BRUSH DISPOSAL PROBLEM 49 



piling, unless very carefully supervised, due to the tendency of the 

 swampers not to cut the material fine enough. Its cost on the Coeur 

 d'Alene Forest, in the western white pine type, has been about loc. 

 per M. feet B.M., including the burning. 



"Broadcast burning inside of fire lines has been used in this Dis- 

 trict, chiefly in the case of fire-kiUed timber, where the low value of the 

 product to be handled demands a minimum cost to the operator for this 

 item. It is also being used in the case of agricultural land which will 

 be eliminated from the Forests as soon as the timber is removed, and 

 from which our principal aim is to derive the maximimi financial return 

 without imdue fire risk. Its cost is estimated to be between 50. and 

 IOC per M. feet B.M. The essential of this system is, of course, that 

 the exterior fire line be very carefiilly constructed. This is usually 

 made by clearing a strip about a chain wide with a fire line exposing 

 the mineral soil in its centre for a witfHrof two or three feet. In ad- 

 dition, any snags or stubs standing in dangerous proximity to the 

 line are felled." 



Brush Disposal on National Forests in 

 Oregon and Washington 



Since conditions are very similar in British Colimibia to those 

 directly south of the boundary, in the United States, the following is 

 quoted from a statement by the District Forester of District No. 6, 

 U. S. Forest Service. This District includes Oregon and Washington : 



"The subject of brush disposal in this District naturally 

 falls into two divisions, the disposal of slash by broad-cast biiming 

 in the region where Douglas fir is predominant, and the disposal of 

 brush by reqtiiring it to be heaped into small piles and burned, in 

 the region where western yellow pine is the leading species. In 

 this latter division it may be also sometimes advisable to lop 

 and scatter the brush where the conservation of soil moisture and 

 the protection of young seedlings are desired and where at the 

 same time, the fire danger is very smaU. 



In the method of disposing of brush by broad-cast burning, 

 the Forest Service has had comparatively little experience as yet, 

 contrary to what', perhaps, might have been expected. Our large 

 Douglas fir sales are yet scarcely more than two or three years old 

 and consequently the areas cut over have not become very ex- 

 tensive. On a few of the older sales the brush has been burned 

 broadcast at advantageous times in a rather desultory manner, 

 and no record has been kept of the cost of this work. In fact we 

 have had so little experience in it that I would hesitate to guess at 

 any cost figures. On the Snoquahnie Forest, where we have the 

 greater number of comparatively large sales of Douglas fir timber, 

 it has always been planned to bxmi the slash at the proper time. 



