16 BULLETIN 1493, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
(1) The prevention and suppression of fire in connection with 
logging operations. Logging creates an extraordinary hazard 
adjacent to the operation on the lands of the operator especially, 
and the fire problem there is one for the operator to handle himself. 
It is quite apart from the general fire problem common to all forest 
jand of the region. 
(2) Protection of forests against fire in the region at large. Be- 
cause of interlacing ownership and the public’s large share in causing 
fires, the protection of the forests of the region becomes in part a 
matter for public action and requires a widespread cooperative 
organization. 
CARE OF THE VIRGIN FOREST 
The principal provision necessary in the virgin woods of the 
Douglas fir region is the prevention of fires. Fires may be either 
surface or crown fires. Surface fires do relatively little damage in 
the virgin forest other than killing a tree here and there, pitching 
the butts, inviting butt rots, encouraging the growth of brush, 
making tinder for subsequent fires, and depleting the soil’s fertility. 
They are, however, always liable to develop into crown fires which 
kill all in their path and may wipe out in a few hours the entire 
commercial value of a forest property except for such salvage value 
as dead timber may have. Therefore the absolute prevention of fire 
wn virgin woods is the desired goal for successful forest management. 
This should be‘the objective even though its perfect attainment 
may be beyond reach at once. The smaller the acreage burned 
over each year by any class of fire the better the forestry. 
Upon the owners’ initiative and under the compulsion of the 
State laws, most of the virgin commercial forest of the region is 
now given fairly effective protection. Better protection still is 
necessary, but not so much in the virgin timber itself as in the logged- 
off land and slashings, where most of the fires start that threaten 
virgin timber. A discussion of protection methods and organization 
is given later under the heading ‘‘Regional cooperative system of 
forest protection.” 
Aside from protection against fire, the measures necessary for 
proper care of virgin forests prior to cutting are of minor importance. 
There are, of course, the prevention of trespass and the salvage of 
fire-killed or other dead timber. There may be occasional “out 
breaks of insect or fungous enemies which require the services of 
competent specialists to determine the nature of the trouble and 
to prescribe possible remedies. Catastrophies due to the elements, 
such as the Olympic blow down of 1920, create special problems of 
salvage and protection which must be settled as they arise. 
TREATMENT OF THE FOREST AND CUT-OVER LAND DURING 
LOGGING 
For getting a new crop of timber started in the Douglas fir region 
the all-important principle is to give nature a chance. No radical 
modification of present logging methods is necessary, but to attain 
satisfactory reforestation slash disposal and fire control must be 
made much more effective than they are to-day, and better pro- 
vision must be made for insuring sufficient seed. The technic of 
