WASHINGTON'S FOREST CATASTROPHE 



381 



creating of safety zones by burning strips 200 feet wide 

 on both sides of all the roads in the region, the estab- 

 lishment of intensive patrols and the regulation of camp- 

 ers and tourist travel. Motorcycle patrols will probably 

 be used to watch the activities of automobile tourists on 

 the Olympic Highway between Fairholme and Mora. No 

 fires nor over-night camps will be permitted except at 

 designated spots. 



A proposed plan to burn over the entire storm-wrecked 

 region, on the ground that the fire would destroy the un- 

 dergrowth and debris and not injure the fallen and stand- 



trolled burning to timbered districts not touched by the 

 tornado. 



Salvage of the undamaged portion of the fallen tim- 

 ber is the gigantic task confronting the State and federal 

 forest officials and private corporations. Forced logging 

 will be necessary to save the spruce and hemlock, which 

 deteriorate quickly, decay commencing two years after 

 such trees are on the ground. Sixty per cent of the for- 

 est growth in the region is hemlock. The cedar and fir 

 occasion no worry as they last indefinitely. 



The greatest fire trap known in the history of the 



THE SAME SPOT ON THE FAMOUS OLYMPIC 



HIGHWAY AFTFR THE STORM. 

 GOVERNOR'S PARTY 



A WAY WAS CUT THROUGH FOR THE 



ing timber met with the disapproval of old-timers, resi- 

 dents of the Peninsula. They pointed out that if the 

 district is burned over this spring there is every chance 

 of down hemlocks retaining smouldering fires for several 

 months, which fanned by a brisk breeze in the dry sea- 

 son would burst into flame and start a terrible confla- 

 gration. Records of the past ten years show that every 

 forest fire of any seriousness in the Peninsula began 

 with hemlock logs that had been in spring slash fires. 

 There are also enough trees left to make a wholesale 

 burning very dangerous. The possibility of crown fires 

 might easily result in the spreading of the intended con- 



United States resulted from this cyclone, says officials 

 of the United States Forest Service. 



"If fire should ever gain headway in this devastated 

 area, the most stupendous conflagration ever known in 

 this country would result," said Acting Forester 

 E. A. Sherman, in discussing the disaster. "The topog- 

 raphy is very broken and the blow downs are in part at 

 least known to be 'spotty,' with much fine timber un- 

 injured. Fire would not only destroy all these islands 

 of timber, but would seriously endanger a vast sur- 

 rounding stand. Fifteen billion feet is exposed in the 

 adjoining part of the Olympic National Forest, besides 



