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ROLE OF FIRE IN CALIFORNIA PINE FORESTS 79 
forests of California are large unbroken reservoirs of timber is thus 
not altogether in accordance with the facts. Large areas of these 
national forests must be considered rather as a future source of tim- | 
- ber, depending largely on care and cultivation, than as a source of | 
material available immediately for exploitation. 
Some beneficial uses of fireappear. Instances have been mentioned 
in which fire has beneficially thinned out young growth or assisted 
reproduction in other ways, purely by chance or accident. But 
much more evident from the data here presented has been the con- / 
clusion that in the main the damage from even the lightest fire has 
definitely contributed to destroying the value of timber and timber- 
land. This cost, when truly estimated, has been shown to be greater 
than the cost of fire exclusion. 
That maximum protection or fire exclusion inevitably increases | 
hazard by the encouragement of undergrowth is, of course, true, but 
such added hazard in no way vitiates the reasons for protection. It 
is an additional danger, but one that can willingly be accepted. 
Uses of fire which are contrary to the interests of the forest, such 
as the firing of the forests or reproducing areas for grazing purposes, ' 
are incompatible with timber growing. With rising timber values, 
grazing will doubtless take its place as subsidiary to silviculture. In 
the pine region trees are a far more profitable crop than forage. 
Nor is it by any means proved that fire is the friend of the grazier 
that he has been wont to consider it, whatever the nature of the land 
on which it is employed. 
The old misconceptions regarding the réle of fire in the California 
pine region can profitably be cast out and destroyed alike by the tim- 
ber owner, the possessor of potential forest land, the lumberman, and \ 
the forester. It is to the interest of all who have to do with these \ 
forest areas to recognize that the true rdéle of fire is that of destroyer | 
and that any policy of protection must first insure the highest practi- 
cable degree of protection, amounting to fire exclusion in brush and 
cut-over tracts. It is to their interest further to grasp the economic . 
truth back of such a policy, namely, that protection is not merely a tem- 
ey measure to get a maximum first crop of timber, but that it is 
ar more in the nature of a permanent investment in building up a 
highly productive permanent forest. 
Racace of the progress of forest management and of fire protection | 
itself thus depends on a thorough knowledge of fire damage. The | 
more intensively fire damage is studied, the more evident it becomes 
that a complete appreciation of its importance is fundamental to a 
sound and Sekt philosophy of fire protection. Conversely, failure 
to appreciate in full the réle of fire in our forests may easily lead to 
an inadequate scale of protection which, in its broadest aspect, serves 
merely to maintain the present unsatisfactory condition of our forest 
ogee a condition in itself the outcome of centuries of repeated 
res. 
The present values of second-growth timber and the trend of prices 
upward, as well as the obvious future needs of the country, now 
compel consideration of adequate protection, as a precautionary 
measure for the private owner, and as a public necessity. 
