The National Forests of California Miscellaneous Circular No. 94

DEVELOPMENT OF CONSERVATION

California began very early to take thought for the care of her natural resources. Fortunately many of the pioneers and Forty niners were not only gold seekers, but statesmen, scholars, and broad minded, educated men. As early as 1850, the best thinkers of the State were urging scientific care of the forests. The magazines and newspapers of the seventies contained articles on forest conservation. In 1883 Governor Stoneman appointed a commission to look into the cutting of timber on the shores of Lake Tahoe, and this study later included a survey of the forest problem of the entire State.

A State board of forestry was appointed in 1885 and came to an end in 1892 after publishing two reports dealing mainly with losses from uncontrolled forest fires and wasteful lumbering.¹ By that time the Federal act of March 3, 1891, was in effect, authorizing the President to create by proclamation, "forest reserves," or national forests as they have been called since 1905. In 1892 there were four national forests in California. At present there are 18 forests, covering over 19,000,000 acres of Government land² and extending from Oregon to the Mexican boundary. These Federal forests include within their boundaries the main bodies of timber and important watersheds of the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range, and the watersheds of the Sierra Madre in southern California.

With the extension of national forests and their management in the public interest through a period of 20 years there has come to the people of California a realization of the value of forest protection and perpetuation for the upbuilding and prosperity of the State. Forest-land owners, who heretofore have given little thought to the production of future timber crops, are now seriously considering the possibilities of growing timber. This is as it should be, since there are in California nearly 1-1/2 million acres of privately owned cutover land which is producing but a small part of the timber it is capable of growing. To this total must be added the 50,000 acres of forest in the State that are annually cut-over by lumbering operations, of which at least 40 per cent is left in an unproductive condition. To solve this problem of private forest-land use, effective fire protection must be developed and many acres now denuded of their forest growth or supporting only a stand of brush must be reforested; methods of timber cutting must be adopted that will preserve the young trees already on the ground, from which the future forest will come; and the cut must be so regulated that only the mature timber will be taken, and that at a rate not in excess of the annual growth of the forest. Even with the application of these measures it may take 50 or more years to reestablish a forest cover on many areas of cut-over and burned land.

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¹The second State board of forestry was appointed by Governor Pardee in 1905 and is still functioning.

²The national forests of the California district include something over 500,000 acres in Oregon and Nevada. The national forests in California alone contain about 18,600,000 acres.

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In the solution of these problems many public-service organizations and individuals are now working hand in hand with the United States Forest Service and the State board of forestry. Valuable cooperation is also being given in forestry educational work and in fire prevention, and studies are being made for the purpose of determining the economic value of the forest as related to the State's industries, with a view of formulating a clear-cut forestry policy for California.

A VIRGIN FOREST The national forests of California include within their boundaries the main bodies of timber in the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges. These forests contain one-third of the timber resources of the State (F—22305-A)