AMERICAN FORESTRY 



191 



CALIFORNIA'S FIRE BILL 



A million dollar loss to timber, range 

 and grain was California's tribute to the 

 fire demon during the past season, ac- 

 cording to the annual fire report issued by 

 the United States Forest Service and the 

 California State Board of Forestry. 



The report states that 2,245 fires were 

 handled by the Federal Government and 

 State organization. Information secured 

 by these bureaus shows that in addition 

 293 grain fires burned -.vithin the State. 

 The alarming and disconcerting fact that 

 ninety percent of these fires result through 

 carelessness and negligence of man, the of- 

 ficials of these bureaus state, deserves the 

 serious attention of all Californians, partic- 

 ularly when the statistics indicate that 745 

 of these fires are directly chargeable to 

 campers and smokers. As travel along the 

 highways and in our mountains increases 

 the public must exercise greater care with 

 fire if our resources are not to suffer ir- 

 reparable loss. 



The report shows that the losses were 

 made up of the following: Timber $67,- 

 851.00, range $367,243.00, improvements 

 $189,738.00, and hay and grain $370,506.00. 

 The fire bill is further augmented by an 

 item of $175,000.00 spent for fighting these 

 fires. Six-hundred State and Federal of- 

 ficers are engaged in the difficult task of 

 controlling the fires in California's for- 

 ests and on the watersheds. 



RESOLUTIONS BY THE PROFES- 

 SIONAL FORESTERS 



The Society of American Foresters. 

 being the organization of technical forest- 

 ers in the United States, at its recent an- 

 nual meeting at Toronto passed strong 

 resolutions protesting against the proposed 

 transfer of the United States Forest Serv- 

 ice from the Department of Agriculture 

 to some other department of the Govern- 

 ment, stressing the close alliance of for- 

 estry with agriculture as both sciences 

 are concerned with crop production, and 

 the natural activity of the Forest Service 

 in developing rural community life ad- 

 jacent to the National Forests and through 

 cooperation in fire protection under the 

 terras of the Smith-Lever bill. A resolu- 

 tion regarding the necessity for special 

 appropriations for pine blister control work 

 was also passed, as was one urging the 

 necessity of liberal support of forest re- 

 search in the various branches of govern- 

 ment devoted to this most important work. 



PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD PRE- 

 VENTS FIRES 



To prevent forest fires along their 

 tracks, the railroads in Pennsylvania 

 burned more than 1200 miles of safety 

 strips during 1921, according to a statement 

 issued by George H. Wirt, Pennsylvania's 

 Chief Forest Fire Warden. The strips 



were cleared 100 feet wide on both sides 

 of the tracks to stop fires from spreading to 

 timberlands adjacent to railroads. The 

 safety strip mileage constructed last year 

 was far greater than during 1920, when 

 the railroads first agreed to co-operate with 

 the Department of Forestry in the remov- 

 al of brush, forest litter, and other inflam- 

 mable materials from the vicinity of tracks. 

 Statements from the railroad officials show 

 they spent about $65,000. The Pennsylva- 

 nia Railroad and the Philadelphia and 

 Reading Railway Company led in safety 

 strip work during 1921. In the Weiser 

 State Forest District, in Schuylkill, Carbon, 

 Luzerne, and parts of Lebanon, Dauphin, 

 Northumberland, and Columbia counties, 

 there were built 506 miles of strips, more 

 than 250 miles of them along the tracks of 

 the Lehigh Valley Railroad. 



PLANTING EXPERIMENTS ON 

 REDWOOD CUT-OVER LANDS 



The Forestry Division of the Universi- 

 ty of California is carrying on some inter- 

 esting experiments in artificial reforestation 

 in cooperation with the Union Lumber 

 Company on cut-over lands north of Fort 

 Bragg, Mendocino County. The planting 

 work was started in February 1921, the 

 planting site being a long strip across the 

 watershed of Campbell Creek including a 

 range of conditions typical of the redwood 

 region. Among the more important trees 

 being tested are Sugar Maple, Black Wal- 

 nut, White Ash, Basswood, White Oak, 

 Red Oak, Western Red Cedar and Douglas 

 Fir. Direct seeding in spots was tried 

 with several species as well as planting 

 nursery grown seedlings. An examination 

 in September showed 60-90 per cent sur- 

 vival for practically all species planted as 

 seedlings but almost total failure for all 

 seed spots. 



Redwood sprouts vigorously from cut 

 stumps and grows rapidly but under pres- 

 ent logging conditions this does not result 

 in a completely stocked stand of timber 

 due to the large size of the trees cut and 

 the comparatively small number of stumps 

 per acre. It is hoped the above experi- 

 ments will demonstrate that one or more 

 valuable species can be successfully grown 

 in association with redwood. Such asso- 

 ciated species besides producing a valuable 

 product will force the redwood to drop 

 its lower branches and grow with the long 

 bole so necessary to produce clear lumber. 



As an example of how a fully stocked 

 stand of redwood will grow in volume, a 

 sample plot on bottom land in Mendocino 

 County was measured in July 1921. This 

 stand was fully stocked containing 258 

 trees per acre; because of its bottom land 

 location the trees had escaped injury by 

 fire and soil and moisture conditions were 

 optimum for the region. In 50 years of 



THE 



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"A vital question In this country, 

 one with Immediate Importance, but 

 of greater concern still In Its relation 

 to the future. Is the preservation and 

 restoration of forests." Nashville 

 Banner. 



Have your friend join the Ameri- 

 can Forestry Association and help 

 perpetuate the forests. 



Notice 



Chas. Sprague Sargent's MANUAL 



OF TREES OF NORTH AMERICA, 

 new revised edition, is ready. 



PRICE $12.50 



Orders to 



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