SELECTIVE LOGGING 



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ing tree sizes. Conversely, the larger the tree the lower the cost of 

 logging per thousand board feet. Lumbermen have heretofore roughly 

 estimated the size of trees to be cut. Often they have "skinned" the 

 areas, believing that cutting all trees, even to small sizes, would result 

 profitably. There is a distinct but variable relation between tree sizes 

 and profits. When lumber prices are relatively high and attractive, 



FIG. 85. Loblolly pine selectively cut in the eastern coastal plain and along the 

 south Atlantic Seaboard. Selective logging is a combined silvicultural and utiliza- 

 tion measure, which serves both present profits and future growth and fulfills 

 the very essence of good forestry practice. 



small trees may be profitably logged. Too frequently, however, trees 

 are cut when at the most rapid period of growth and when lumber 

 markets are glutted with timber cut from trees below commercial sizes, 

 especially in the South, Lake States, and the Northeast. 



Several studies have recently been made by Zon, Garver, Gibbons, 

 Brundage, and others to determine the size of trees which can be 

 profitably logged. 



Selective logging is being introduced in several forest regions. Test 

 logging plots have been established in order to ascertain facts. Se- 



