STATEMENT OF STATE FORESTER F. H. RAYMOND, CALIFORNIA DIVISION OF FORESTRY, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, SACRAMENTO, CALIF. Mr. RAYMOND. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In this prepared statement we have attempted to set forth the problems on a statewide basis, but also to emphasize the particular problems of southern California. We have noted in this statement the physical setting, the geology and physiography the climate, soils, and vegetation in the interrelated problem. We have also tried to point up the resource values, primarily in the field of water production and flood control, and including recreation, grazing, and timber. Also, we have pointed up in this report the State fire-protection responsibility, which is statutory in California and which prescribes the responsibility to the Division of Forestry for the protection of the State and private lands. In the administration of this fire-protection system, the Division of Forestry is directly responsible for the protection of 31.6 million acres. By direct protection the Division of Forestry handles 22.8 million acres and contracts with several counties 3.2 million acres. These several counties have been noted in this report. Several of these are in southern California, including Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles. The protection problem is particularly emphasized because of the nature of these lands and the intermingling of State, private, and Federal lands, not only those of the Forest Service but other agencies. We have had many problems developing in California, and the State board of forestry requested that a fire plan be developed so that proper attention could be given the fire-protection system to give it some better efficiency than it had before. In 1956 such a plan was developed. This includes approximately an increase of $6 million to be implemented by the legislature over a 4-year period. Approximately $2 million of that was appropriated for this fiscal year, and it is anticipated that almost another amount equal to that will be appropriated this next fiscal year. Generally that gives you the statewide picture, but I would like to read to you a summary statement which is included here because we feel that it is very important to look at the whole problem. Nowhere else in the world is there such a vast metropolitan area so directly affected by its "backyard" watershed lands as is southern California. In 1940, in this one-tenth of the State's area, there were a little over 311⁄2 million people, with 55 percent of the State's assessed valuation. Today 8 million people live in this same area, with a comparable growth in economic wealth. This is the fastest-growing region in the United States. The climatic conditions, the steep rugged terrain, the heavily populated areas adjacent to and actually in these important watersheds make the problem of fire control one of the most difficult found anywhere in the world. Because of the highly inflammable vegetation, the public use, and built-up areas, many fires cannot be controlled at the time and place the professional forest-fire fighter would choose. To prevent the loss of life and the destruction of valuable property, he is often forced to take great personal risks, far beyond the call of duty, to control many fires in southern California. Because of geographical and landownership patterns, the State, Federal, and county forest fire protection responsibilities are intermingled in California and especially in southern California. For example, the bulk of the steeper brush watersheds on the San Bernardino Mountains are in the national forest. However, the State protects a fringe of watershed land surrounding the national forest. The protection of this area is vital to the national forest, as fires originating in it are a direct threat to the Federal lands. Conversely, much damage to downstream improvements can result from fires in the national forests. Recognizing that the problem of fire control has such importance to the very existence of this area as a vital part of our national economy, the forestry agencies Federal, State, and county-to a large degree pool their resources in a common cause of fire control. Even with this pooling of resources and excellent cooperation between agencies so that the control effort is coordinated as one effective team, too often the story is that of too little too late. I would like to point out that during the fall and winter periods, from October to January, approximately 35 percent of the annual loss occurs at that time in southern California. Approximately 10 percent of the loss occurs in the north at that time. This loss, as has been pointed out by Mr. Connaughton, is due to the extreme dry periods, and particularly to the Santa Ana winds which are a characteristic of this area. I have here an order which is just being issued from my office which will prepare for the moving into southern California from northern California of 25 fire trucks, 10 bulldozers, and 5 service units, with the foremen, drivers, and equipment operators it will take to make this equipment effective should we have such an outbreak as we have had in southern California in the past. We are calling this the Santa Ana task force, and we hope to prove 1 of 2 things: either we will put out the fires as soon as they start or else we might make it rain, 1 of the 2. The personnel of these forestry agencies have recognized their position of leadership in fire protection. There is a growing understanding of fire behavior, new techniques in fire suppression, such as the pre-fire-control operations-firebreaks, developed water supplies, safety islands, et cetera-the new tools-helicopters, fixed-wing aerial tankers, hose-laying equipment and a constant striving for a more adequate professional fire-fighting organization to meet this fire problem. It was in this area that Operation Fire Stop, as Mr. Connaughton mentioned it a while ago, was conceived and became, in reality, a