Notwithstanding the shortness of the summer season at high altitudes,
the subalpine forests in some parts of the park have suffered severely
from fire (fig. 1). The bare white trunks of fire-killed amabilis and
alpine firs bear witness to numerous fires which occurred from time to
time before the regulations governing the park went into effect. The
little resin pockets in the bark of these trees blaze fiercely for a
short time and the heat separates the bark from the trunk. In this way
the tree is killed, although the naked trunk is left untouched by fire.
The destruction of the alpine forest in this way is often erroneously
attributed to disease or to the depredations of insects.
There has been little apparent change in the alpine burns within the
last 30 years. Reforestation at high altitudes is extremely slow. The
seed production is rather scanty and the ground conditions are not
favorable for its reproduction. It will take more than one century for
nature to replace the beautiful groves which have been destroyed by the
carelessness of the first visitors to the mountain.
At low elevations the forest recovers more rapidly from the effects of
fire. Between the subalpine areas and the river valleys there are
several large ancient burns which are partly reforested. The most
extensive of these tracts is the Muddy Fork burn. It is crossed by the
Stevens Canyon Trail from Reflection Lakes through the Ohanopecosh Hot
Springs. This burn includes an area of 20 square miles in the park and
extends north nearly to the glaciers and south for several miles beyond
the park boundary nearly to the main Cowlitz River. The open sunlit
spaces and wide outlooks afforded by reforested tracts of this character
present a strong contrast to the deep shades and dim vistas of the
primitive forest. On the whole they have a cheerful and pleasing
appearance, very different from the sad, desolate aspect of the alpine
burns which less kindly conditions of climate and exposure have kept
from reforestation.
The original forest was fire killed many years before the coming of the
white man. A few naked and weather beaten stubs are still standing. Only
the larger of the fallen trunks remain, and these are rotten except for
a few seasoned and weatherworn shells. The second growth is of all ages,
from seedlings to trees 12 to 14 inches in diameter. Vine maple, willow,
and mountain ash have sprung up along the streams and the hillsides are
covered with huckleberry bushes and a variety of grasses and flowering
plants.
Similar old burns are found on the ridge between Huckleberry Creek and
White River, in the northeastern part of the park, and on the ridge
between Tahoma Creek and Kautz Creek below Henrys Hunting Ground.
The old burns in the middle altitudes of the park occupy regions once
frequented by the Klickitat Indians. Every summer parties of hunters and
berry pickers from the sagebrush plains crossed the Cascades with their
horses. They followed the high divides and open summits of the secondary
ridges until they came around to the open parks about Mount Rainier
where they turned their horses out to graze and made their summer camp.
The woman picked huckleberries and the men hunted deer and goats. They
made great fires to dry their berries and kindled smudges to protect
their horses from flies. It was also their custom to systematically set
out fires as they returned. Burning made the country better for the
Indians. The fires kept down the brush and made it more accessible. Deer
could be more easily seen and tracked and the huckleberry patches spread
more widely over the hills.
No considerable part of the lower forests of the park has been burned.
The principal danger is from lightning. However, few of the trees struck
are ignited and these fires are usually extinguished by the rain. On
account of the coolness of the air and its greater humidity the fire
danger in the forests on the lower slopes of Mount Rainier seems much
less than it is in corresponding situations in the main range of the
Cascades.