TIMBER SALES ON THE PLUMAS NATIONAL 



FOREST, CALIFORNIA 



By EUFUS S. MADDOX 



CIMBER sales on National Forests are of so recent origin that their real 

 meaning is known only where they are being made. When the forests 

 were first set apart lumber companies were dubious about attempting 

 purchases, the cutting of which must be conducted by Forest Service methods ; 

 but today many companies are operating who are supplied by timber bought 

 from the Government. Timber, when made accessible by a railroad, has a 

 greatly improved market. The Western Pacific Railway through California 

 opened up a large area of forest land — both private and public — the timber 

 from which lumbermen are buying, not only because of its accessiblity, but 

 because they have learned, and are still learning, that they can make profits 

 by operating under Government regulations. 



Government sales are managed on one general plan and with one object 

 in view, viz., to provide for and maintain a future stand through measures 

 adopted in logging the i)resent crop. This plan of management eliminates at 

 once the old time method of slashing down a portion of the forest, removing 

 such as is wanted and leaving the area demolished. It is recognized that the 

 market conditions help determine to what extent inferior grades can be 

 handled; in other words, how close the utilization can be made. Formerly, 

 where timber has been abundant and no restrictions put upon the operator, 

 the largest and quickest profits were often aimed at regardless of the con- 

 ditions after logging. In conservative lumbering or logging by Forest Service 

 methods, therefore, it is necessarj- that in contracts made with lumber com- 

 ]»anies certain provisions be made as to what must and what must not be 

 done. For example: none except marked trees shall be cut, brush must be 

 piled, stumps must be cut not over a certain height, care must be had in 

 felling and removing the timber so as to damage the reproduction and re- 

 maining stand as little as possible, and the timber used as far as practical. 



Of the timber sales now under operation on the Plumas National Forest 

 the two largest are to the Feather River and Marsh Lumber Companies, having 

 headquarters at Portola and Loyalton, California, respectively, and their 

 plants are perhaps fairly typical of the medium size mills in the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains. They each have five-year contracts (contracts allowing them five 

 years to remove the timber) with the Government totalling 105,000,000 feet 

 board measure, consisting of western yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa a -id 

 Pinus jeffreyi), sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana), Douglas fir (Pseudotsp.jia 

 Taxifolia), while fir (Abies concolor) and incense cedar (Libocedrus de- 

 currens), the former sale being for 30,000,000 feet and the latter for 75,000,000 

 feet. 



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