SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 143 



forests, but not by any means to such an extent as is desirable. It is 

 undoubtedly true also tbat the popular accusation of sheepmen as fire 

 setters has acted as an effective -warning to them. They realized that 

 unless the reasons for this accusation are removed there is a strong 

 probability of their exclusion from the reserve, and this has led them 

 both to be more careful with fires and to insist jjublicly that they are 

 careful. 



The necessity of forest fires to the su7nmer grazing industry has 

 undoubtedly been overestimated both by the general public and fre- 

 quently by stockmen themselves. A fire on an occuijied range is objec- 

 tionable because it both burns up the forage and menaces the sheep 

 herder's camp and often the sheep themselves. Cases are known in 

 which a whole camp outfit and provisions have been burned by the 

 accidental spreading of a fire while a herder was away from camp with 

 his sheep, and other cases are known in which sheep have narrowly 

 missed being caught and burned up in a forest fire. Besides this, a sin- 

 gle fire in the black pine belt, for example, is followed after a few years 

 by such a growth of saplings among fallen logs as to make it exceed- 

 ingly difiScult to drive a band of sheep through. If the logs are charred, 

 the wool of the sheep becomes blackened by the charcoal dust to such 

 an extent as to decrease the value of the wool often a cent a pound. 

 Furthermore, as already stated under the head of the eflect of fires in 

 the upper portion of the yellow pine belt, a fire is often followed by a 

 dense growth of underbrush, which in itself prevents a growth of forage 

 and makes traveling across such an area almost impossible. 



Against these statements, however, may be set the indisputable fact 

 that a large amount of the grazing in the Cascades is upon old burns, 

 and that had these burns never occurred the available grazing area 

 would have been reduced by precisely that amount. 



The statement is often heard among sheep herders that close grazing 

 is a positive benefit to the forests, because it prevents the spread of 

 forest fires by the removal of the leaves and branches that later make 

 up the dry forest litter. That the forests may be kept clean in this 

 manner is unquestionable, but it is equally unquestionable that this 

 means of preventing forest fires would prove very costly in the end. 

 This has already been discussed under the head of overgrazing. 



We did not this year come upon any fires that we could trace to 

 sheep herders or packers, nor did we learn of any fires known to have 

 been set by them. We did, however, see fires that were in localities 

 where sheep had been grazed, and some of them I have no doubt orig- 

 inated from this source, probably having spread by accident, possibly 

 by intent. It is clear that the extent of the practice among sheep men 

 of systematically setting forest fires has been overestimated. It is 

 interesting to note that during the progress of our season's investiga- 

 tion, while we found no fires that could be traced by positive evidence 

 to sheep men, we did see campfires abandoned by travelers, by campers, 

 and by Indians, fires set by road builders and by lightning, and fires 

 set for the purpose of creating smudges. 



SLOWNESS OF REFORESTATION UNDER ADVERSE CONDITIONS. 



One phase of the forest-fire evil in the Cascades must still be men- 

 tioned, the slowness of reforestation in certain areas. On several of 

 the old burns there was evidence that many years had elapsed since 

 the fires that destroyed the trees had done their work and upon inquiry 

 it was found that a surprisingly long period had intervened. I was 



