The  increase  in  the  number  of  forest  fires  raging  in  the  mountains  of  Colorado  is  alarming  in  a  region  where
the  forest  once  destroyed  cannot  easily  reproduce  itself,  and  upon  mountains  where  forest  covering  is  necessary  to
preserve  the  integrity  of  the  channels  and  the  constant  flow  of  numerous  important  streams  essential  to  the
irrigation  of  wide  areas  of  arid  territory.
During  the  census  year  113,820  acres  of  forest  were  reported  destroyed  by  fire,  with  an  estimated  loss  of
$935,500.    These  fires  were  set  by  careless  hunters,  miners,  and  prospectors,  and  by  Indians  or  whites  through  malice.
The  forests  of  the  Colorado  foot-hills  afford  abundant  fuel  and  fencing  material  to  supply  the  wants  of  the
present  population  of  this  part  of  the  state.    Coarse  lumber,  suitable  for  the  timbering  of  mines  and  railroad


568  THE  FORESTS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.
coDstruction,  is  manufactured  from  the  fir  and  pines  of  the  lower  mountain  slopes,  which  have  also  furnished
immense  quantities  of  fuel  and  railway  ties.  The  timber,  however,  of  this  forest  most  accessible  to  mining  center*
and  the  lines  of  railroads  has  already  been  destroyed,  while  its  productive  capacity  is  everywhere  impaired  by
wasteful  methods  of  lumbering  and  destructive  conflagrations.  The  elevated  spruce  forests,  which  contain  the
only  great  bodies  of  heavy  timber  found  in  the  central  Eocky  Mountain  region,  have  thus  far,,  on  account  of  the
difficulties  of  operating  in  them,  escaped  all  serious  inroads  from  the  ax  of  the  lumberman.  Small  portable  mills,
however,  have  been  established  in  these  forests  to  supply  the  wants  of  some  of  the  most  elevated  mining  centers,
and  fires  every  year  reduce  their  extent  and  value.
