808 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



an extent that it did very little damage. Over most of the area all 

 the brush was consumed except along the points of the ridges where 

 the fire burned less fiercely than elsewhere. Occasionally there are 

 large patches which probably burned slowly, as at night, where charred 

 stems still remain with only the leaves and smaller twigs consumed, 

 but it may safely be said that 75 per cent of the area was burned clean. 

 The change in the cover conditions was immediately shown both 

 by stream flow and by erosion. In general the peak of high water came 

 sooner from the denuded areas than from areas with a chaparral 

 cover, the high water passed more quickly and normal conditions of 

 flow were established sooner. Further, the water contained large 

 quantities of silt, v/hile streams from the unburned area were practi- 

 cally clear, though at times the water was slightly murky from the 

 organic material and finer silt it carried. 



There was also a difl:'erence in the quality of the water. Streams 

 from the brush-covered area were running clear in October and were 

 tasteless, while streams from the burned-over area were decidedly 

 brackish and contained more or less mineral salts from the ashes of 

 the forest cover. In the Little Dalton, the water in the pools was 

 so decidedly bitter after the first rains that it was unfit for domestic 

 use. A complaint that the impregnation of the irrigation water with 

 potash and other salts from the burned area would be dangerous to 

 agricultural lands was raised, but it is not believed that such a state- 

 ment had any justification, because such water would be of value as 

 a fertilizer and the concentration of salts was probably not high enough 

 to injure vegetation. Furthermore, the greatest concentration of salts 

 occurred at the time of maximum run-ofif and during the peak of 

 the flow, when but little if any water from the burned areas was used 

 for irrigating purposes. At the close of the winter season, the water 

 flowing from the burned lands was fully as good as that from the 

 unburned area. 



Erosion began with the first storm after the fire on most of the 

 area and was located in the softer and deeper soils which previously 

 had been protected by the brush cover. Apparently on areas where 

 the brush cover was scanty there was very little erosion, because of 

 previous removal of the finer soil particles due to the scanty cover. 

 At the mouths of the smaller draws, debris cones were being formed 

 and on practically every sidehill with a deep soil^ erosion of the shoe- 

 string type was typical. There were no landslides found, though the 



