56 



THE FORESTER. 



March, 



land was expended westward of this area. 

 Probably no part of the vortex of the hur- 

 ricane crossed this timber belt, as the cen- 

 ter lay between Galveston and the mouth of 

 the Brazos River. The destructive wind 

 blew from north of east and excepting in a 

 few tangles, the trees fell to the southwest. 

 As to the future, it is estimated that not 

 over ten per cent, of the blown down tim- 

 ber will be saved. Of course on those 

 tracts accessible to mills or trams much or 

 nearly all will soon be worked up into 

 lumber. But the rest will be exposed a 

 year or two to be attacked first by insects 

 and then by fire. Thus, thousands of 

 acres will be denuded and ready to begin 

 anew the long process of reforestation. 

 That it will be reforested cannot be doubted 

 for it is an area in which tree growth ex- 

 hibits tremendous energy in occupying the 

 soil. Even now on the recent clearings, 

 dense thickets of Loblolly or thousands of 

 young oaks abound. 



This is not the first time a hurricane has 

 wrought damage upon this timber area. 

 The storm of September, 1S75, was sim- 

 ilarly destructive. There is to this day a 

 strip, more or less, 20 miles wide extending 

 100 miles north and south through Mont- 

 gomery, San Jacinto and Polk Counties, 

 called, " the hurricane " upon which the 

 timber was almost completely destroyed 

 in the hurricane of 1S75. Subsequently 

 it was cleared off by fire and is at present 

 in the early stages of reforestation to oak 

 and pine. 



The position of this forest area so near 

 the border of the treeless arid regions of 

 the Southwest gives it special significance 

 and value. One must regret that it should 

 be the object of the fury of Gulf hurri- 

 canes. But there is a lesson for us in the te- 

 nacity with which the region maintains its 

 forest identity. We ought to cooperate 

 with nature uikeeping a constantly pro- 

 ductive foreston such lands. 



COLORADO FOREST FIRES IN NINETEEN HUNDRED. 



By Henry Michelsen. 

 Vice-President of the Colorado Forestry Association. 



THE past season has been disastrous 

 for the mountain woodlands. A 

 cold spring was followed by a hot 

 summer, almost rainless. The first heavy 

 snow fell on October 30th and this ex- 

 tinguished many smouldering fires. But 

 m the fifteenth of May until the middle 

 of September, the hills were quivering in 

 summer heat, and the many openings in 

 the forest cover, made by lumbermen and 

 tie cutters or by former fires, admitted the 

 sun's rays to the rocks, which dried up 

 grasses and sedges and undergrowth, and 

 1 reated conditions greatly favoring the 

 spread of conflagrations. 



The first large' lire started at Ouray on 

 July 8th. It was caused by hunters "who 

 had camped in the neighborhood of the 

 Amphitheatre, one mile east of the town. 



It spread over many square miles and 

 went out for lack of fuel some ten days 

 afterwards.* 



On July 10th a conflagration began 

 about six miles east of Eldoro in Boulder 

 county, at the Caviness saw mill, located 

 on the old Gregory trail, west of Magno- 

 lia post-office. The fire got beyond the 

 control of the men at the mill and swept 

 up the mountain side towards the Jack 

 Pine mine. The hills were covered with 



*No actual measurements of the burnt over 

 areas were made, but the estimates here given are 

 based for authority on the statements of forest 

 rangers, surveyors, and well known citizens of 

 the regions where the fires burned. They under- 

 estimate the extent of the fires rather than ex- 

 aggerate it. The statements of figures here given 

 have further been submitted to a number of 

 members of the State legislature. 



