FORESTS OF MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK. 5 



curred from time to time before the regulations governing the park 

 went into effect. The little resin pockets in the bark of these trees 

 blaze fiercely for a short time and the heat separates the bark from 

 the trunk. In this way the tree is killed, although the naked trunk 

 is left untouched by fire. The destruction of the alpine forest in 

 this way is often erroneously attributed to disease or to the depreda- 

 tions of insects. 



There has been little apparent change in the alpine burns within 

 the last 30 years. Reforestation at high altitudes is extremely slow. 

 The seed production is rather scanty and the ground conditions are 

 not favorable for its reproduction. It will take more than one cen- 

 tury for nature to replace the beautiful groves which have been de- 

 stroyed by the carelessness of the first visitors to the mountain. 



At low elevations the forest recovers more rapidly from the effects 

 of fire. Between the subalpine areas and the river valleys there are 

 several large ancient burns which are partly reforested. The most 

 extensive of these tracts is the Muddy Fork burn. It is crossed by the 

 Stevens Canyon Trail from Reflection Lakes through the Ohanope- 

 cosh Hot Springs. This burn includes an area of 20 square miles in 

 the park and extends north nearly to the glaciers and south for sev- 

 eral miles beyond the park boundary nearly to the main Cowlitz 

 River. The open sunlit spaces and wide outlooks afforded by refor- 

 ested tracts of this character present a strong contrast to the deep 

 shades and dim vistas of the primitive forest. On the whole they 

 have a cheerful and pleasing appearance, very different from the 

 sad, desolate aspect of the alpine burns which less kindly conditions 

 of climate and exposure have kept from reforestation. 



The original forest was fire killed many years before the coming 

 of the white man. A few naked and weather beaten stubs are still 

 standing. Only the larger of the fallen trunks remain, and these 

 are rotten except for a few seasoned and weatherworn shells. The 

 second growth is of all ages, from seedlings to trees 12 to 14 inches 

 in diameter. Vine maple, willow, and mountain ash have sprung up 

 along the streams and the hillsides are covered with huckleberry 

 bushes and a variety of grasses and flowering plants. 



Similar old burns are found on the ridge between Huckleberry 

 Creek and White River, in the northeastern part of the park, and 

 on the ridge between Tahoma Creek and Kautz Creek below Henrys 

 Hunting Ground. 



The old burns in the middle altitudes of the park occupy regions 

 once frequented by the Klickitat Indians. Every summer parties 

 of hunters and berry pickers from the sagebrush plains crossed the 

 Cascades with their horses. They followed the high divides and open 

 summits of the secondary ridges until they came around to the 

 open parks about Mount Rainier where they turned their horses out 



