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Sierra Club Bulletin 



FORESTRY NOTES 



Edited by Walter L. Huber 



The Forest Fire Season of 1914 in California 

 By CoERT Du Bois, District Forester, District 5 



The forest fire season of 1914 in California was the most severe 

 in the history of the Forest Service in this district. The season 

 was much longer than usual, nearly double the normal number of 

 fires started, and the conditions of wind and temperature were such 

 as to make fire suppression at times extremely difficult. 



Under the circumstances, we are congratulating ourselves that 

 we succeeded in holding so large a percentage of our fires to so 

 small an area. Seven hundred and fifty-two fires were put out be- 

 fore they had burned one-fourth of an acre; 448 reached an 

 average size of 7.5 acres, while 268 — or 18 per cent of the total — got 

 away, and burned 44,463 acres. The total acreage burned was 

 53,763 acres, of which 42,464 acres was brush. The total damage 

 to Government timber did not exceed $90,000. 



California has a regularly recurring dry season normally lasting 

 122 days, from June 1st to September 30th. The winter snows and 

 rains affect the fire season principally by the amount of inflam- 

 mable grass and weeds they produce. This growth dried early in 

 the summer of 1914, and by July 1st the Supervisor of the Sierra 

 Forest reported that the whole foothill and lower yellow pine belt 

 was like tinder. "A match dropped in this growth," he said, "would 

 start a fire which the man who dropped the match could not stop." 

 The same conditions were particularly noticeable in Southern Cali- 

 fornia, and in Modoc County, in the northern part of the State, all 

 vegetation started growing five weeks earlier than in the normal 

 season. 



The season was closed in the fall by rains which covered North- 

 ern California and the Sierra region October 5th, while south of 

 the Tehachapi it has not yet closed. 



The normal summer afternoon temperature in the mountains 

 averages around 90 degrees. August is the dangerous month. If 

 summer temperatures for June and July are normal and August is 

 unusually hot and dry, an emergency exists. 



Hot wave forecasts for the whole State north of Tehachapi Pass 

 were given the San Francisco office of the Forest Service by the 

 local U. S. Weather Bureau forecaster on August 1st, August 4th, 

 August 17th, and September 12th. 



Nothing can be done with a bad fire in the heavy brush of the 

 lower elevations of the national forests in the daytime. The 



