26
CHAPTER VII.
FIRES AND THEIR COST.
The forest, like every other natural object, has its enemies as well as its friends. Among the latter may be mentioned birds and small marsupials who destroy insects that are injurious to trees, especially young trees. These friends of the trees carry on their beneficent work all the year round, and without them great forests of fine trees would be impossible. The only enemies of the forest that work continuously during the year are harmful insects and fungoid growths of many kinds. Nature has provided means for keeping the noxious insects in check, and the skill of the forester combats successfully a great number of the diseases due to fungi. But of all the destructive agencies that afflict forest-growth none is more serious, none is accompanied by greater loss and damage, than fire. A fire through a forest may undo years of hard work on the part of foresters. The seriousness of such a disaster can only be estimated by those who have given close study to forest questions. Let us see in what way fire inflicts untold harm on a forest. In the first place it destroys the humus and undergrowth, and it has already been explained how essential these are to healthy vigorous forest life. In the second place, the fire damages the bark of trees that have passed the sapling stage, with the result that the trees are killed off, or, if they continue to live, they develop "greedy-growths" (small branchlets on the trunk and limbs), and other defects which render them useless as producers of good timber, or they become stunted and deformed and of no value except as firewood. There are hundreds of thousands of such deformed and valueless trees in the forests of Western Australia; these, if fire had not injured them, would have been of value and would have added to the State's timber production, whereas now it will cost money to remove them in order that others may grow in their places. Another and particularly serious aspect of the destructive work of fire is the havoc caused among saplings and seedlings. Few saplings escape damage when a fire sweeps through the bush, and far fewer still are the seedlings that escape. The disastrous effects of the ravages of fire are apparent to even the most casual observer in the bush. In every jarrah or karri forest will be noticed great vacant spaces bare of large trees and seedlings, but showing evidences of more or less recent visitations by fire. These vacant places tell with a plainness that cannot be misunderstood that the young trees have been destroyed, and that Nature's efforts to keep the forests full of fine trees have been frustrated by fire. Some people will tell you that a fire through a forest does good. That view is utterly fallacious, for the exact contrary is the truth. It is true that after a fire some rough feed suitable for grazing stock may spring up, but no one who has given even a slight attention to the subject can maintain that this indifferent herbage has a value in the smallest degree approaching that of the trees destroyed or rendered useless, nor can it be set against the diminution in the future productive power of the forest through the destruction of seedlings. In every country in the world possessing valuable forests the fire menace is being earnestly combated. Measures have been taken to prevent fires as far as possible, and to reduce the extent of their ravages.
Investigation not only in Western Australia, but in other parts of Australia and in foreign countries, has proved, beyond a doubt, that the vast majority of bush fires are preventable. They almost always arise from the careless use of fire. A camp fire is left alight when the campers leave, and the wind does the rest. Every person in the bush lighting a fire should be careful to see that it is thoroughly
