65 



Instead of having no fire protective systeEi at all, and 

 merely leaving the forests to withstand as best they may, 

 any and all fires, the Light Burner deliberately sets 

 fire to the forest floor and thus ^educes still more, 

 the chance of the forest cBop to continue its life and 

 perpetuate itself. Damage is inevitable to the mature 

 stands within the state as they have already had to with- 

 stand innumerable light surface fires, and a great many 

 of them bear fire-scars. In firing the forest floor, 

 absolutely the only way to prevent these fire-scarred 

 trees from igniting and finally falling, is to protect 

 the individual trees - a procedure which is naturally 

 impossible due to exhorbitant costs. 



In the practice of forestry, the development of 

 the future crop takes an important place. Light Burn- 

 ing prevents this development, for it eventually leads 

 to a mature etand with no reproduction. Consequently, 

 some day, Light Burning will have to be discontinued to 

 allow reproduction to come in and establish itself. 



Formation of Brush Fields 



Light Burning causes brush fields to replace tim- 

 ber growth in California. Through long and untold cen- 

 turies, by the process of plant succession, the trees 

 were finally able to dominate the other vegetative grow- 

 th in the Sierra region. This was not as a result of 

 fires, but in spite of them. Wow, if man steps in and 



