grazing by livestock and big game animals. 

 The second method, shelterwood cut- 

 ting, leaves some larger trees to provide 

 shade for young trees. Selective cutting, 

 the third method, is done by removing the 

 oldest and largest trees in a stand of tim- 

 ber. This may be done over a period of 

 several years. The fourth method is the 

 seed-tree method which leaves scattered, 

 mature trees to seed a logged-over area. 



Fire — Tool or Disaster? 



Primitive people often used fire to drive 

 game out of shelter. They also set fires to 

 clear land for crops, as some tribes do in 

 Africa. Early settlers in this country did 

 the same thing. But usually fire has been 

 considered a disaster by modern people, 

 and for good reasons (figure 3). 



lost. For years after, the rivers ran thick 

 with silt washed from the bare earth. 



Fire control in the northwest had begun 

 before 1910, but the fires of that year gave 

 terrible evidence of what uncontrolled fire 

 could do. By the next year, the lumber com- 

 panies had joined with foresters to prevent 

 fire in the woods and to get fire fighters as 

 fast as possible to those fires that did start. 

 The University of Montana at Missoula es- 

 tablished a smoke jumpers school, and a 

 laboratory for the design of fire fighting 

 equipment was set up. Both are at the Mis- 

 soula airport; visitors may tour this center. 

 And to help restore the forests that had 

 been burned, millions of new trees were 

 planted. 



A fire may occur in a location where it 

 doesn't threaten human life or property. 



Figure 3. Forest Fire! 



Moiil.iii.i Di-p.irlTiicilt ul FKli. Wildlife, and l'.irk> 



The worst fire in Montana's history, 

 which began on August 20, 1910, was part 

 of a flaming band of forest fires that swept 

 across Idaho and Washington that sum- 

 mer. It burned 3 million acres of tim- 

 berland in the three states, and killed 85 

 people. An untold number of wildlife was 



Such a fire is now sometimes allowed to 

 burn itself out. Fire is a natural occur- 

 rence. All-out prevention can upset the bal- 

 ance of nature and other problems can 

 result. 



Some species of trees, such as ponderosa 

 pine, Douglas fir. lodgepole pine, and west- 



