from conferences with various Forest Service officials 

 and lumbermen, from personal observations made in the 

 field, and from a miscellaneous collection of books, 

 bulletins, pamphlets and papers (See Bibliography), 



Review of Forest Conditions in California 



General Statements 



It is necessary to review the forest conditions 

 in California before proceeding with the discussion of 

 the practice of Light Burning within the state, Cal- 

 ifornia is the second largeat state in the Union, its 

 total acreage of land surface being 99,898,880 acres. 

 Prom its northern to its southern boundary line is a 

 a distance of 75^ miles. Two great inland valleys - 

 namely those of the Sacramento River, flowing south 

 from Mt Shasta, and of the San Joaquin River, flowing 

 north from the region of Mt, Whitney until within a 

 short distance of the city of Sacramento, when they com- 

 bine and flow west into the Bay of San Francisco, - 

 roughly separate the two great forested areas of the 

 state. Thus, the Sierra Nevada Mountains extend north 

 from the central part of the state along the eastern 

 boundary, while the Coast Range follows, a short dis- 

 tance inland, the trend of the coast line. In the Si- 

 erra regionithe eastern slopes fall rather abruptly in- 



