275 



PRIVATE FORESTRY IN THE WEST 



CHAS. L. TEBBE, H. J. ANDREWS 



One-third of all existing saw timber 

 in the United States is in the western 

 half of Oregon and Washington. The 

 entire West, with only one-fourth of 

 the commercial forest land, supports 

 two-thirds of the saw-timber volume. 

 Some of the implications are at once 

 apparent. 



First of all is the growing dependence 

 on the West for national requirements 

 of forest products. Western lumber 

 production has increased nearly 50 

 percent since 1938. The number of 

 sawmills has more than doubled. Pulp- 

 mill capacities are being expanded. 

 Hitherto inaccessible areas are being 

 operated. The country is getting its 

 quality products in increasing amount 

 from the virgin old-growth timber of 

 the West. 



Heretofore the East has provided the 

 bulk of the national production ( 55 to 

 60 percent since 1929) , but it has done 

 that at the expense of its growing stock, 

 and the size of the timber harvested 

 has steadily declined. 



The cutting and management prac- 

 tices used in harvesting the old-growth 

 timber in the West must be such as to 

 insure that a new crop of trees will be 

 grown to replace the old forest after 

 it is cut. 



Responsibility for continued pro- 

 ductivity is shared by Federal, State, 

 and county governments and private 

 owners, because all of them own or con- 

 trol timberland. Nearly 40 percent of 

 western commercial forest land and 

 timber, however, is in private hands. 

 Generally speaking, this includes the 

 best and most accessible timber and the 

 most productive sites. It is also the 

 scene of the greatest logging activity. 

 About 72 percent of the 14 billion feet 

 produced in the West in 1946 came 

 from private lands. The kind of for- 

 estry practiced there during the initial 

 cutting will determine in large meas- 

 ure the character, the scale, and the 



value of the contribution western tim- 

 berlands can make in the future. 



THE FIRST MAJOR REQUIREMENT 



that must be met if we are to achieve 

 sustained yield is to have a sufficient 

 quantity of merchantable second- 

 growth timber available to fill our 

 needs by the time the virgin forests 

 have been cut. That means we must 

 keep the cut-over lands fully produc- 

 tive and budget the cut of old growth 

 so that the timber supply in an area 

 will not be exhausted before a new crop 

 of trees has grown to usable size. 



If it takes 100 years for trees to at- 

 tain sawlog size, it is obvious that an 

 owner must not remove more than one- 

 hundredth of his timber inventory 

 each year; otherwise there will come a 

 time when sustained yield will be dis- 

 rupted. For example, if he clear-cuts 

 his entire forest property at the rate of 

 one-fiftieth of his supply, at the end 

 of 50 years he will have no trees older 

 than 50 years; if he uses the individ- 

 ual-tree selection system, the reserved 

 trees will have to be cut before they 

 have had time to put on enough 

 growth to offset the amount cut. Each 

 year the owner will be decreasing his 

 capital instead of operating on the 

 interest. 



Gutting practices that will maintain 

 productivity of forest land are a second 

 prerequisite to sustained yield and to 

 stabilized industry and communities. 

 Many years of research and experience 

 have defined cutting practices for most 

 timber types. They are relatively easy 

 to put into practice, especially in the 

 well-stocked stands in the West. A little 

 effort before logging and during log- 

 ging will save more young trees and 

 insure more prompt regeneration than 

 will many times the effort expended in 

 planting or other rehabilitation meas- 

 ures taken after a destructive logging 

 operation. 



