Conservation Commission 135 



upon the character of the lumbering operation. It may vary from 

 the few scattered branches left after cutting a few trees for fuel 

 from a woodlot, to the large mass of limbs and tree tops left after 

 a hardwood and softwood lumbering operation in the forest re- 

 gions. 



Surface Fires 

 A surface fire is a fire which, when it burns over an area of 

 forest, merely runs in the leaves and ground litter, and which 

 does not run up into the tops of the trees to any appreciable ex- 

 tent, or does not burn down deep into the duff, humus or ground. 

 The surface fire is the easiest of all fires to control, since its flames 

 seldom rise to any great height from the ground, nor do they give 

 out such intense heat, as do the more disastrous crown fires. In 

 many parts of New York State, especially in the farming sections, 

 forest fires seldom develop beyond surface fires. This class of 

 fires is common in the forest regions of the Adirondacks and Cat- 

 skills during the very early spring, late fall or the summer when 

 conditions are not exceptionally dry, and the fire burns over an 

 area, scorching only the leaves and ground litter. 



Ground Tires 



During periods of drought and when there is an abundance of 

 humus or duff on the forest floor, surface fires often develop into 

 what are called ground fires. In regions of dense forests, such 

 as are found in the Adirondack region, the layer of humus upon 

 the ground is often several feet in depth. Under the above condi- 

 tions, ground fires burn into this humus and destroy all vegetable 

 matter down to the mineral soil or bed rock. These fires are ex- 

 tremely hard to extinguish, for it is well nigh impossible to get 

 at them, or if they are accessible, to carry sufficient water to ex- 

 tinguish them. Cases are on record in which fires of this class 

 have smouldered for weeks, defying all efforts to extinguish 

 them. 



Crown Fires 



As has been mentioned above, crown fires can result only in 

 regions where there is a dense forest growth, and where the kind 

 of timber, the amount of inflammable material upon the ground, 

 the dryness of the atmosphere, and the severity of the wind, com- 