program of complete cooperation between all concerned agencies of government and industry, a cooperative program that has advanced firecontrol methods and techniques many years. The United States Forest Service has been a very important part of this program, to find the answers to the watershed fire problem. Nowhere else in the Nation do you find the encouragement and support of the citizen in the giving of his free time to this problem, and nowhere else do you find such cooperation and pooling of resources by all agencies in combating this fire menace. The area of greatest threat to life and property from the fuel hazard is on the precipitous watershed slopes. Even though the existing watershed cover creates a hazard, there is still a greater hazard when the slopes are burned. When these slopes are denuded by fire, valuable areas below are exposed to severe damage from accelerated erosion and flood flows. The standard tool of fighting fire with fire by denuding vast areas is thus generally impractical. Even in the physical control of a going fire the use of this tool is often ineffective, as the fire often burns with such intensity that it can only be compared with an actual explosion. This condition has been accentuated by several years of subnormal rainfall resulting in abnormal amounts of dead brush. To use fire as a tool at times of the year when it is safe to use fire in many other parts of the Nation is very difficult, as fire is unpredictable with our present knowledge because of the desert winds and rugged terrain. When it is safe to burn the brush, it will not burn; when it is burnable, it cannot always be controlled. An adequate appropriation of funds for needed prefire control activities and inadequate suppression organizations has forced the forest agencies entirely too much to crisis management. Such management delegates advanced programing and treatment to a minor role; thus emergencies are constantly developing and are soon out of control. The California State Legislature recognized that such management was not in the best interest of the State and supported the California Division of Forestry's 1956 fire plan which would give an overall increase in efficiency of protection to lands of State responsibility. This program, to be accomplished over a period of a few years, will increase State appropriations for fire control by approximately 50 percent. The California Division of Forestry's fire-control program needs are as follows: 1. Retain our key personnel on year-round employment. Firefighting in southern California is often a year-round job. Many major fires occur in December and January. 2. Establish initial attack manpower strength to recognized forest fire control standards. To prevent disastrous fires in southern California, fires must be controlled in the initial attack stages. 3. Strengthen all phases of fire prevention activities, including law enforcement, education, and hazard reduction. 4. Increase effectiveness through a formalized training center now established. Firefighting in southern California must be professionalized. Proficiency in skills needed can only be obtained by trained key personnel. 5. Develop operation prefire control, the result of which, through land treatment, will reduce the size of watershed fires and will reduce the wild land fire threat to life and property. This program of firebreaks, fire access roads, cistern developments, and safety islands is well underway in the State-responsibility areas. 6. Continue the forest fire research program to accomplish immediate results. This experimentation includes fire weather studies, firebreaks, use of chemicals, air attack, mechanized equipment, sprinkler systems, development of fire-resistant vegetation, and so forth. Local governments of the southern counties, through their boards of supervisors, also recognized this most important problem by sup plementing their contribution to the Federal and State Governments through increased appropriations for additional fire prevention and firefighting strength in these watershed lands; this in areas where the primary responsibility is that of the Federal Government and the State. The California Board of Forestry is on record requesting the Federal Government to more adequately meet their responsibility on federally owned lands. Fire control preplanning, pre-fire-control land treatment, adequate initial attack fire suppression forces, and fire research are the objectives of the fire-control agencies in southern California. These include the United States Forest Service. The objectives can only be accomplished when there is an adequate appropriation of funds by the respective legislative bodies. The California State Legislature is meeting its responsibility; the boards of supervisors of the southern counties are meeting their responsibility; is it not true that Congress has a share in this responsibility? I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to present this to the committee. (The rest of the prepared statement submitted by Mr. Raymond follows:) Report of California Division of Forestry, prepared for the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, House of Representatives, submitted by F. H. Raymond, State forester SOME ASPECTS OF FIRE PROTECTION AND WATERSHED THE PHYSICAL SETTING To appreciate the problems connected with fire control and prevention, and with watershed management, in southern California one must have an understanding of the physical environment and the interrelationships between vegetation, watersheds, and fire that exist here. This physical environment is distinctive, embracing a number of facets not encountered in similar combinations anywhere else in the State. GEOLOGY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY Southern California, west of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts, is constituted of two dissimilar physiographic provinces-the Transverse Ranges and the Peninsular Ranges. At their southern end the California Coast Ranges