X^<xsxim^x;^^:,^cmx}K)iixv, -^xiMV }!iim^i;i^)^' m'k>MM^iiiiiim!miWm!>i)S 



:g>i^s>^gCT^^i>^llTO^i^;o^p^ B6w^s^^:watgi^>twM.H3'■t^ 



Transportation of Lumber 



FOUIiTEI ARTICLE 

 PEEMANENCY IS POSSIBLE 



It was onee believed that when a tract of timber had been 

 logged it was done for as a producer of trees. Experience during 

 two hundred years seemed to prove that such was the case. His- 

 tory had repeated itself so often in that particular that it was 

 taken for granted that no other result need be expected. When 

 a mill had cut out its "stand" or "set" it was moved away 

 with no expectation of ever returning. The operator had no 

 thought of the future so far as that locality was concerned. The 

 man who expected to make a business of operating sawmills never 

 expected to operate twice on the same site and when he moved on, 

 he never looked back. He had skinned the land and had no fur- 

 ther interest in it. 



A former article had something to say along this line in 

 recounting the shifting scenes of lumber operations from region 

 to region. It was pointed out that lumber mills have been on 

 the move for a long time — first in New England, then in New 

 York and Pennsylvania, next in the Lake states, finally shifting 

 to the South and to the Pacific coast. A particular region was 

 practically depleted before the center of operations shifted to new 

 fields. At the present time the two great producing regions are 

 the southern states and the Pacific coast. If we are to judge the 

 future by the past those timbered domains will be cut out in 

 course of time. Then what is to happen? 



There is no other heavily timbered region to which lumbermen 

 can turn for supplies. It becomes a vital question whether any- 

 thing can occur to change the course of history — if not, the 

 virtual end of the timber resources of the United States may be 

 looked for at a time which some persons now young may live to 

 see. This is an old story. It is the alarm which has been sounded 

 again and again; and it is as well founded as was the prophetic 

 announcement of the destruction of Jerusalem when the Assyrian 

 armies were already on the march against it. 



There is hope, however. Agencies are now at work which will 

 end the destruction of forests and bring about their development. 

 When that has been accomplished it will no longer be necessary 

 for whole regions to be abandoned by lumbermen because there is 

 nothing more to cut. A hint of the new way of handling forest 

 problems is contained in the following paragraph quoted from an 

 article in a recent issue of American Forestry and written by 

 W. B. Greeley of the United States Forest Service: 



"A few weeks ago I was on the Sierra National Forest as a 

 member of the marking board of the Forest Service in California. 

 It was our duty to determine the methods of cutting to be used 

 in a large sale of lumber. We chained off strips through one of the 

 magnificent forests of sugar pine, yellow pine, and fir on the head- 

 waters of the San Joaquin river, designating the timber to be cut 

 because of old age or disease and determining what trees should 

 be retained to restock the land after logging and make further 

 growth before harvesting. This was the final step in two years' 

 work on the forest management of a watershed of some 50,000 

 acres. First a detailed map of the area and estimate of its timber 

 were made. The ripeness of the timber for cutting and the amount 

 which should be removed were ascertained. The engineering fea- 

 tures of developing the watershed, the route and cost of seventy- 

 five miles of railroad, the methods and cost of logging, and the 

 market value of the products to be cut were determined. The 

 next step was to wor'k out the business features of exploitation, 

 the prices to be paid for the timber, and the terms of the sale 

 contract. Finally the marking board made its silvicultural study 

 of the various types of forest, chose the methods of cutting and 

 applied them concretely on sample areas. All of this work is now 

 embodied in the clauses of a timber sale contract involving over 

 $1,600,000 worth of government stumpage. Upon it will be based 

 an investment in mills and equipment of nearly $2,000,000, and a 



lumbering operation cutting 40,000,000 feet annually for twenty- 

 two years. 



Over two years of technical work was necessary before any 

 of these things could be done. But our task on this area has just 

 begun. The results of these studies must be applied in directing 

 cutting and logging through the twenty-two years of the contract 

 which the government has now made. And it will be twice or 

 thrice that time before the aims sought in the broader features of 

 forest management on this watershed can be accomplished. 



••The first and greatest technical problem on the forests is to 

 put their timber to use under the scientific methods which insure a 

 permanent yield and the best disposal of the product. Near the 

 central Montana forests a permanent copper mining industry must 

 be supplied. Its demands are large. It has required an intensive 

 inventory of the timber within practicable distance and a deter- 

 mination of the growing capacity of the forests. It has neces- 

 sitated detailed studies of methods of cutting and reproducing 

 stands of lodgepole pine. The result of this work will be the 

 blocking out of definite areas which will yield perpetually the 

 30,000,000 feet or more required annually in this industry and the 

 preparation of logging plans for their systematic cutting, unit 

 by unit, over a period of from sixty to one hundred years. On 

 tlie Whitman National Forest in the Blue mountains of Oregon 

 a plan of exploitation has been developed by several years' work 

 under which four sawmills will soon be cutting from 40,000,000 to 

 00,000,000 feet annually. Logging units have been mapped out 

 which will supply these mills for at least twenty years. Scientific 

 study of the methods of cutting and reproducing yellow pine was 

 a vital feature of this plan. Here, in the face of a local demand 

 for timber beyond the capacity of the forest to supply, a definite 

 plan of exploitation has been prepared and put into effect which 

 will permit the cutting of the maximum amount of timber annually 

 consistent with maintaining the permanency of the forest and 

 hence of the industries built up upon it. 



' ' These are illustrations of what must be done on hundreds of 

 other units making up the 600,000,000,000 feet of stumpage on the 

 national forests. We must have plans of scientific management 

 covering engineering development, logging methods and costs, the 

 methods of cutting applicable to each type of forest, and the 

 future yield obtainable under them. One by one, these units will 

 thus be reclaimed from unproductive pieces of virgin wilderness 

 and made to yield the maximum amount of forest products through 

 scientific exploitation which they are capable of maintaining per- 

 manently. The total annual yield which can thus be produced for 

 all time is roughly estimated at 6,000,000,000 feet. With the 

 right kind of scientific treatment the forests should be made to 

 yield 8,000,000,000 or 9,000,000,000." 



The purpose in making surveys and carrying out carefully made 

 plans on that large tract is to provide for the future. Marketable 

 timber only will be cut, young trees will be left to grow, a few 

 old ones will be sjiarcd to scatter seeds on vacant spaces, brush 

 will be piled and burned or otherwise disposed of, and fires will 

 be kept out by all known means of protection. The result will 

 be that by the time the last of the 50,000 acre tract is lumbered, 

 the first will be nearly ready to cut again. A new crop will begin 

 to grow as soon as the old stand is cut. Under that plan, there 

 will be no waste anil abandoned land. A hundred years from 

 now, or five hundred, it will be growing timber. The railroad built 

 into the region need not be taken up, abandoned or forced to 

 depend upon other tonnage. It can go on carrying lumber to 

 market from that tract. It will be quite different from some rail- 

 roads built to remove lumber from private holdings and which 



—25— 



