production of the various hardwood species by removing 

 the overstory of pine. This merely hastens the approach 

 to Nature's goal of establishing a hardwood climax forest. 

 As most of our pine forests developed as a result of dis- 

 turbing Nature's process by land clearing or fire, what are 

 foresters going to do to keep North Carolina's pine lands — 

 estimated to be at least % of the forest area of the state — 

 producing pine in the next 50 or 100 years? Will the prob- 

 lem be solved by forgetting pine and concentrating on the 

 development of bulkwood industries to use the tremendous 

 volume of hardwood that is usable for no other purpose at 

 present except fuel? 



If so, the forests will be able to support only about one- 

 half of the bulk-wood industry, or % of the lumber in- 

 dustry that would be possible with pine. 



CAUSES OF FIRE 



Figures supplied by the N. C. Forest Service show the 

 following causes of forest fires on State-protected areas 

 in the order of their incidence. The figures shown are the 

 annual average as determined for the calendar years 1940 

 to 1944, inclusive. 



1. Smokers 1212 



2. Incendiary 851 



3. Debris burning 792 



4. Hunters, fishermen, campers 419 



5. Miscellaneous 338 



6. Railroads 193 



7. Lumbering . . 98 



8. Lightning 34 



Total, all causes 3937 



The above figures show the number of fires by various 

 causes for cooperating counties only. For the fiscal year 

 1945-46 there are 63 counties cooperating. Only estimates 

 are available for the non-cooperating counties. 



What about the personal element involved in most fires? 

 Human carelessness and lack of responsibility and, in 

 some cases, local customs, are the main issues. 



Many forest fires develop while individuals are engaged 

 in burning tobacco beds, ditch banks, hedgerows, broom 

 straw fields and pasture. Responsibility for fires of this 

 type is generally not hard to establish when experienced 

 men are used to collect evidence. Once responsibility is 

 established, the proper action can (and should) be taken. 



Fire law enforcement, it should be said, is an important 

 part of the work of the Division of Forestry and Parks. In 

 fact, the Division's law enforcement record has been for 

 some years the best among forestry agencies in the South. 

 This program, like many others, has suffered during the 

 war years due to drastic loss of supervisory personnel. In 

 1940, as a sample pre-war year, the Division handled 4,726 

 fires and 445 fire law prosecutions (of which 397 resulted 

 in court convictions). An additional 424 cases were settled 

 for payment of the fire-fighting costs by the responsible 

 parties. 



Hunters are responsible for many fires by failure to 

 extinguish warming fires and by trying to smoke squirrels, 

 o'possums, raccoons, or bees from hollow trees. Local deer 

 hunters often take it upon themselves to improve hunting 

 by eliminating underbrush. Some areas, it seems, have to 

 be "swinged off" periodically so that hunters can see to 

 shoot! Ownership of land does not concern them, neither 

 does the crop of trees present on the area. 



Others burn to "kill boll weevils" or "ticks and snakes" 

 and "to chase the bears back in the swamp so they won't 

 eat the corn or 'chillun' ". Education may convince some 

 of these people that burning does not accomplish their 

 purpose. Habitual woods-burners will have to be "lawed 

 until they see the light." 



FIRES RAVAGE EASTERN N. C. WOODLANDS 



11. Farm tenants who live near this big woods area in Jones County 

 are apparently responsible for fires sweeping across it nearly every year. 

 There are some good pine seed trees and the area could reseed to pine if 

 burning could be stopped. Th ground is in good shape for pines to become 

 established. 



. ,.-5^, 



III 



I 



m ■'> 



12. The owner of this formerly dense young loblolly stand in Bertie 

 County has sustained a heavy financial loss due to fire. The majority 

 of the pines were killed. 



EXTENT OF BURNING 



A study of Table 21 will show that woods burning is also 

 a regional problem. Present fire detection and suppression 

 methods appear to be satisfactory in the Piedmont and 

 Mountain Region, but are inadequate in the Northern and 

 Southern Coastal Plain. The figures listed under acreage 

 burned have been determined by field sampling and do not 

 necessarily check with other published acreage figures. 

 However, the sampling method used gives a very good in- 

 dication of actual burned acreage. 



Wake County may be used as an example of procedure. 

 Seventy-four one-quarter acre plots were mechanically se- 

 lected for study. The plots were carefully checked to de- 

 termine if burning had taken place within one or five 

 years, this information being obtained from the age of 



(29) 



