TWfo Bife on t$t (Roc&e* 



cling longest to their seeds. For an old lodge- 

 pole to have on its limbs twenty crops of un- 

 opened cones is not uncommon. Neither is it 

 uncommon to see an extensive lodge-pole forest 

 each tree of which has upon it several hundred, 

 and many of the trees a few thousand, cones, and 

 in each cone a few mature seeds. Most of these 

 seeds will never have a chance to make a start 

 in life except they be liberated by fire. In fact, 

 most lodge-pole seeds are liberated by fire. The 

 reproduction of this pine is so interwoven with 

 the effects of the forest fires that one may safely 

 say that most of the lodge-pole forests and the 

 increasing lodge-pole areas are the result of 

 forest fires. 



Every lodge-pole forest is a fire-trap. The thin, 

 scaly, pitchy bark and the live resiny needles on 

 the tree, as well as those on the ground, are very 

 inflammable, and fires probably sweep a lodge- 

 pole forest more frequently than any other in 

 America. When this forest is in a sapling stage, 

 it is very likely to be burned to ashes. If, how- 

 ever, the trees are beyond the sapling stage, the 

 fire probably will consume the needles, burn some 



186 



