33 



holdings of 40,000 acrea, and the Stockmen's Protect- 

 ive Association with 25,000 acres protected under this 

 system. 



Results of this Method 



Systematic fire protection by the Forest Service 

 on the National Forests in California began in 190? 

 and 1906. Since that time the number and extent of 

 forest fires on National -forest land have gradually 

 decreased - barring the two extremely bad fire years 

 of 1910 and 1917. It is estimated that on the Nat- 

 ional Forests an average area of l62,395 acres, or 

 .61^ of the total, is burned over annually, i" Of this 

 figure, 54,533 acres are timbered government lands, 

 ^he tot*b.l estimated ammual loss due to fires is 

 $369,999.00 which includes the value of the timber, 

 reproduction and forage destroyed plus the costs-'of 

 prevention and suppression. Of this sum, an average 

 of $164,932.00 has been expended for fire prevention 

 and $71,636.00 for suppression each year. In other 

 words, $2,016 is expended annually in protecting 



i$l,000.000worth of timber. It is estimated that the 



cost 

 annual of protection is $0.0062 per acre. 



To quote from a report compiled by the District 



Office, United States Forest Service, San Francisco, 



California, and relating to Light Burning in which is 



made a statement concerning the results sedured by the 



