1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



359 



tive quantity in the economic forest, 

 but also an active factor of harm. 

 They are the homes of fierce inter- 

 mittant fires which sweep with fury 

 through the oily manzinita and ceono- 

 thi, each time sallying further into the 

 surrounding forest. Nearly always 

 these open fields are surrounded by 

 patches of dead timber or a sparse 

 open forest receding before the con- 

 tinued attack. Fig. 5 shows this un- 

 equal struggle in action, and figure 4 

 shows the result in detail. 



At least 21 per cent, of the poten- 

 tial forest area of the Sierras is given 

 over to this entirely useless growth. 



lem in the mountains. The old In- 

 the forests of the entire state. Under 

 these circumstances how can promis- 

 cous burning be of use? 



THE; FOREST FIRE PROBLEM. 



Before lumbering commenced it 

 was impossible for debris and litter to 

 accumulate to a really alarming de- 

 gree. If continual burning created the 

 great chaparral fields, which are such 

 a menace to the safety of the forests, 

 before there was any great amount of 

 debris in the forest, how much more 

 dangerous must fire become after lum- 

 bering has commenced on a large 



Fig. 5. Fire running from open chaparral field into green timber. 



points given 



Summarizing the 

 above : 



As a result of continual fires set by 

 Indians, the valuable forests of the 

 state have been reduced to a relatively 

 small area and great stretches of coun- 

 try given over either to a scanty low 

 grade forest or to a worthless growth 

 of chaparral. 



This forest burning originated by 

 the Indians has been kept in action by 

 the carelessness of white settlers, so 

 that the destruction is constantly con- 

 tinuing and is becoming a menace to 



scale? In the train of every logging 

 operation follows a wide area of heavy 

 slash generally mixed with chaparral 

 and so inflammable that fire sweeps 

 through it with uncontrollable fury. 

 Luckily, these areas are not yet of 

 great extent, or continuous for a long 

 distance, so that the danger lies not so 

 much in the present as in the future. 

 As logging goes on, and the lumbered 

 areas grow greater, the menace from 

 fire becomes the most important prob- 

 dian fires may have been bad foj the 

 forest from a silvicultural standpoint. 



