Light Burning vs. Forest Management. 189 



an annual expenditure of from $3,000,000 to $10,000,000, which, 

 of course, is prohibitive. Moreover for but a very small part of 

 this sum these big timber holders could form protective associa- 

 tions and protect their lands by employing fire-guards, so that 

 forest fires could all be extinguished in their incipiency with the 

 minimum amount of loss, and all this without the loss of millions 

 of acres of fine reproduction. 



Even if "light-burning" were feasible from the standpoints of 

 results obtained and the cost, it would still be absolutely incom- 

 patible with Forest Management, or the growing of timber for 

 profit. Here in the Northern Sierras it would limit the systems 

 of reproduction we might use to either the "seed trees" method, 

 or the "seeding from the side" method, the "clear cut and plant" 

 method being excluded on account of lack of nursery stock and 

 transportation facilities. The larger part of our forests are com- 

 posed of uneven-aged, mixed stands of Yellow Pine, Sugar Pine, 

 Douglas Fir, Incense Cedar, White Fir and Red Fir. In a stand 

 with all these species represented, when "light-burning" has been 

 practised, the lumberman would cut only the valuable pines and 

 Douglas Fir, thus leaving the inferior species to take possession 

 of the ground. This cut would not only eliminate the valuable 

 species but it would also leave the forest extremely open, and give 

 the unsuppressible brush a good chance to take possession. In 

 the mature stands of pure Yellow Pine where this theory has been 

 practised, the lumberman would make a clear cut, and take practi- 

 cally all trees. In this case lumbering on a large scale would 

 exterminate the forest, or if seed did happen to come in from 

 the neighboring stands tTie result would be large continuous stands 

 of young growth, which are a worse fire-trap than before. At first 

 the reproduction is burned off at a great cost to protect the forests 

 from fire, and then these "light-burners" turn around and cause 

 large reproduction areas to be formed which make the matter of 

 fire protection infinitely worse than before. 



In other words the "light-burning" theory is directly opposed 

 to the selection system of management. Conditions in these 

 mountains demand that the selection system be used, to assure 

 the proper proportion of species and to eliminate large young 

 growth areas, which are undesirable on account of heavy snow- 

 fall, and insects, but principally on account of fire. This region is 



