FOREST PROTECTION 



189 



Table 113. — Mortality, growth loss, and growth 

 impact on commercial forest land resulting from 

 1952 damage, by causes, United States and 

 Coastal Alaska 



GROWING STOCK 



Cause 



Mortal- 

 ity 



Growth 

 loss 



Growth 



impact 



Fire 



Million 



cu. ft. 



236 



773 



1, 000 



843 



65 



593 



Million 



cu. ft. 



1,452 



4,275 



778 



114 



944 



136 



Million 

 cu. ft. 

 1,688 

 5,048 

 1,778 



957 

 1,009 



729 



Percent 

 15 



Disease 



45 



Insects 



Weather 



16 

 9 



Animals 



9 



Miscellaneous ' 



6 



Total 



Salvage ' 



2 3,510 

 769 



7,699 



11, 209 

 769 





Net loss 



2,741 





10, 440 





fourth as much as the West to the total sawtimber 

 mortahty. By contrast, so much of the growth 

 loss occurred in the North and South that the 

 total growth impact on sawtimber was not greatly 

 different in the three major sections of the country. 

 Coastal Alaska added about 3 percent to the total 

 United States mortality and about 2 percent to 

 the growth loss. 



The ratio of mortality to growth loss is very 

 different for the major destructive agencies. As 

 shown in table 115 and figure 72, disease, fire, and 

 animals caused more growth loss than mortality. 

 Insects, weather, and miscellaneous agents caused 

 more mortality than growth loss. 



STATUS OF PROTECTION 

 FROM FIRE 



Fire Protection in Relation to 

 THE Timber Resource 



SAWTIMBER 



Fire 



Million 

 bd.-ft. 

 781 



2, 242 

 5,041 



3, 387 

 190 



1,026 



Million 



bd.-ft. 



6,591 



17, 647 



3,576 



482 



2,532 



332 



Million 

 bd.-ft. 

 7,372 

 19, 889 

 8,617 

 3, 869 

 2,722 

 1, 358 



Percent 

 17 



Disease 



45 



Insects 



20 



Weather 



9 



Animals 



6 



Miscellaneous » 



3 



Total 



Salvage ' 



2 12, 667 

 3,089 



31, 160 



43, 827 

 3,089 









Net loss 



9,578 





40, 738 





It is thoroughly established and accepted that 

 control of fires is fundamental to the sustained 

 management of forest resources. Fires defeat the 

 objectives sought by forest management; a single 

 blaze can completely wipe out timber values ac- 

 cumulated over many years. If merchantable 

 trees survive fire, their growth rate and quality 

 are often lowered. Fires damage future timber 

 values when they destroy reproduction, saplings, 

 and poles, especially if the burned areas fail to 

 restock naturally. 



Fires are largely responsible for the lack of 



reproduction on the 73 million acres of forest 



'Types of damage not ascribed directly to causes listed j^nds now classed as poorly stocked. Fires often 



mclude suppression, mortality, and growth loss due to . .-, . j- i f -ix i i • . ^ 



logging injury. ^^t the stage tor later attacks by insects and 



2 These figures represent actual 1952 mortality. They disease. They sometimes result in the replace- 

 therefore depart somewhat from those in the section ment of desirable species by less desirable ones, 

 Send mo''rtalit^*''''''*'°"' ^' ^^^' ""'^''^ "-ep^esent periodic ^nd severe or repeated burning may reduce the 



3 Utilized from dead trees in 1952. productivity of the soil itself. Because of the 



snags fires create or the highly flammable brush, 



TVT -1 , J +1 AT *.i D 1 AT i • annual grasses, and weeds that often invade 



Northwest and the Northern Rocky Mountains. turned areas, efforts to prevent future burns are 

 The choice of any given base year would affect the j ded, sometimes for decades, 

 regional rankings to some extent particularly with ^^^ continuous threat of occasional severe losses 



respect to fire, insects, and wind damage. characterizes the fire problem and the potential 



impact of fire on the timber resource. Historically 

 Mortality Versus Growth Loss we have suffered our greatest losses from the infre- 



quent bad fire, an excessive number of fires in a 

 Growth impact, as previously explained, is made short period, or a generally severe fire season. 

 up of mortality and growth loss. Growth loss of The Peshtigo fire in 1871 in Wisconsin burned 

 sawtimber was about two and one-half times 1,280,000 acres and 1,500 people lost their lives, 

 greater than mortality. The relative proportions More recent catastrophic fires are mentioned in 

 of niortality and growth loss vary widely between this report, among them the Yacolt fires in Wash- 

 sections (table 116). Forty-eight percent of the ington in 1902, the great Idaho-Montana fires of 

 growing stock mortality and 69 percent of the saw- 1910, and the Tillamook burn in Oregon in 1933. 

 timber mortality occurred in the West, while the Today with tremendously improved fire control, 

 North and South each contributed less than one- we still sufl'er our greatest losses from the excep- 



