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it works successfully because inflammable material is 

 removed from the ]Forests by hand; private timber owners 

 do not practice forest management due primarily to in- 

 adequate fire protection; the lumber industry will ul- 

 timately become extinct if the present policy of fire 

 exclusion is continued. 



(1) Mature Tim ber 



More specifically, what relation exists between 

 Light Burning and the mature timber? The Light Bur- 

 ners state that the damage done to large trees by 

 frequent surface fires, is negligible--- and does not fire- 

 scar the trees. More than this, that it is practically 

 impossible to cause a fire-scar on a large yellow pine. 

 Not only, they say, will Light Burning injure mature 

 trees, but it is of decided advantage in clearing the 

 lower trunk of branches as is evidenced by the clear 

 trunks of old trees which successfully withstood the 

 fires of the Indians. Furthermore, the fires serve to 

 kill bark -beetles and fungus growth, to destroy insect 

 breeding places, as windfalls and debris accumulations, 

 and by smoking and charring the outer berk of the trees, 

 prevent the entrance of bark -beetles. Light Burning 

 will be an effectual check upon the ravages of these 

 beetles which will otherwise remain uncontrolled and in 

 time destroy all of the pine timber in California. 



