48 FIRE DISTRICTS. 



This did much for the beauty of the valley, and was essential long 

 before it was commenced. In the Hetch-Hetchy valley, a similar 

 granite chasm near the Yosemite, the old clearing method was con- 

 tinued much longer than in the Yosemite, and after the Indian rule 

 heavy stock pasture continued to keep the trees down. In that valley 

 the meadows have remained open as they were at first. It is less 

 certainly reported that the Indians, at least every few years, burned 

 over the forest growth both in the Sierra Nevada, in the oak groves 

 in the valleys, and also in parts of the high Southern Sierra. I have 

 known the Indians fire the pinyon pine groves late in the fall on the 

 San Bernardino range. At General Bidwell's ranch near Chico, Cal., 

 there was a few years ago, on my last visit, a large field fenced in that 

 had been thus protected for a long time, forty or more years I think 

 the General told me. The field originally had been one of the beautiful 

 open groves of large oaks which are such a striking feature in certa.n 

 of the California valleys. After the fencing a dense growth of young 

 oaks came up. While of the same species, these young trees grew tall 

 and straight, and were in marked contrast to the old trees, heavily 

 branched, still standing amongst them. The young oaks were thick, 

 while the large old ones stood from 60 to 200 feet apart. 



The old-timers report that all of the Sierra Nevada forests were 

 open park-like forests, with many meadows and extensive breaks in 

 continuity when they first saw them. Much of the Sierra Nevada forest 

 is still in this form. A great deal of forest territory, however, has a 

 heavy growth of young trees packed closely together under the old 

 ones. This new growth is too thick to make good timber, and is often so 

 dense as to be impenetrable to a man on horseback. Nearly all the 

 mountain meadows and nearly all the old breaks in the National 

 "iosemite Park, where the military patrol has kept out sheep, are 

 being encroached on by forest trees — mainly tamarack. These facts 

 demonstrate that the absence of fires in the forest tends to produce 

 over the central and main timber belt of the Sierra a heavy new growth 

 of coniferous trees. The absence of sheep and fires increases the area 

 and density of the forest in the mountain areas affected. This is 

 probably also the case in the oak lands and lands damp enough for 

 tree growth in the valleys. The presumption from these facts is that 

 the park and grove-like growth of the forests of California when first 

 noted by civilized man, was not a natural growth, but was due to the 

 Indian practice of more or less regular firing prolonged over an indefl- 



