American Forestry 



VOL. XVII NOVEMBER, 1911 No. 11 



A FIRE PROTECTION PLAN IN THE SOUTHERN 



APPALACHIANS 



By W. H. WEBER. 



^^t^HE Cherr}' River Boom and Lumber Company is the owner of some 

 ^^ 50,000 acres of timberland in West Virginia. This tract is located 

 ^**^ in Webster, Pocahontas and Greenbriar Counties and includes the en- 

 tire watersheds of the Cherry, Cranberry and W^illiams Rivers and the head- 

 waters of the Gauley. 



This region is very mountainous, the only level country being narrow flats 

 found occasionally along the river bottoms. To describe it more graphically 

 it is, so to speak, all up and down, since ridge after ridge rises abruptly from 

 the narrow stream valleys to terminate in narrow rocky crests over 4,000 feet 

 above sea level. Thus the country is naturally divided into districts bounded 

 by water courses and high ridges which are natural fire lines. 



These mountains and valleys are covered with a rich virgin forest which 

 changes in its character according to the elevation. At 1,800 and 2,000 feet 

 in the valleys we find mixed hardwoods, such as the oaks, maples, beech, 

 cherry, yellow poplar, ash, etc., growing luxuriai tly. Farther up on the 

 ridges hemlock appears in mixture with them. At the 3,500 foot line red 

 spruce is occasionally found which increases in numbers as we go upward, 

 until at 3,800 feet it becomes the dominant or most frequent tree, topping the 

 ridges as a rule with a heavy spruce forest. 



Again, the climate is excellent as the mountain ranges are strong factors in 

 precipitating moisture from passing cloud banks so that showers are fre- 

 quent, especially in summer, and there are rarely any long periods of drought. 

 The exception to this occurs in the spring and fall. At these seasons the 

 leaves are off the trees, allowing the sunlight to reach the forest floor. This 

 condition tends to dry up the leaf litter rapidly, so that after two or three 

 days of fair weather the fallen leaves become very inflammable and form a 

 real fire danger. 



It is at these two seasons of the year that practically all of the forest fires 

 occur, hence the opinion that these seasons are particularly dry, although in 

 reality they may not be remarkably so. An indication of this lies in the fact 

 that in certain instances small fires are extinguished by rain before they have 

 been able to do any wide damage. 



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