of all or part. of the forest cover on about 0.7 percent of the 
Nation's commercial forest land. A considerably larger portion 
of the forest ccver on noncommercial forest lands, of value 
primarily for watershed purposes, was also burned during this 
period. The volume of standing timber destroyed by forest fires 
js roughly estimated at about 750 million cubic feet. annually—— 
equivalent to more than a third of the anrual timber require- 
ments of the wood pulp industry of this country. Annual losses 
of sawtimber totaled about 2.0 billion board feet. 
Far exceeding these losses of stancing timber, however, is the 
loss of current and prospective timber growth or burned-over 
areas caused by the destruction of seedlings and small trees, by 
deterioration of site quelity, by reduction in growth rates of 
damaged trees, and by increased cull in damaged trees. Largely 
as the result of past fires in the South, for example, forest 
lands are producing only about one-third of a cord of wood per 
acre annually, or one-third of the production possible with 
adequate fire protection and management to achieve full stock- 
ing. In the United States as a whole, the prospective loss 
from current forest fires is still probebly at least 10 percent 
of the potential timber growth. This represents an annual 
growth loss in the neighborhood of 2.5 billion cubic feet, in- 
cluding about 10 billion board feet in terms of sawtimber size 
trees. 
The values destroyed by forest fires are difficult to measure. 
They include the timber destroyed by fire, amounting to possibly 
$18 million per year in terms of stumpage value, the additional 
reduction in possible timber growth, amounting to $50 million, 
and numerous indirect effects. Destruction of timber raw material 
means lower industrial output and decreased payrolls in forest 
communities. Fires also take their toll in terms of losses of 
hunting and fishing values, lower yields of usable water, and 
increased erosion and flood damage. In many parts of the West 
such losses of watershed values far exceed the direct monetary 
values of timber destroyed. 
The United States sperds about $50 million annually to prevent 
or suppress forest fires. About half of these costs are borne 
by States and counties, 30 percent by the Federal Government, and 
the remainder by private landowners. 
A pert of the tremendous losses from forest fires is attributable 
to lightning, but smokers, incendiarism, debris burning, and camp 
fires acccunt for most of the damage. Losses from forest fires 
are for the most part preventable. They unccubtedly carn be sub- 
stantially reduced through research, public educetion, and more 
intensive control programs. 
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