FOREST SERVICE STUMPAGE APPRAISALS 



By James W. Girard 

 Logging Engineer, Forest Service 



This article deals only with the appraisal of sawlog material and the 

 logging methods employed in Montana, Idaho, and northern Washing- 

 ton. The special features connected with the appraisal of chances con- 

 taining such products as ties, stulls, cedar poles, mining timbers, pulp- 

 wood, and cordwood have not been considered. Practically all large 

 sales of Government timber in this region consist largely of sawlog 

 material. 



DEVELOPMENT OE LOGGING ENGINEERING 



The development of logging engineering during the last four or five 

 years throughout the Forest Service and throughout the entire country 

 has been remarkable. A brief history of appraisals in this region will 

 show the progress made, methods developed, and comparative relia- 

 bility of results. Up to about 191 1 or 1912 the stumpage value of 

 Government timber was either arbitrarily fixed or roughly and often 

 inaccurately determined from a superficial examination of the area. 

 Several large sales were made, involving many thousands of dollars, on 

 no more reliable information concerning the cost of logging than that 

 which could be obtained by a rough examination of only a small por- 

 tion of the area. A large portion of the sales made on that basis proved 

 unsatisfactory to the Service and unprofitable to the purchaser. Ex- 

 perience has proved that logging costs cannot be accurately determined 

 unless a detailed examination is made. 



The old method, which was used until a fev/ years ago, of walking 

 up a main drainage or across a section probably once and guessing the 

 logging costs as a lump sum, $6 or $7 per thousand, for example, and 

 from this guess fixing the stumpage value is a thing of the past. No 

 timber dealer in this region now would entertain for a minute the idea 

 of investing from $30,000 to $40,000 for a section of white-pine timber 

 without first making a careful and detailed estimate. The estimate can 

 be determined as closely by walking across a section once or twice as 

 the logging costs can by a similar method. A careful examination is 

 just as essential in the one case as in the other. 