are ended abruptly by the Transverse Ranges-a complex series of mountain ranges and valleys distinguished by a dominant east-west trend, in marked contrast to the northwestsoutheast direction of the Coast Ranges to the north and the Peninsular Ranges to the south. The Transverse Ranges include the Santa Ynez and nearby low mountain groups with their included valleys; the Santa Monica Mountains; the San Gabriel Mountains; and the San Bernardino Range. Topography of all these mountains is very rugged, with a number of peaks extending more than 10,000 feet above sea level. The mountain streams, flowing down these steep grades, have cut deep narrow gorges into the flanks of the ranges. The San Gabriel Mountains and San Bernardino Range form an imposing barrier facing the desert along the southeastern portion of this region, both ranges being consituted of a series of faulted blocks thrust upward from a region of relatively low relief. Having been elevated to their present height only during Pleistocene time, these mountains are quite young; mountain-building and mountain-leveling processes-faulting and erosion-still are very active here, and are of much significance in the problems under consideration. The Peninsular Ranges occupy the southwestern portion of California, together with an adjacent belt of marine terraces along their western margin; they include the Los Angeles Basin as well as the offshore island group and surrounding Continental Shelf. The mountainous section of this region is a series of ranges separated by valleys trending from northwest to southeast, conditioned by erosion along faults that represent active branches of the San Andreas system. The trend of the topography is much like that of the Coast Ranges, but the geology is more like the Sierra Nevada, the dominating rocks being granitic. Viewed as a whole, the Peninsular Ranges are a gigantic fault block that has been raised by tilting upward on the eastern side like the Sierra Nevada. Most of the higher elevations are located near the eastern face, the highest point being Mount San Jacinto (10,508 feet); a considerable area lies at more than 6,000 feet above sea level, and from these elevated portions there is a relatively gradual slope to the west. CLIMATE California often is characterized as a region of Mediterranean climate. Actually, no less than five distinctive climates are found within this State. The kind of climate correctly designated as "Mediterranean" occurs over only about one-half the area of the State-and at least four different subdivisions of this Mediterranean climate are recognized. Under this situation it is unlikely that any extensive portion of the State could be found having a climate that falls entirely within a single category. In southern California two quite different kinds of climate prevail, each occupying about one-half the total area of the region. The coastal lowlands and inland valleys have a hot grassland climate, characterized by an average annual rainfall between 9.5 and 14 inches; a mean annual temperature of at least 55° F.; and an average temperature of not less than 32° F. during the coldest month. small area near the coast in San Diego and vicinity has a desert climate. A The mountainous portions of southern California are characterized by the hot-summer type of Mediterranean climate, the average temperature of the warmest month being above 71° F. The long, hot, dry summer of this climate often is given great emphasis. Equal or greater stress should be placed upon 2 other factors of the Mediterranean climate when the growth of plants is under consideration: winters are cool, with the average temperature of the coolest month between 64.4° and 32° F.; and at least 3 times as much rainfall is received during the wettest winter month as occurs during the driest summer month. Because of their opposite effects, both the hot, dry summer and the cool, wet winter are extremely significant as climatic factors for plant growth. Some of the peculiarities of the climate of southern California arises from the effects of the mountains on precipitation. Winter storms and their associated frontal systems bring most of the precipitation to southern California. Prevailing winds bring these storms from the ocean to the west and south, and most of their moisture is deposited on the western slopes of the mountains as the storms rise above the highland. Frequently these storms bring rains that are torrential in character, for a very large part of the precipitation each season is received from a very few storms. Degenerate tropical storms occasionally move far enough north to affect the southern part of the State, having been responsible for some of the historic local storms of this area. The frequent high intensity of rainfall poses still other problems in wild land management from the standpoint of soil erosion, as will become evident further on. SOILS Wild lands of southern California-as well as great areas that have become urbanized-are characterized by residual soils, developed in place from granite, serpentine, or sedimentary bedrock. They vary from medium to very shallow in depth, usually are stony, and quite variable in color and reaction. To a very great extent they are young soils, in the early stages of formation. Commonly these soils are low in nutrients required for plant growth, or the nutrients present are not in a suitable state of balance. Occurring on hilly to very steep mountainous topography, in an area that is geologically young and still subject to active mountain-forming processes, and often being coarse-textured with low water-holding capacity, these soils provide poor sites for the growth of most plants. In addition they are subject to normal or geologic erosion to a degree probably not exceeded elsewhere in the State, even when their cover of vegetation is undisturbed. Frequent high intensity rainfall aggravates this condition. When the plant cover is disturbed or removed the hazard of accelerated erosion is increased manyfold, |