The Advantages of Clear Cutting Lodgepole 17 



all slash removes the possibility of later fires which always are 

 a menace to a selection forest. Certainly the danger from fire 

 after clear cutting is less than it is for the method now employed. 



The advantages of clear cutting and burning are as follows; 



1. Good lodgepole reproduction results. 



2. Danger from future fires is removed. 



3. More material is utilized. 



4. Management is simplified. 



Reproduction on burnt areas throughout the Holy Cross 

 Forest is pure lodgepole. Frothingham in his circular on Douglas 

 fir has shown that the seed of balsam fir, Engleman spruce and 

 Douglas fir is destroyed by fire but the seed of lodgepole is pro- 

 tected by the heavy resistant cone from the fire which serves to 

 open the cone that would not open otherwise. The loss of the 

 foregoing species in this particular region is not undesirable for 

 they form a very small, unimportant part of the mature stands. 

 Without a single exception every burnt area in this region is 

 covered with a dense, uniform stand of lodgepole seedlings. 

 It is not uncommon to find extensive stands of young trees so 

 dense that it is almost impossible for a man to push his way 

 through on foot. These burned areas have been entirely de- 

 nuded by fire but the seedlings spring up quickly and prevent 

 erosion that would otherwise occur on the slopes from which the 

 forest had been wholly removed. 



The complete protection from future fires afforded by burn- 

 ing the area before the reproduction starts is very important. 

 One of the greatest menaces to partially cleared stands is fire. 

 The debris from the trees cut remains as a fire trap. Furthermore 

 part of the mature stand remains exposed for a long period, 

 whereas if it is all removed at once there is no risk whatever. 



It is also certain that more material is utilized when an 

 area is clear cut that when any other method is used. In the 

 district under consideration the cost of logging is so high that no 

 operator can afford to take out the timber left in a depleted 

 stand. As the young trees will not reach sawlog size in less than 

 one hundred years it is doubtful if the timber left will ever be 

 utilized. A large percent of the trees will be blown down. It 

 has been observed that, in a stand from which 60% of the trees 

 had been removed, the loss by windfall in from ten to twenty 

 days after cutting was often 10% of the remaining trees. Further- 

 more the balsam fir will take the ground forming a temporary 

 type that will persist for many years keeping out the more valu- 

 able pine. The balsam in this region commonly dies from some 

 unknown cause before it reaches a diameter of 14 inches and is 

 of little commercial value. If a clear cutting system was used 



