly cur- 



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