Treesearch

"We felt like witch doctors," was the complaint made by a foreman whose tanker crew had been selected to test the fire fighting qualities of "viscous water" (water containing a thickening agent). A few months later the same foreman, thoroughly familiar with the material, was convinced that under many conditions viscous water was superior to plain water in controlling forest fires. This change of opinion was the result of a three-part cooperative study conducted during the summer and fall of 1960 in California and Nevada. Use of chemical additives for water in forest fire control is not a...

Although sucrose and cellulose are both carbohydrates of basically similar composition, the very materials which have been found to be most effective in preventing flaming combustion of cellulose are also effective in causing sugar cubes to support flame.

A program of research on free-burning wood fires is being conducted by the Forest Service to build up experimental data on the properties of such fires, with the iltimate objective of describing the physical phenomena in terms of fundamental laws. Density was the first wood property investigated. This report gives data on the rate of burning of cribs of five species of wood, each of several density classes. Thermal diffusivity values of the wood were also estimated and correlated with the rate of burning.

A laboratory study was set up by the U.S. Forest Service with the ultimate objective of determining model laws for properties of wood fires, including rate of spread. This is a report of the first phase of the work, the development of a suitable bed of solid fuel and the technique of study. The bed chosen for initial study is in the form of long cribs of wood sticks. The technique is to start the crib burning at one end and to move the crib so as to keep the flame in a fixed position in space. Thermocouples in the convection column, radiometers, Pitot tubes, gas sampling tubes, and other...

People used to think that 150 years was about the maximum lifespan of the most durably viable seeds.

Early returns from a study of altitudinal variation of pines along an elevational transect in California indicated middle elevation sources grew best regardless of the elevation of planting, seeming to contradict the old maxim, "Local seed source is best" (6). Later returns bring some support for the maxim as local seed sources assert them selves after 20 years. Nonlocal seed sources do not keep up the growth pace or are hard hit by environmental factors.

Laboratory tests and small-scale field trials have shown the insecticide lindane to be highly toxic to pine engraver beetles. On the basis of that information, the insecticide was applied to fresh logging slash heavily infested with pine engraver beetles at Challenge Experimental Forest in 1959. Costs were reasonable and no insurmountable problems were encountered.

Sowing with a drill is the best way to obtain the good grass stands needed for soil protection on fuel-breaks or for forage on rangeland where brush has been removed. Two years of testing have shown this is true in southern California, as longer experience has proved for other kinds of land in the West. In fact, the adequate stands obtained from drilling in all tests during two extremely dry years convinces us that we can establish perennial grasses consistently on fuel-breaks wherever a drill can be used.

Small-plot and field-scale tests during the last few years have paid off in selecting the grasses to sow on fuel-breaks in southern California. Tests started by the Agricultural Research Service in cooperation with the Forest Service on burned areas in 1957, and more extensive sampling on the various sites during the last two years as part of the FUEL-BREAK research program have helped define conditions where the different species can be grown. Species not previously used to any extent have been added to the list of adapted grasses. Naturally, the recommendations for specific sites will be...