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CHAPTER VII. 



FIRES AND THEIR COST. 



The forest, like every other natural object, has its enemies as well as its friends. 

 Among the latter may be mentioned birds and small marsupials who destroy in- 

 sects that are injurious to trees, especially young trees. These friends of the trees 

 carry on their beneficent work all the year round, and without them great forests of 

 fine trees would be impossible. The only enemies of the forest that work contin- 

 uously during the year are harmful insects and fungoid growths of many kinds. 

 Nature has provided means for keeping the noxious insects in check, and the skill 

 of the forester combats successfully a great number of the diseases due to fungi. 

 But of all the destructive agencies that afflict forest-growth none is more serious, 

 none is accompanied by greater loss and damage, than fire. A fire through a 

 forest may undo years of hard work on the part of foresters. The seriousness of 

 such a disaster can only be estimated by those who have given close study to forest 

 questions. Let us see in what way fire inflicts untold harm on a forest. In the 

 first place it destroys the humus and undergrowth, and it has already been explained 

 how essential these are to healthy vigorous forest life. In the second place, the fire 

 damages the bark of trees that have passed the sapling stage, with the result that 

 the trees are killed off, or, if they continue to live, they develop "greedy-growths" 

 (small branchlets on the trunk and limbs), and other defects which render them 

 useless as producers of good timber, or they become stunted and deformed and of 

 no value except as firewood. There are hundreds of thousands of such deformed 

 and valueless trees in the forests of Western Australia; these, if fire had not in- 

 jured them, would have been of value and would have added to the State's timber 

 production, whereas now it will cost money to remove them in order that others 

 may grow in their places. Another and particularly serious aspect of the destruc- 

 tive work of fire is the havoc caused among saplings and seedlings. Few saplings 

 escape damage when a fire sweeps through the bush, and far fewer still are the 

 seedlings that escape. The disastrous effects of the ravages of fire are apparent to 

 even the most casual observer in the bush. In every jarrah or karri forest will be 

 noticed great vacant spaces bare of large trees and seedlings, but showing evidences 

 of more or less recent visitations by fire. These vacant places tell with a plainness 

 that cannot be misunderstood that the young trees have been destroyed, and that 

 Nature's efforts to keep the forests full of fine trees have been frustrated by fire. 

 Some peop 7 e will tell you that a fire through a forest does good. That view is 

 utterly fallacious, for the exact contrary is the truth. It is true that after a fire 

 some rough feed suitable for grazing stock may spring up, but no one who has 

 given even a slight attention to the subject can maintain that this indifferent herb- 

 age has a value in the smallest degree approaching that of the trees destroyed or 

 rendered useless, nor can it be set against the diminution in the future productive 

 power of the forest through the destruction of seedlings. In every country in the 

 world possessing valuable forests the fire menace is being earnestly combated. 

 Measures have been taken to prevent fires as far as possible, and to reduce the 

 extent of their ravages. 



Investigation not only in Western Australia, but in other parts of Australia 

 and in foreign countries, has proved, beyond a doubt, that the vast majority of 

 bush fires are preventable. They almost always arise from the careless use of fire. 

 A camp fire is left alight when the campers leave, and the wind does the rest. Every 

 person in the bush lighting a fire should be careful to see that it is thoroughly 



