278 Yearbook, of Agriculture 1949 



foresters, who worked with companies sibilities is the integration of the forest- 

 that did not have their own profes- products industry the installation of 



a variety of wood-using plants in con- 

 junction with the ordinary single-pur- 

 sawmill. The availability of 



not have their own 

 sional help; more than 130 foresters 

 were employed by the lumber industry 

 in California, and a smaller but 

 growing number of foresters worked 

 in Idaho and other Western States. 



Another indicator of better days 

 ahead is the belated but nonetheless 

 remarkable increase in many parts of 

 the West in the selling price of young 

 timber and reproducing lands. Only 

 a few years ago such land was accorded 

 little or no value. Hundreds of thou- 

 sands of acres of it reverted to the 

 States and counties for taxes. Whether 

 bare or well stocked with reproduction 

 or poles, it all brought the same price, 

 practically nothing. So, owners were 

 denied the incentive they might have 

 had to keep their lands productive. 

 Now that has changed. Many a tract 

 that was abandoned for taxes has since 

 been bought back (frequently by the 

 original owner) for $4 to $12 or more 

 an acre. 



Protection against fire is being im- 

 proved through Federal, State, and 

 private cooperation. Almost all pri- 

 vate forest land in the Western States 

 is now under protection. While serious 

 losses continue to be sustained, size and 

 frequency of fires have been reduced. 



Many lumber and pulp and paper 

 companies are augmenting their hold- 

 ings and are consolidating ownerships. 

 They are buying virgin timber to pro- 

 long their life in old-growth timber 

 and delay the day of their dependence 

 on second growth. They are buying 

 second-growth timber and reproducing 

 lands to increase ultimate growth and 

 to improve their distribution of age 

 classes. This large-scale purchase of 

 reproducing land is one of the best in- 

 dications of the serious intent of some 

 operators to practice forestry and to 

 stay in business permanently. 



A parallel movement is the growth 

 and development of tree farming. The 

 first tree farm was established in the 

 West in 1941. It was the forerunner of 

 what has become a national program. 



A new development with great pos- 



pose sawmill, me avaiiaointy 01 a 

 sawmill to use sawlogs, a veneer plant 

 for peeler logs, a pulp plant for pulp 

 species, fiberboard mills, pressed-log 

 plants, bark-conversion plants, and 

 others to utilize waste, in an integrated 

 type of industry, gives the forest man- 

 ager an outlet for all that the forest 

 grows. There is less compulsion to di- 

 rect the plans and cutting of the woods 

 department to conform to the par- 

 ticular sizes, grades, and species of lum- 

 ber that are in big demand at the time. 

 The forest manager can cut the trees 

 and the areas that need to be cut for 

 silvicultural reasons. Each product of 

 the forest is put to its highest use, with 

 resultant wider margins and increased 

 funds with which to intensify forest 

 practices. In at least one instance both 

 the raw material and the various utili- 

 zation processes are in one ownership. 

 In others a single timber property sup- 

 plies plants of diversified ownership. 



GHAS. L. TEBBE is director of the 

 Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and 

 Range Experiment Station. He entered 

 the Forest Service in 1934 and became 

 assistant regional forester of the North 

 Pacific Region in 1940. After gradua- 

 tion in forestry from the University of 

 California, he worked for a number 

 of years in western forest industry and 

 spent 2 years developing large forest 

 properties in the Philippine Islands. 



H. J. ANDREWS has worked in the 

 North Pacific Region of the Forest 

 Service for 11 years, first as assistant 

 regional forester and since 1943 as re- 

 gional forester. He was in charge of 

 forest surveys conducted by the Pacific 

 Northwest Forest Experiment Station 

 from 1930 to 1938. Mr. Andrews has 

 been employed by lumber companies 

 in the South, by the Michigan Depart- 

 ment of Conservation, and as a mem- 

 ber of the forest school faculties of the 

 University of Michigan and Iowa State 

 College. 



