The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1943-02-04

IL IL Were not lot lne neeQ OF lay
ering humus on the soil the reforest-
er might plant, except for black To-
Gust, no hardwood trees at all. He
would concentrate on the evergreens.
For the conifers, members of the
great pine family, will grow on land
too poor to support any other kind
of trees. Out of the first 5000, 900
trees planted by the open Cut Min
ing Industry Of Illinois," 1,76l, 900
were black locusts, and 1852, 900
conifers. The needle-like leaves of
these evergreens drop only every
three or four years, but it is a con
tinuous process. Their duff" does
not make as much humus as broad
hardwood leaves, but it is good
humuS.
Favorite conifers for strip spoil"
planting are those which are native
to poor soils-such hard-scrapple
evergreens as the Scotch pine, Nor
way spruce, and the red pine which
struggles a gallant living out of the
thin earth which wells the rocks of
northeast Canada and the bleached
hillsides of abandoned-farm New
England and ~coal-country Pennsyl-
vania.
Such species are grateful for the
mineral food the strip miners SHOW
els have brought up from under
ground. They grow much more lux
uriantly and rapidly on the "spoils"
than they do on the untumbled land
nearby, and far better than they ever
did at home. A large proportion of
the conifers included in the 5000, 900
trees planted on Indiana "spoils"
during the 1905 are now 10 or IL
feet high, covering the steep-pitched
banks of the lakes created by the
shoveled-up contours. At least one
observer is reminded by this refor-
ested land of the Irish Hills of Michi-
gan and the forest-bordered lakes of
the Adirondacks.
Forests Replaceable.
The forest products industries are
able to give the open-cut mine op-
orators constructive aid and advice
because they formerly faced a prob
lem which, while not so grave, was
similar. Early loggers looked on
forests as if they were mines. Both
timber and coal are natural re-
sources; the prime difference is that
once coal has been mined it is gone,
while forests are replaceable. Long
ago loggers were faced by a triple
economic problem:
First, land had to be cleared be-
fore it could be farmed. Woodcut-
tiers we're the first pioneers, proud of
their accomplishment when their
axes "let light into the swamp" the
life-giving sunlight without which
orn could not grow.
Second, the country was in urgent
need Of harvested wood for construc-
ton lumber, for fencing, and for
fuel. In 300 years it took seven
trillion two hundred billion board feet
of lumber to build this country.
And third, the pioneers we're faced
with seemingly endless mature for
ests. Only swift harvesting of some
of them could save them from the
deterioration of old age. AS a mat
ter of silvicultural fact, this is still
true of thousands of thousands of
square miles of forestland in Amer
lea. Harvesting virgin ponderosa
pine has in some sections resolved
itself into a rae against the beetle,
plague Of these aged trees. Harvest
ing some stands of virgin Douglas
fir is a race against internal tree
decay. If we are to continue to have
forests in those sections many old
trees need to be removed so that a
new young tree crop a grow.
Enough farm land was finally
cleared. In some sections of the
country, too much. Some harvested
forestland proved unfit to farm.
Trees were the natural and only USE
full crop these acres would grow.
NS" CllSldIlu dIlu SOuLIleTu
found themselves harvesting second
and even third-growth trees. The
evidence was unacceptable. These
trees were volunteer crops.
Trees can be grown over and over
the same land.
Where seed trees had been left in
cut-over areas, natural replanting
with fire protection provided ade.
quate new crops. But in some areas
fire, erosion, or other causes have
natural seed sources,
young growth and the surface fer
tility of the soil. This was p%articu.
larly true Of abandoned stumpland.
Fires had swept through the waste
litter and dead snags left behind
when the merchantable timber was
taken out. This had destroyed the
humus.