A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 915 



There can be little doubt that one half the existing facilities 

 would supply all requirements of the market, provided a labor 

 supply could be found for operating two or more shifts during the 

 rare periods when lumber markets are very active. Again consider- 

 able numbers of low-grade logs are being transported long distances 

 and cut in elaborate mills at high cost although they would yield 

 just as valuable material if cut in low-cost local plants at a great 

 saving of transportation and manufacturing expense and with a 

 lesser capital investment. It is plain that large sums have been 

 expended on manufacturing facilities in such a way as to compel 

 unprofitable timber operations. Furthermore, there is grave danger 

 that such expenditure has not come to an end. Not only have 

 opera ting facilities been developed in excess of the need, but these 

 facilities are poorly distributed with respect to the Pacific coast 

 forests as a whole. In California and southwest Oregon large bodies 

 of timber in private ownership are not served by any operating 

 facilities. 



The sums lost in overdevelopment of operating facilities would 

 unquestionably have been ample to perfect fire protection and other 

 measures of forest perpetuation, and thus to have placed the forests 

 of the region on a sustained-yield basis. This would have meant 

 permanence to the facilities developed, subject of course to ordinary 

 wear and obsolescence. 



PULP MILLS, VENEER PLANTS, ETC. 



Large sums are invested in pulp and paper mills, veneer plants, 

 etc., particularly in western Washington and in Oregon. Data on 

 the amount of these investments are not at hand. Apparently 

 there is little if any excess investment in these fields on the basis 

 of normal conditions. The veneer plants are able to create from 

 the highest grades of logs a product valued at as much as three 

 times the value of the lumber that could be made from the same 

 logs. Pulp mills usually operate 24 hours per day and make very 

 intensive use of the capital investment. Plants of this type are 

 able to create a high-value product from sawmill waste and from 

 species which heretofore have been nearly worthless. Therefore 

 they contribute to the earnings of the forest investment without 

 increase in capital requirements and are a vital part in the economic 

 welfare of the whole region. 



A decrease in utilization of saw timber and a further increase 

 in use of smaller-sized material are needed to eliminate the large 

 waste still occurring. Selective cutting may bring about this balance 

 without the necessity of further development of forms of utilization, 

 providing definite coordination is established among the different 

 forms of utilization. 



AVERTING FURTHER OVERDEVELOPMENT OF MILL CAPACITY 



Although manufacturing facilities are already overdeveloped 

 there is grave danger that the first active lumber market will bring 

 about establishment of mills to serve the nonoperated timber men- 

 tioned above. Two possible methods of deferring such develop- 

 ment seem particularly feasible. The first and perhaps the simplest 

 would be to return these areas to public ownership under conditions 



