FOREST PROTECTION 195 



Table 119. — Area burned in United States and Coastal Alaska, for 1952 and J or the average year 1948-52 



Section and region 



Commercial and non- 

 commercial area burned, 



Commercial area burned 





1952 1 



1952 



Average year 1948-52 



North: 



New England - - . _ 



Thousand 

 acres 



36 



748 



42 



2,792 



1, 155 



Percent 



0.2 



5. 1 



.3 



19.0 



7.8 



Thousand 

 acres 



36 

 746 



24 

 2,778 



Thousand 

 acres 



26 



217 



45 



1,414 



2 



Percent 



0.2 



Middle Atlantic . _.- _-_ 



1. 8 



Lake States ._ _ 



. 4 



Central States . . - 



11. 6 



Plains 



(3) 







Total - _____ 



4,773 



32.4 



3,584 



1,704 



14. 







South: 



South Atlantic _ _ _ 



615 

 7,381 

 1,676 



4. 2 

 50. 2 

 11. 4 



605 

 7,342 

 1, 567 



432 

 7,925 

 1,843 



3. 6 



Southeast _ _ . _ 



65. 3 



West Gulf - 



15. 2 







Total . _ 



9,672 



65. 8 



9,514 



10, 200 



84. 1 







West: 



Pacific Northwest 



65 



144 



33 



23 



.4 



1.0 



.2 



. 2 



61 

 24 

 14 

 13 



75 

 84 

 19 

 51 



. 6 



California 



.7 



Northern Rockv Mountain _ -. 



. 2 



Southern Rocky Mountain 



. 4 



Total _ _ _ ___ . - 



265 



1.8 



112 



229 



1. 9 







Total United States 



14,710 

 1 



100.0 



13, 210 



1 



12, 133 



100. 















Total, United States and Coastal Alaska, .. 



14,711 





13, 211 















• Includes the burn on 10 million acres of nonforest 

 lands in California and North Dakota, intermingled with 

 or adjacent to forest lands. 



The Federal agency reimburses the States for speci- 

 fied expenditures and contributes leadership, tech- 

 nical help, and guidance when needed. 



Over the years, fire control on Federal lands has 

 been provided in most instances by the agency 

 charged with managing the land. Organized 

 protection of the national forests began soon after 

 the establishment of the Forest Service in 1905. 

 The protection of these forests has improved 

 steadily in spite of greatly increased industrial 

 and recreational use and the coincident increase 

 in fire risk and hazard. 



A large proportion of the Federal land, other 

 than national forests, is administered by the 

 Department of the Interior. Forty million acres 

 were placed under protection in 1934 with the 

 organization of the Grazing Service (which in 

 1946 became the Bureau of Land Management). 

 Most of the 18 million acres of forest land in 

 Indian ownership or trusteeship and the 6 million 

 acres in national parks have been protected for 

 many years. 



2 Less than 500 acres. 

 ' Negligible. 



Eighty-eight Percent of Lands 

 Now Protected 



Of the 673 million acres of land needing protec- 

 tion in the continental United States and Coastal 

 Alaska,'" 88 percent is under some form of or- 

 ganized protection (table 121). The 82 million 

 unprotected acres are mostly in the North and 

 South, where the greatest burned area occurs. Of 

 the 12 forest regions in the United States, only 

 6 have any substantial amount of unprotected 

 land. From table 121 it will be noted that 41 

 million unprotected acres lie in the Central and 

 the Plains Regions. The 11 million acres in the 

 Central Region are nearly all commercial land 



" The area which fire specialists consider to require 

 protection includes all commercial and noncommercial 

 forest land except approximately 900 thousand acres of 

 widely scattered commercial woodland in Ohio and Iowa. 

 Included in the 673 million-acre total are 10 million acres 

 of nonforest brush and grass lands, closely intermingled 

 with or adjacent to forest areas. 



