TREND OF ANNUAL TIMBER 
LOSS DUE TO INSECTS 
MONTANA 
i 
S 
8 
= 
Q 
1 
~ 
= 
1) 
S 
x 
x 
5 
= 
XN 
1911-20 1921-30 1931-40 1941-44 
Freure 34. 
harvest them when they are ripe, insects and. dis- 
ease will. That the infestation of mountain pine 
beetles reached the great magnitude it did from 
1909 to 1933 seems to have been because a large 
part of the Montana timber was overmature. 
As the mature forest is harvested it will be re- 
placed by more vigorous stands, and losses due to 
insects will probably diminish. However, under a 
program of  sustained-yield many 
years will be needed to complete the harvest ot 
the mature timber, and insects may do a great deal 
management, 
c 
of damage in the meantime unless steps are taken 
to control them. 
Tire 
Old-timers will recall the conflagrations of 1910, 
the blackest year on record for the timber of the 
Northern Rocky Mountains. In Montana alone the 
ereat uncontrolled fires of that year killed 2.6 
billion board feet—about three times as much as 
the gross annual saw-timber growth. ‘Though losses 
in a single year have never again reached such a 
peak, they have often been high. 
Montana’s forests burn easily. In the latter part 
Forest Resources of Montana 
of the nineteenth century some prospectors took 
advantage of that fact and set fires to clear the 
ground to make prospecting easier. The great con- 
flagrations of 1910 made it plain, however, that 
even without the assistance of incendiarists, fires 
were a major menace and a big job of controlling 
them lay ahead if there was to be much timber 
available for cutting in the future. ‘The effort to 
blanket the public and private forest land of Mon- 
tana with adequate fire protection started shortly 
after the beginning of the present century. At that 
time several fire protection associations were formed 
by private landowners, and these, plus the fire- 
fighting organizations of public agencies, provided 
some protection for most of the forest land. 
The dramatic story of a successful battle against 
great odds is seen in figure 35." This record looks 
even better when considered in light of the de- 
clining purchasing power of the dollar, labor short- 
ages, and other troubles which have plagued fire 
control agencies in recent years. 
There is no doubt that the downward trend olf 
fire losses is in large part the result of a constantly 
better job of fire control. Speed of attack, for ex- 
ample, is an essential element in control. The 
average time between the start of a fire and the 
arrival of the first men has steadily diminished. 
Lookouts, air patrols, a network of protection roads, 
and more recently smokejumpers who are flown 
by plane to many fires, have made possible this 
reduction in elapsed time. 
Fire control men caution against complacency, 
pointing out that the decade 1940-49 was more 
favorable than usual from the standpoint of burn- 
ing conditions. ‘The task of maintaining a good 
record in the face of rising costs and manpower 
shortages is a difficult one. 
Diseases 
Of all the diseases eating away at the timber in 
Montana one has by its virulence pushed into the 
limelight. This is the blister rust of western white 
pine, which if uncontrolled can destroy young 
Statistics for areas burned during the early years are not 
available for all private and public forest land. However, 
the data presented here for the national forests show: the 
general trend. They include the burned area on all lands 
within the national-forest boundaries. The Forest Service 
is responsible for fire protection on an additional area out- 
side national-forest boundaries. 
