Research in Fire Management 



The selection of research 

 studies at the newly estab- 

 lished forest experiment 

 stations in the South to a 

 large extent reflected the 

 condition of forest and 

 range lands in the region 

 and the related problems of 

 forest owners and timber 

 operators. By the end of 

 World War I, many people 

 considered southern forest 

 to be near extinction (White 

 1961). Lumbering had taken 

 a heavy toll on the vast 

 areas of State and Federal 

 timberlands released for 

 unrestricted sale and lum- 

 bering in the 1800's. The 

 end of the virgin forest was 

 at hand, with much of the 

 deforested land burned 

 over and nonstocked with 

 timber trees. Many rural 

 residents believed that 

 annual woods burning was 

 necessary to improve live- 

 stock grazing and eliminate 

 pests. Their self-prescribed 

 fires effectively prevented 

 reestablishment of pines on 

 many cutover areas South- 

 wide. Both the attitudes of 

 southerners toward fire and 

 flammability of the luxuriant 

 "rough" of ground vegetation 

 offered major challenges to 

 pioneers in fire control. 



With the rise of the conserva- 

 tion movement in the early 

 years of this century, fire 

 exclusion on southern pine 

 forests became the policy 

 of most foresters and 

 conservationists. Publica- 

 tions dealing with fire in the 

 South were largely preoccu- 

 pied with the evils of wide- 

 spread and uncontrolled 

 fire, as in the writings of 

 Pinchot and others. But 

 because such "educational" 

 efforts were not very suc- 

 cessful, the Forest Service 

 and State forestry organiza- 

 tions came to rely on legal 

 prohibitions as the only 

 feasible way to control 

 wildfire. Forest fuels built 

 up in the absence of fre- 

 quent burning, and the 

 result was many damaging 

 wildfires and intensified 

 conflicts with local residents. 



In this early period, ob- 

 servers such as H.H. Chap- 

 man of Yale University and 

 Austin Carey of the USDA 

 Forest Service aroused the 

 forestry profession by 

 eloquent and persistent 

 arguments that intentional 

 burning of the woods at 

 proper intervals would be a 

 better solution to the fire 

 problem. As early as 1911, 



