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363. Need for Government Management. — The early 

 settlers in most regions of the United States and Canada found 

 the timber so abundant that no effort was made to conserve it. 

 Indeed, all the trees over large areas were girdled and al- 

 lowed to die and fall in order that fire might then aid in 

 clearing the land. This method was not only wasteful of 

 timber because the fires destroyed the dead trees, but the heat 



Fig. 197. — Seven-year-old white pines in the state forest nursery at 

 Trout Lake. Photograph from the Wisconsin State Conservation Com- 



was often so intense that all the decaying plant material in 

 the upper layers of the soil was also destroyed. 



Lumbemien did not believe there would ever be a short- 

 age in the timber stipply ; consequently they took only the 

 best trees and left the smaller ones and much waste material 

 which later furnished fuel for violent fires that de\'astated 

 vast tracts and destroyed thehxnng as well as the dead timber, 

 in many cases with loss of life as well. Under the care of the 

 national and state forest services, and in many cases with the 

 help of private concerns, the fire losses are gradually decreas- 



