i8o FOREST REGULATION 



I. GENERAL PLAN OF PROTECTION. 



Protection against fire and trespass is one of the most important 

 tasks of the forester. As soon as any effort at forestry or even 

 ordinary care of property is attempted, effective fire-protection de- 

 mands attention. And it must be a protection which protects, and 

 protects all growth, and not one of the "light burning" type, where 

 reproduction and young growth is wilfully destroyed by fire to 

 save a few saw logs, a criminal practice occasionally recommended 

 in our country. * 



Protection of the forest against insects, which in the last fifteen 

 years has cost several millions in the United States has always been 

 one of the standing duties of the European forester, and of late 

 even the fight against wood-destroying fungi has been added to 

 his work. But both, insects and fungi, are too irregular in theii 

 occurrence, and the methods to combat the evil have not been suffi- 

 ciently developed to warrant making these lines of protection part 

 of the regular program or Working Plans, and the matter so far 

 has been left to special effort and therefore to special Plans. 



Since patrol sufficient for fire protection is usually ample to 

 avoid all serious trespass and vandalism, consideration of forest 

 protection in the General Plan narrows down to measures for fire 

 protection. These considerations involve a study of the property to 

 determine the degree of danger, dangerous areas, stands of timber 

 most deserving protection, climate and fire seasons, sources of fire, 

 human element in this, topography and accessibility from the stand- 

 point of fire protection, the methods best suited, as well as all the 

 available means to prevent and combat the danger, including co- 

 operation of public authorities, neighboring forest owners and the 

 people of the district. 



The degree of fire danger varies within wide limits hot only 

 for different parts of the country with different climates and forests, 

 but also on the same forest property itself. Dense stands of old 

 timber are most immune, dense stands of sapling conifers 5-20 feet 

 in height are in greatest danger of taking fire and are almost certain 



* This practice is old in the Southern Pinery; has always formed part of 

 the protection of Turpentine orchards, and was carried to the Western 

 forests and recommended particularly for the forests of Yellow Pine and 

 Sugar Pine by some of the prominent lumbermen. 



