nag 
ROLE OF FIRE IN CALIFORNIA PINE FORESTS 15 
Table 23 shows the extent and value of the various types of meas- 
urable damage to virgin forest, using the averages derived in this 
study. 
TABLE 24.—Summary of fire damage to merchantable timber 
Average 
Type of loss Seat Value 
sun) 
= 
Direct immediate physical loss: 
dep EVeaty Kalli oye Se ye ag RE ced prety 8 | eee Se ee ee 1, 500 $3. 00 
Peg, A BYU RGA GE OES (6 (a) yea nt ae at nC RO a a EL NE BPE EI OS oe) ees 1, 000 2. 00 
Secondary physical losses: 
NSARGCUCEIOMPO NERO Wii il ma ens atte ane SITS 5s a Ou RE es ee ee EN 500 1.00 
NLT SC CLS Smale Ae pent we onlane LUN mi ve AAT Sy! Ore Sk Se ek ee nS 1, 000 2. 00 
Ob: HYEO: SCANS 9:4 pe ea eee oe lan gD ale ie te ee ays Ba ee ea eee Er. ES Eyer 250 . 50 
AP BRIT SiS secre ee yes eke MMR See ohh My el YAO RR ey Aem 9D is ap (1) (1) 
Indirect financial losses: 
LEPRVCCUCEION: O HOUT ab ye ee ee ee ene ae ELS get Me Bi ee ac a NE a Aaa 
ZAP tncneasenm LOPLINZCOSES = fee Be. WR eee AEM LN i eee 3, 500 7. 50 
Losses to other resources: 
EHS) lst Mg aa 5 wren Man Bi 9 SA Be ALN os ORE ELST BPE A AEE a grant et ETS (4) (1) 
PS OLN rs ee a ee yt NEE, RA Aa ye og eee te ES ed (1) (1) 
1 No definite figure. 
So long as the fire damage in merchantable virgin forests is consid- 
ered to be merely the direct immediate physical loss, there is a se- 
rious undervaluation of this factor in the minimum-cost theory formula. 
But even with such an inadequate appraisal of damage, the damage 
factor far overshadows the cost of protection. 
A third consideration vitally affects the value of the mimimum- 
cost theory, and is even more difficult to weigh accurately. This is 
the task of determining and valuing the importance of forest in mod- 
ern Civilization. Forest economists (9, 28) have shown convincingly 
that the stage of civilization is intimately related to the condition 
and use of forests and indeed that the secondary and indirect benefits 
may outweigh their value as a source of useful products. Whether 
in the future forests will be more or less important than they are to- 
day is purely speculative, but certainly there can be no question that 
forests will continue to be one of the fundamental physical bases of 
civilization as we conceive it at present. 
Therefore, in considering the role of fire in forest, we can not over- 
look the vital conclusion that the continued existence of forests is of 
aramount importance, for countries which were once forested and 
ater denuded give striking proof of the dependency of civilization 
upon forests and of the impossibility of expressing in terms of money 
the value of such fundamental, primal requisites. A theory which 
proportions protection to a supposed money cost of damage can not 
in he larger sense be considered acceptable, even for our virgin 
stands. 
Further, while damage in virgin forests is ordinarily confined to a 
reduction in the quantity and quality of the stand, without annihila- 
tion of the forest, fire damage in restocking brush fields and cut-over 
lands is of a different degree. Complete or nearly complete destruc- 
tion is the rule rather than the exception with fires on such lands. 
A given degree of protection which merely keeps these lands at their 
present state of nd diive unproductivity is for all practical purposes a 
