FOREST MANAGEMENT ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



By E. I. Terry 



Professor of Forestry, Colorado School of forestry 



Benton MacKaye in the February number of the Journal has made 

 a strong plea for improving the social conditions of the lumberjack 

 and has pointed out those factors in the lumber industry which are re- 

 sponsible for the present unsatisfactory conditions. Professor Kirk- 

 land has also discussed this topic in his vigorous articles advocating 

 sustained-yield management on the National Forests/ 



Both Kirkland and MacKaye point out that stable employment and 

 permanent community life in forest work cannot be realized so long 

 as our timber resources are exploited as a mine, but can only be brought 

 about by managing our forests on a sustained-yield basis. 



But neither Kirkland nor MacKaye plainly state what, it seems to 

 the present writer, is the fundamental reason for the failure of the 

 Forest Service to initiate a sustained-yield policy. That MacKaye 

 clearly recognizes this reason is manifested in the latter paragraphs of 

 his article, but he alludes to it rather gingerly, as though feeling for 

 the opinion of his colleagues in the Service. He is especially suggestive 

 when he says : 



"The Government in the present crisis, and in view of labor difficulties, has 

 already considered taking part directly in the operation of Sitka spruce for army 

 airplane stock. By means of this policy of direct operation working plans for 

 carefully chosen units, made not by the lumber companies but by the Govern- 

 ment itself, might be carried out in cases where such plans could not be applied 

 through timber-sale contracts. By this means the social and labor aspects of 

 forest management could be provided for. ... In view of the present and 

 prospective needs for lumber and forest products for national purposes, it would 

 seem that it might 'pay' the Government to take the initiative in the management 

 of its own timber." 



Plainly, the reason why the Government's present timber-sale policy 

 has not been and cannot be anything more than the veriest makeshift 

 is because the Forest Service does not do its owu logging. This, of 

 course, is not the fault of the Service, but of the laws and regulations 



'The Need of Working Plans on National l-'orests and the Policies Which 

 Should be Embodied in Them. Proceedings of the Society of .American For- 

 esters, Vol. X, No. 4. October, 1915. 



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