FORESTS OF ROCKY MOUNTAINS FOREST RESERVE 19 



AGENTS AFFECTING CONDITION OF FOREST. 

 LUMBERING. 



METHODS OF OPERATION. 



Logging operations are confined to the areas of mature timber, of which the 

 accessible ones are nearly all included in timber berths licensed previous to the 

 formation of the forest reserve. Applicants for berths have been mainly attracted 

 by areas of spruce timber on account of the large average size of the trees. The 

 timber on the berths is cut under the general regulations for the cutting of timber 

 on Dominion lands, which fix a diameter limit of ten inches at the stump, and pro- 

 vide for the leaving of seed-trees, for brush disposal, and for the protection of young 

 timber. 



The methods of logging are adapted from those in vogue in Northern Ontario and 

 the Lake States, as most of the lumbermen and woods-foremen gained their experience 

 in those regions. The general conditions are also similar with the exception of some 

 characteristics of the topography. The steepness of the slopes in this region 

 increases the difficulty of skidding the logs and constructing the roads. The general 

 plan of logging is, in the fall, to construct roads, and begin the felling of timber, 

 the latter being continued until January, when the arrival of sufficient snow allows 

 hauling to begin. In most cases, the rivers are utilized to transport the logs to the 

 mill, sometimes fifty miles or more. 



Camps are built with log walls and roofs of lumber or, sometimes, poles, and are 

 designed to accommodate forty to sixty men, for which five or six buildings are 

 necessary. Merchantable timber is nearly always used, since the trees that reach a 

 size large enough for building logs are practically all of merchantable species. 

 Tote-roads are carefully constructed, and have fairly easy grades in general, as they 

 are confined to the valleys and do not have to climb to high elevations. The chief 

 difficulty in their construction is digging out a level road-bed on hillsides, and con- 

 structing bridges over gullies. Swamp land, which necessitates building corduroy, 

 is limited in amount. A large proportion of the toting of supplies is done on wagons, 

 so that good roads are required. 



Felling is done by both two and three-men crews, and skidding by single horses 

 in small pine or by teams in heavy spruce. The logs are rolled on skidways by men 

 with cant-hooks without the aid of a horse and decking chain. Hauling is done on 

 double sleighs with six or eight-foot bunks. Most of the roads are not iced, though 

 that is done on the most important ones. Driving has, in most cases, not involved 

 the construction of dams, the main rivers being driven without assistance of this 

 sort, mainly by reason of their swift current. At the heads of some of the smaller 

 streams dams have been constructed, and, as logging operations are extended further 

 into the mountains, dams will be increasingly necessary. 



SILVICULTURAL CONDITION OF STANDS LEFT. 



The only regulation as to what trees in the stand should be cut that has been 

 operative is the ten-inch stump-diameter limit, and this has not always been observed. 

 In a mature pure spruce stand, there may be only a few trees per acre below ten 

 inches and when these have been left after logging, they are in great danger of wind- 

 fall, and usually reach that end. Even if they do escape, they are not sufficient in 

 number to effectively seed up the area or to keep the seed-bed 'in good condition for 

 the germination of the seed. In some stands of moderate-sized timber, the ten- 

 inch limit leaves the area in a favourable condition, but in the vast majority of 

 cases in spruce stands it allows the removal of too many trees. 



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