FOREST REGULATION 495 



This is a sort of compromise between the ideal and that which is 

 most practical, which from the point of view of maximum, immediate 

 receipts would have been a forest or a region-wide working circle, 

 judging from the demands in the form of applications for definite 

 bodies of timber. This compromise from the ideal is felt justified for 

 several reasons, more or less interdependent. 



A market is developed and in general a demand at the present period 

 exists for even more than the total annual estimated yield (the author- 

 ized cut) for the forest. To restrict too much the cutting in the mar- 

 ketable stands, as would happen if the three most desirable natural 

 units were cut only to the extent of the estimated yield in them, would 

 result in suddenly suspending from use about half the supply of timber 

 now being utilized from the forest. The demand for the material has 

 been fostered by the Forest Service in the past, and there are therefore 

 certain definite moral obligations to respect. 



This over-cutting in three of the natural working circles is in all 

 probability more apparent than real, because, first, the estimates of 

 growth are very conservative, and, secondly, with the natural develop- 

 ment of the region more and more cutting will gradually take place in 

 the blocks at present not marketable, so that there will follow just the 

 same the tendency for the cut to be distributed evenly. 



On this last basis also the three-circle scheme need be considered 

 only temporary. The development of markets and transportation will 

 cause extension of cuttings and their distribution more evenly through- 

 out the six natural blocks. This will happen within a sufficiently short 

 time so that, considering the conservatism of the estimates, no great 

 discrepancies in age stands will result and a return to the six-circle idea 

 will still be possible with but little difficulty, if then desired. On the 

 other hand, the country is in the pioneer stage and real development 

 has just begun. The development of transportation which would in- 

 crease the radius of activity from one point in the next decade or two 

 may be such that the three-circle scheme will, even with only a perma- 

 nent logging community ideal still paramount, be most logical and 

 finally be definitely established. 



Thus the three-circle compromise is the conservafive middle ground 

 involving no radical changes in present selling policies, but safeguard- 

 ing and controlling cutting so that the regulation scheme remains amen- 

 able within reasonable limits to any changes found necessary in the 

 future. 



