138 Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



by these dams there is a belt of dead spruce estimated to be from 

 10 to 12 rods in width and about a half mile in length. The trees 

 standing at present are rather small, 4 to 6 inches in diameter, 

 the larger ones having been cut off by the owners. Figure 21 gives 

 a view along this creek. 



Beaver Flows Compared with other Sources of Dead Timber. 

 The foregoing examples may be sufficient to show the effect of 

 beaver flows upon timber. However, one need not spend much time 

 in the Adirondacks to realize that the beaver constitutes only one 

 of a number of agencies that have been operative in the destruction 

 of timber, and that it is not the most important factor. The total 

 of windfall and the timber destroyed by fire undoubtedly far exceeds 

 the damage that has been caused or is likely to be caused 

 in years to come by the beaver. Then there is the timber 

 drowned as the result of dams constructed by man, as for 

 example the Beaver River Flow. Waste in lumbering operations 

 has previously been alluded to. In the Long Lake region in one 

 or two places I walked on corduroy tote roads constructed for 

 hundreds of yards from sound forest trees of various kinds cut for 

 this purpose and then left to rot. If this timber were measured 

 I believe that it would be found to equal or exceed in amount that 

 killed in some of the largest beaver flows that came under my 

 observation. 



Indeed the Forest Rangers with whom I talked frankly admitted 

 that the actual loss of timber from beaver operations was compara- 

 tively not a serious matter. The destruction by beaver of course 

 occurs onlv along those watercourses where conditions are suitable 

 for or permit of their damming operations, and to that extent it is 

 limited. The dead timber in beaver flows impresses the observer 

 rather forcibly because it is highly localized, usually standing, and 

 therefore conspicuous. 



Relation to Forest Fires. In the opinion of one Forest Ranger 

 in whose district there occurred relatively large beaver flows the 

 most serious aspect of the situation was that the dead timber in 

 these flows constituted a potential fire menace ; that as the beaver 

 dams in time would be abandoned and would gradually disintegrate, 

 the receding water would leave exposed masses of dry timber, 

 standing and fallen, in which from lightning or other causes destruc- 

 tive forest fires might originate. This point may be well taken, but 

 it obviouslv follows that to destrov the dams or kill off the beaver 



