or greater areas although less easily classified by the careless eye. As 

 the snags fall and the young growth grows taller, the evidence is less 

 conspicuous, until the last stage is reached the magnificent mature 

 stand of white pine or Douglas fir whose only visible dead are their own 

 companions and whose predecessors are fallen, rotted and moss-covered. 

 Yet even here, practically without exception, search will disclose charred 

 remnants which testify that this old forest also began on a burn like those 

 of today. 



And so did its predecessor, and its again, back into remote ages. 

 Slides and excavations show the same evidence on long-buried levels. 

 Periodically lightning, or perhaps an Indian fire, started a new cycle. 

 Sometimes, no doubt, recurring fires swept the area many times before 

 wind-blown seeds began to start advance groups which in time themselves 

 fruited and filled the gaps between them. Sometimes destruction was 

 not so complete. A ground fire merely killed the old stand, which seeded 

 the ground fully the same season, then fell gradually as it rotted years 

 later. 



HABITS OF OUR TREES PROVE IT 



This we may know, even without the always-present evidence, to 

 be the history of certain forests like those of Douglas fir, white and 

 lodgepole pine, or tamarack, because in our climate, they will not re- 

 produce except under such circumstances. Being intolerant of shade, 

 such species cannot start a new forest as an under story beneath an 

 old one. However, other western trees can; hemlock, cedar and white 

 fir being examples. So, just as we see them doing the same thing today, 

 these frequently came in under former stands and when the latter 

 escaped fire by chance but eventually died of old age, seized and held 

 such spots. These spots also, are recognizable by the woodsman. 



One of our most important trees is the western yellow pine, for it 

 occupies regions too dry for other commercially valuable species. Many 

 people think it immune from fire because, as a rule, its floor is too dry 

 for much underbrush and fire is not apt to be very severe. But here, 

 also, practical observation tells much the same story. The yellow pine 

 stand is typically an open one. Yet occasionally it is very dense and 

 certainly we know that reproduction is often almost thicket-like. All 

 evidence goes to show that to a very large extent the openness is due 

 to nothing but ground fires which have successively killed, or injured 

 so they died later, a large proportion of the trees which would otherwise 

 have escaped. Where proof of this is not given by visible surface scars 

 on the survivors, it appears when low stumps are cut, disclosing healed- 

 over injuires. The so-called "Indian method" of forest protection, which 

 is to allow fire to run when it will in order to remove debris which may 

 feed a more serious fire later, is not well supported by the reason thus 

 made evident for poor pine stands. 



If anything further were needed to show the age-old prevalence of 

 fire and the struggle of species to survive in spite of it, the peculiar 

 adaptation of the trees of this region, after aeons of the "survival of the 

 fittest," is ample and striking evidence. Practically all our trees are 

 of the winged-seed type, capable of restocking burned areas quickly. 

 Lacking are the heavy-seeded conifers and especially the nut-bearing 

 hardwoods, although the winged maples and flossed cottonwoods hold 

 their own sparingly. Some of our trees, like Douglas fir and white pine 

 have become so habituated to starting only in burns that, like the familiar 

 fire-weed, they can scarcely germinate or grow except on bare mineral 



