1464 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



nings, the avoidance of high grading the forest, etc. Too often now 

 the better species are cut where the inferior might do, or wide lumber 

 only is salable where small squares cut from the top logs or from 

 thinnings might answer the consumer's purposes. 



DEVELOPING TRANSPORTATION 



Roads of one sort or another are one of the permanent needs on 

 areas to be devoted to intensive forestry. The yield of a forest can- 

 not be realized without roads to take out the product ; thinnings and 

 improvement cuttings can be made if there is an outlet for the product, 

 but cannot be afforded otherwise. In western Europe it is considered 

 axiomatic that there cannot be real silviculture without roads by 

 which all parts of the forest may be reached by log-transporting 

 devices so that salvage cuttings, thinnings, and major cuttings can 

 be made wherever and whenever needed. The installation of a 

 permanent transportation system, particularly on public lands where 

 the stumpage is sold on bid, makes it easier in parts of stands, at least, 

 to sell stumpage under terms and in quantities that will promote the 

 best silviculture. 



In many types of forests largest yields of high-quality material are 

 obtained by removing a relatively small number of trees per acre in 

 any one operation but going back over the same area at short intervals, 

 often not more than 10 or 15 years. Such operations are impossible 

 without a permanent transportation system. Likewise, with a road 

 system established to harvest major products cultural operations 

 can be made and minor products harvested profitably. In this way 

 it may be possible also to harvest and utilize trees which otherwise 

 would die or deteriorate as a result of suppression, insects, or disease, 

 or trees uprooted or broken by storms. A permanent road system 

 may make it possible also to stamp out by immediate cutting incipient 

 outbreaks of destructive insects or disease which otherwise could not 

 be controlled in any practical way. 



In many sections of the Northeast existing public roads supple- 

 mented by old woods roads, many of wlu'ch may readily be kept open 

 or made passable for automobiles and trucks, make practically the 

 entire forest area accessible for intensive operations. Under such 

 circumstances intensive forestry can proceed with a minimum of 

 preliminary construction. On some of the State forests in Connecti- 

 cut considerable progress has been made in the past few years in 

 reconstructing and extending the system of woods roads dissecting 

 the area. The existence of these roads enabled the State to take 

 excellent advantage of unemployment-relief appropriations to further 

 the weeding, thinning, and improvement of many areas on which 

 these operations could not otherwise have been carried out. 



Another example of the effect of roads in making possible intensive 

 forestry practice exists on the Shasta National Forest, Calif. A large 

 block of this forest had been cut over before its acquisition by the 

 Forest Service. In certain remote canyons pockets of overmature, 

 decadent, and insect-infested timber had been left standing. After 

 building several roads across the area for fire-protection purposes the 

 Forest Service was able to salvage the timber in these pockets, which 

 otherwise would have gone to waste. The returns realized from the 

 stumpage were sufficient to pay a large share of the purchase price of 



