Oct. i, 1917 Reproduction from Seed Stored in the Forest Floor 
3 
It is apparent from this table that the seed trees are effective for a 
distance of only 2 chains on this area, and that reproduction occurs in 
unburned slash without relation to the distance from seed trees. The 
limited migration from seed trees threw doubt upon the accepted theory 
that wind-blown seed is responsible for the dense stands of reproduction 
occurring in burns at distances of a mile or more from seed-bearing 
trees. If the seed did not come from the seed trees, then it must have 
been produced before the burn or the cutting took place, and must have 
been stored in the duff of the forest floor or in cones. Attention there¬ 
fore was directed to the leaf litter, and an effort was made to ascertain 
whether the forest floor of a virgin forest contains any germinable seed 
of western white pine and Douglas fir. It was found that the duff con¬ 
tains a large number of germinable seed, which might remain dormant 
there for a number of years and which evidently germinates and results 
in a dense stand of young growth as soon as the forest is cut down or 
burned over and light and heat are admitted to the ground. 
These facts led to a comprehensive study of large burns, particularly 
in the Douglas-fir region of Washington, and of cut-over lands in the 
Puget Sound region. The burns studied were divided into two classes: 
Areas burned only once were classed as ‘ ‘single burns 5 ’ and areas burned 
twice or more were classed as “repeated burns.” 
The results of the 5-year study from 1912 to 1916 are based on surveys 
of bums comprising about 750,000 acres, of which 68 acres have been 
actually examined by the transect method, and about 7,780 acres of 
cut-over land, of which 22.25 acres have been examined by the transect - 
and-plot method. 
RESTOCKING OF BURNS BY SEED STORED IN THE FOREST FLOOR 
THE COLUMBIA BURN, A SINGLE BURN ON WHICH THE DUFF WAS ONLY 
partly destroyed BY THE FIRE 
The Columbia burn (locally known as the Yacolt burn), extends 
northward from the Columbia River on the Columbia National Forest 
in southern Washington. The Columbia fire burned over an area of 
604,000 acres in the foothills on the west side of the Cascade Mountains 
at elevations varying from 500 to 4,000 feet (PI. 1). At the lower 
altitudes the forest traversed by the fire was the well-known Douglas- 
fir type, which includes the associates, western hemlock, western red 
cedar, western white pine, and lowland or “grand” fir (Abies grandis 
Eindl.). Above 1,100 feet, silver fir {Abies amabilis Forbes) makes 
its appearance, and then noble fir (Abies nobilis Tindl.), until at about 
3,000 or 3,500 feet the forest developes the true fir type, composed almost 
entirely of noble and silver fir with a slight admixture of western white 
pine and Douglas fir. Pacific yew (Tnxus brevifolia Nutt.) is distributed 
almost throughout the forest, avoiding only the subalpine summits of 
