26 



crew returned to camp, leaving the burned area to smoul- 

 der unwatched until early morning, when patrolmen were 

 dent out to the lines to see that the fire h^d not curossed 

 over into unturned areas. Following the method, l5,Q00 

 acres were burned over during July and August of 1920, 



Claims of the Light Burning Advocates 



Their general claims are to the effect that Light 

 Burning is practioaMe in all coniferous forests, but 

 particularly^^to the pine forests of California, due to 

 the even age and fire resistance of the species; that 

 the Indians practiced Light Burning as a means of firae 

 protection, saying that if fires were kept out, inflamm- 

 able debris would accumulate to the extent tat were a 

 fire to occur - and one would occur regardless of methods 

 employed to prevent it - it would be so intense as to 

 destroy the entire stand/ that there are no records of 

 conflagrations before the advent of man who by his prac- 

 tice of keeping fires out of the forests has so increased 

 the aoDOunt of logs, snags, brush and litter that travel 

 in the forests has been rendered ixtremely difficult; 

 fires will occur ultimately, due to lightning and ac- 

 cidents, so we will gain more in the end if we delib- 

 erately fire our forests before there is a sufficient 

 accumulation of debris within them to render it danger- 

 ous; the fire exclusion policgr as how practiced by the 

 Forest Service has been introduced from Europe where 



