Treesearch

The necessity of forest-fire protection is generally recognized in the United Slates. The tremendous damage done by forest fires each year to valuable timber, watershed cover, forest range, wildlife, recreational facilities, and personal property has impressed upon the people the need for preventing and controlling forest fires so far as this is humanly possible.

In formulating methods for effecting forest regeneration, considerable information is needed as to the germination habits of the species involved. Studies of germination habits have been made for several species in the western white pine type, but heretofore no sufficiently detailed investigation has been made covering the germination habits of all the principal tree species of this type.

The Beaufort scale of wind force, internationally employed by weather agencies, was not designed for use on mountainous and forested areas like those of the Rocky Mountains of northern Idaho and western Montana. The United States Forest Service has used it to estimate wind velocities in this region, but has found that in too many cases the resulting estimates were inaccurate: In the northern Rocky Mountain region the scheme of forest fire protection demands reliable estimates of wind velocity. Wind exerts an important influence upon the rate at which forest fuels dry and upon the rate at...

During the middle of the nineteenth century forests were believed to have important influences on climate. As climate was more thoroughly understood it became evident that the major climatic controls were beyond the influence of forest cover, a finding which wholly discredited the earlier conclusions. It was evident to the forester and student of ecology, however, that a forest stand has important and under certain conditions critical influence upon plant succession. Accordingly, attention was given to local climate, or micro-climate. An understanding of the significance of the influence...

Silvicultural practice for the national forests in the mixed western white pine stands of northern Idaho has long been complicated by the economic problems arising from the presence of aggressive, tolerant, low-value species, such as western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and lowland white fir (Abies grandis), in association with the less tolerant, faster-growing, high-value western white pine (Pinus monticola). Purely silvicultural measures to encourage the germination and survival of white pine (for example, the creation of more favorable light conditions on cut-over areas through the...

The best test of the practicability of any new method or device is the actual trial by numerous users who are interested only in the end product, and who have no special interest in the means employed to reach that end. Such users are not inclined to give the new method the advantage of any doubts, and they are particularly critical of the method or device insofar as it may make more work for them. If, after such a trial, these users extend the use of the new method, of their own volition, or better yet if they do this at some expense to themselves, the verdict is most conclusive.

During the last decade the U. S. Forest Service and several of the forest schools have completed rather comprehensive studies of the growth and yield of a number of commercially important native conifers. As the majority of these studies show the volumes obtainable in fully-stocked stands to very similar standards of utilization, they furnish an excellent opportunity to compare the relative rates of growth on a number of important tree species. This is always an interesting subject to many foresters, as indicated by the Woodward-Forbes controversy of some months ago, and consequently the...

For some years forest investigators in the Pacific Northwest have been aware of the considerable quantity of tree seed which accumulates in the duff of heavy virgin timber stands and apparently retains its vitality for a few years in a sort of natural cold-storage condition. The major portion of the luxuriant regeneration which frequently follows logging and forest fires in the western white pine forest of northern Idaho has, in fact, been attributed by many foresters to this stored seed. The theory is that wholesale germination is stimulated by removal of the dense overwood shade and...

Measurements of meteorological conditions prevailing during the rapid spread of forest fires are greatly needed so that when their recurrence seems probable, fire-weather forecasters may issue warnings of the danger. Such determinations also can be used by forest protective agencies which operate meteorological stations to guide their own action in the distribution of men and the hiring of fire fighters whenever their instruments reveal the early probability or actual existence of these dangerous conditions.

The western white pine type is the most important forest unit over large areas of rough uplands in northern Idaho and adjacent portions of eastern Washington and western Montana. It occupies throughout this region the cooler, moister sites between elevations of 2,000 and 5,500 feet, reaching its best development in northern Idaho between the international boundary and the Lochsa River (10). The type is distinguished by its luxuriant growth and great complexity and characterized by the presence of western white pine (Pinus montícola D. Don) in association with a large number of other...