ar 
ROLE OF FIRE IN CALIFORNIA PINE FORESTS 71 
attain such a stature that stock can not readily browse them; and in 
certain types of brush the succulent sprouts which appear after a fire 
are palatable while the older and toughershoots are not. In brief, 
heavy burning in brush fields is evidently beneficial to grazing. It is 
not, however, beneficial to the reclamation of the brush land by forest. 
The use of fire in brush fields within the timber zone therefore 
depends upon the use to which the land is to be put. This should 
in turn be determined by the values represented by these uses. That 
the highest use is for forest in most cases is well shown by the fact 
that the average annual growth to every acre given protection will 
be at least 300 board feet, which, though far less than fully stocked 
stands will produce, is worth at the very lowest estimate 50 cents an 
acre a year, while the average annual returns from grazing on the 
best of these areas does not exceed 15 cents an acre a year and are 
usually much less. 
A third class of land upon which fire has been employed to improve 
grazing is that loosely spoken of as chaparral and already defined as 
land which, either because of adverse site or because of past abuse 
by fire, is no longer capable of producing timber in commercial quanti- 
ties. An enormous area, estimated (20) at 9,000,000 acres for the 
entire State, largely outside the national forests, is still being sub- 
jected to repeated burnings, both to increase the amount of palata- 
ble feed and to render accessible the feed which already exists. 
It has been found that burning of this type of land results in a large 
temporary increase in forage, particularly grasses. A study of this 
development, covering a burning in chamise in 1915, and followed 
closely for six years, showed that while the fire was a pronouned suc- 
cess In increasing grazing values, it encroached to some extent on the 
present timber belt and caused severe erosion on the burned area. 
Cooper indicates (7) that such repeated fires have extended the chap- 
arral type into the forests and have also resulted in the final reversion 
of chamise types to grassland. 
It appears incontrovertible that one or more fires in the chaparral 
belt are at least a temporary benefit to grazing. But it has already 
been noted that erosion is a matter of such serious moment on lands 
of this type as probably to far outweigh in importance the relatively 
small increase in the grazing value. Also, asalready pointed out on 
those chaparral areas that were once forested, the gradual restoration 
of site quality necessary before forests can again occupy the land can 
not possibly take place while even occasional fires occur. 
The whole question of grazing and fire can be summed up by say- 
ing that in the California pine region timber production and forage 
production necessarily conflict; that what is a benefit to one is usually 
a detriment to the other; and that if lands are to be handled for per- 
manent production of timber, grazing will inevitably be relegated to 
minor position in forest management as the artificial aid of fire is 
eliminated. 
THE RELATION OF DAMAGE TO FOREST MANAGEMENT 
The preceding definition and discussion of the various ways in 
which fires cause physical damage to the forests of the California pine 
region have shown that the present condition of the forests is in itself - 
the cumulative result of centuries of repeated fires, and that even a 
single fire contributes perceptibly to this process of deterioration. 
