e occur it would be much
easier to fight. This is especially true where reproduction is
dense. Where openings are scarce piles should be made in the most
open places, and may be larger than those made to be burned."

SLASH BURNING

In many regions, especially in western Oregon and Washington, logging
debris is too great to make piling practicable. But except for
the damper localities close to the Pacific, the danger from these
immense accumulations is all the more excessive and, as we have
seen elsewhere, their removal is often desirable in order to further
reforestation by desirable species. Here the only course is to
burn the slashing clean.

This is a dangerous process unless every safeguard is employed.
Burning must be at a time in spring or fall when the slashing is
dry enough but the surrounding woods are not. Spring burning is
theoretically preferable, for it leaves less inflammable material
during the fire season. The first fire is also easier to control
then, because repeated experiments may be made, as the slashing
dries, until just the right conditions exist. On the other hand,
it is dangerous if there are many old stumps and logs in which
fire may smoulder to make trouble later. The exponents or fall
burning also argue that with care they can be ready to fire a very
dry slashing safely at the beginning of a rainstorm. Spring burning
seems to have the most advocates, but it is doubtful whether any
rule for all localities and conditions can be given with confidence.
Frequently failure at one season leads to postponement until the
next.

In either case the slashing can be given the advantage of the greatest
dryness with safety if it is surrounded by a cleared fire line from
which to work. Firing should be against the wind and if the wind
changes suddenly the opposite edge should be back fired. Previous
cutting of all dead trees and snags over 25 feet high is urgently
recommended. The camp crew should be held in readiness, well provided
with tools, as insurance against accidental escape.

Its probable restriction of insect breeding is a point of slash
burning likely to receive much future study. It is well known that
most forest-injuring insects prefer dying trees to vigorous ones;
also that the existence of an abnormal amount of such material
tends to abnormal breeding and consequent serious attack of vigorous
timber when the dead material becomes too dry to be inviting. It
is by no means impossible tha