TIMBER GROWIK^G AND LOGGING PRACTICE IK CALIFORNIA 63 
(5) Making piles too large or too small or careless piling, result- 
ing in an}^ case in serious damage to advance reproduction. 
(6) Letting piling get behind logging to such an extent that the 
slash dries out and is hard to pile and the leaves and twigs fall off. 
At its best, as illustrated on many national forest cutting areas, 
piling and burning results in an excellent clean-up of the cut -over 
s,mm 
fsis 
^ 
^v 
Fig. 23.— poor SLASH PILING IS EQUIVALENT TO BROADCAST BURNING 
With small, loose piles of slash, heaped up without regard for remaining 
growth, the expense of piling is considerable, and the result is equivalent to a 
broadcast burn. Reasonable care will prevent this destruction. 
lands, with slight damage to reproduction. At its worst, as illus- 
trated particularly on certain j)rivate lands where slash has been 
piled and burned by contract, it approximates broadcast burning in 
its effect. (Fig. 23.) 
ADVANTAGES 
Studies on national forest cutting areas where a good job of piling 
and burning has been done, show that 6 to 17 per cent of the total 
ground area is covered by the burned slash piles, depending on the 
density of stand and volume of timber cut. By proper location of 
the piles in skidding trails and in natural openings, the damage to 
young growth can be practically eliminated. Scattered as the 
burned spots are, under the best practice, they offer little more op- 
position to full timber production than do the loose bowlders found 
in many thickly forested regions. 
The desirability of piling and burning, carefully done, is beyond 
question. It is the most that can be done under present conditions 
in reducing inflammable material. Experience shows that fires on 
cut-over areas where slash has been disposed of are not greatly 
more difficult to control than in virgin forest, and areas on which 
slash has been piled and burned have seldom been burned over after 
logging. On the basis of experience to date, piling and burning, 
though costing from 40 to 50 cents per thousand feet of lumber, 
is known to be a success, and deserves the preference over other 
methods of slash disposal, where, maximum yield in second growth is 
