580 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



upon economic and utilization developments which cannot be fore- 

 seen. This wide distribution of the national forests among most of 

 the major timber types provides the opportunity to develop and test 

 at first hand principles of silviculture and management on all nation- 

 ally important types except the three mentioned above. 



TIMBER MANAGEMENT PLANS 



The principal objective of timber management on the national 

 forests is to obtain a steady and continuous yield of wood products 

 best suited to the public need. This may be saw logs to be made 

 into lumber for the general market, as in the Pacific Northwest, box 

 shocks for the huge fruit crops of California, hewed or sawed railroad 

 ties of lodgepole pine from the national forests in Wyoming, for a 

 transcontinental railroad, mine props for Colorado coal mines or 

 stulls for a South Dakota gold mine, a turpentine "crop" in Florida, 

 or maple heels for shoe factories in New England. Or, the market 

 may be a wholly local one, as that of the ranchers in and near the 

 South Dakota portion of the Custer National Forest, where the local 

 timber supply is so limited and the local demand so great that every 

 tree is zealously fostered until ready for cutting. A controlling 

 principle in the disposal of national-forest timber is first to provide 

 for the local need, if dependent on the national forests, before supply- 

 ing more distant markets. 



The disposal of national-forest timber is controlled by formal state- 

 ments of policy which define the markets to be served, the policy for 

 the sale of the timber, and the general silvicultural methods to be 

 followed in its cutting. Where utilization becomes intensive, so as 

 to require the full output of a management unit or working circle, a 

 detailed management plan is prepared which defines the order in 

 which the various parts of the area will be cut, the silvicultural 

 methods to be followed, and the limitation of cut necessary to main- 

 tain the output on a sustained-yield basis. Thus the cutting of 

 national-forest timber is systematized under measures designed both 

 to improve and to perpetuate the stand. 



In the Douglas fir forests of the Pacific coast and to a lesser extent 

 in some other types, clear cutting has been the most suitable method 

 to follow. Elsewhere, where the condition of the stand favors the 

 practice, national-forest timber is cut under a system which selects 

 the mature and overmature trees for cutting and leaves the thrifty 

 young trees for growth and later cutting when they in turn mature. 



An essential part of the policy is to make the national-forest timber 

 contribute as fully as possible to stabilizing the industries and com- 

 munities partly or wholly dependent on operations based on national- 

 forest stumpage. A stable forest industry built up in and adjacent 

 to the national forests is desirable for itself, as part of the general 

 economic and social structure, and in the steady market it affords 

 for national-forest timber, thus giving the maximum opportunity to 

 cut the timber at the time best suited to the physical condition of 

 the stands, and to salvage promptly timber killed or damaged by 

 fire, insects, and disease. 



Where the public interest will be best served thereby, management 

 plans and timber-sale contracts may require the manufacture of the 



