Treesearch

Two fires burned in the same area in southern California under nearly similar weather conditions, 11 years apart. Yet the Inaja fire of 1956 was much more disastrous than the Pine Hills fire of 1967. The earlier fire claimed 11 lives, and covered an area five times larger than the 1967 fire. Differences in fuels, topography, fire behavior, fire-control action, and severity and duration of Santa Ana conditions help explain the differences in the size of the two fires.

Records of 5 and 6 years' cone crops in old-growth redwood (Sequoia sempervirens [D. Don Endl.] stands in northern California were studied for silvical facts. They show that (a) the principal trees in both cut and uncut stands bore fair to good cone crops for 5 consecutive years, (b) maximum seed dispersal of both total and sound seed occurred in winter, (c) overtopped trees under 30 inches d.b.h. produced almost no .cones, and (d) about 86 percent of sound seed germinated, with most seed germinating in 12 days. The findings are applicable to redwood stands at medium to lower elevations.

New systems for analyzing resource management problems, such as Planning-Programing-Budgeting, will require automated procedures to collect and assemble resource inventory data. A computer - oriented system called Map Information Assembly and Display System developed for this purpose was tested on a National Forest in California. It provided information on eight forest resource systems at an average cost of 0.16 cents per acre. An area the size of a National Forest appears to be the upper limit for the MIADS program.

The lodgepole needle miner in the Inyo National Forest begins its 2-year-cycle in even-numbered years. In contrast, Coleotechnites milleri (Busck) in Yosemite National Park begins its in the odd-numbered years.

Describes six analytical factors and seven compositional types useful in recognition and description of scenic resources. Illustrates their application in two inventories made to aid managers and landscape architects in planning and design.

Since 1963, there have been 17 slash disposal burns carried out successfully in pine patch-cuttings on the Challenge Experimental Forest, Yuba County, California. The burned units ranged from 2 to 46 acres. Costs per acre ranged from $8.42 to $60.97. Answers to questions most asked by foresters about broadcast burning pine slash are given in the form of a dialogue.

During the 1966 - June 30, 1967 fiscal year, calibration work on the stream ecology phase of the project continued along about the lines of last year's work. The emphasis was on determining the importance of stream canopy, particulary as it affects the amount of solar radiation being received at the water surface and on stream conditions influenced by the amount of radiation.

Three prescribed burns, made in 1959-62, in the interior ponderosa pine type of northeastern California are described in terms of meteorological factors, fire behavior, and effects of burning. Results were generally unsatisfactory. Factors that limit the usefulness of prescribed burning for reducing fuel hazard or for thinning in young-growth stands include stand structure, weather patterns, and costs.

Soils that resist wetting are a widespread phenomenon on chaparral areas of southern California watersheds. On burned watersheds, non-wettable soils markedly reduce moisture movement during both evaporation and infiltration. The reduced infiltration rate probably contributes significantly to the high debris production from the watersheds. Factors involved in the formation of non-wet-table soils include vegetation and soil temperatures during fire. Wetting agents applied to burned areas apparently help retard debris movement and enhance vegetation establishment.

Hand baiting for rodent control and sowing patch cuttings in December 1965 produced 880 to 2,540 pine seedlings per acre by July 1966. A tractor-drawn drag used to cover seeds in some areas significantly improved germination in one trial. Costs per hundred seedlings per acre for dragged compartments were $1.08 and $1.33; for other compartments: $0.43, $1.14, and $1.88.