The hardwood trees are unable to protect their wounds as effectively as the evergreens.

Where the wound is large, the exposed sapwood dies, dries out, and cracks.

The fungi enter these cracks and work their way to the heartwood.

Many of the fungi cannot live unless they reach the heartwood of the tree.

Fires wound the base and trunks of forest trees severely so that they are exposed to serious destruction by heartrot.
Foresters try to locate and dispose of all the diseased trees in the State and Government forests.