(grinding fa& t$t §omt 



|URING the last fifty years repeated fires 

 have swept through Western forests and 

 destroyed vast quantities of timber. As a result 

 of these fires, most species of trees in the West 

 have lost large areas of their territory. There is 

 one species of tree, however, that has, by the 

 very means of these fires, enormously extended 

 its holdings and gained much of the area lost 

 by the others. This species is the lodge-pole 

 pine. 



My introduction to this intrepid tree took 

 place in the mountains of Colorado. One day, 

 while watching a forest fire, I paused in the 

 midst of the new desolation to watch the be- 

 havior of the flames. Only a few hours before, 

 the fire had stripped and killed the half-black- 

 ened trees around me. All the twigs were burned 

 off the tree beneath which I stood, but the larger 

 limbs remained ; and to each of these a score or 

 more of blackened cones stuck closely. Know- 



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