394 Forestry Quarterly. 



Balsam can well be used in mixture with spruce for planting 

 on southern exposures and on rocky sites ; but its area is greatly- 

 restricted because of damage through snow and game. 



In the future management the areas at high elevations should 

 be distinguished from the timbered area proper. 



The high elevations contain in part entirely untimbered, un- 

 productive (barren) areas, in part Alpine forests which are com- 

 posed of stunted, irregularly scattered, limby, decadent spruce, 

 crippled, old firs, beech, maple, and mountain alder. 



The marketing of this material is very expensive and in part 

 impossible without damage to the lower lying stands. 



The reforesting of such areas is uncertain, and very expensive. 

 Therefore only a very careful selection system can be used here 

 whereby only the oldest, most merchantable and decadent indi- 

 viduals with reference to liberating young growth are removed 

 with due precautions to retain the cover unbroken and only where 

 the material can be removed at an actual profit without, of course, 

 removing trees needed to prevent rock slides, avalanches and the 

 like. 



Many such parts of the forest are segregated as Alpine reserves 

 — these must be strictly conserved. 



The true forest area ranges down to 2,600 feet in elevation. 

 (The lower lying areas are privately owned.) Even her cliffs 

 and precipices occur. Just below the unproductive (barren) 

 areas a corresponding belt of woods must be kept intact in order 

 to prevent an increase in the unproductive (barren) areas. 



Me;thod of Cutting. 



Since these forests, as stated, are chiefly on very steep mountain 

 slopes, where they are not only very exposed to windstorms, but 

 where also the advance growth is practically all destroyed in 

 logging or at least rendered valueless for the basis of the new 

 stand, and since, furthermore, the existing methods of lumbering 

 as a rule require a concentration of the cuttings (coupes) the 

 method of selection cutting does not seem appropriate. But even 

 a strip method is not advisable here, despite its usual advantages, 

 since the stands, as a rule, have passed the seed producing stage 

 and the logging of the remaining strips would cause the destruc- 

 tion of the young growth on the cut-over areas. Furthermore, 



