Appalachian Comeback^ 



307 



both as to location and financial ability. 



The result is a system of small sales 

 to many people with limited resources 

 who can and prefer to become timber 

 operators, each in his own right rather 

 than leave the home and work for 

 someone else. Such opportunity is in 

 harmony with the ingrown indepen- 

 dence and self-sufficiency of mountain 

 folk. Many of those who live on their 

 native acres farm during the growing 

 season and get out timber from the 

 forests after the crops are in. Conse- 

 quently, there is a growing clientele of 

 farmer-loggers who readily augment 

 their cash income by timber work and 

 still stay near their own firesides. 



This interdependence is still further 

 sealed by the fact that the protection 

 of the forest from fire is not only the 

 Government's business but the concern 

 of local residents, and they automati- 

 cally become the core of the fire-con- 

 trol organization. This works for close 

 relationship between the local forest 

 ranger and the people in his district. 

 It is interesting that these purchasers 

 of timber return again and again, and 

 on some ranger districts as many as 

 500 small sales of timber are made in 

 a single year. Often the ranger has a 

 sizable waiting list. There are 45 ranger 

 districts in the 1 1 national forests in the 

 Appalachians. 



The local small operator of national 

 forest timber is not always a farmer. 

 Many are in the wood-processing bus- 

 iness as their major vocation. Some 

 small lumber producers operate one or 

 more small sawmills. Others log ties 

 and mine timbers or cordwood for local 

 markets on a year-round basis. Local 

 residents get much of their fuel wood 

 from dead material free of charge from 

 the national forest. 



The district ranger knows from his 

 inventory of the timber the areas that 

 need treatment for improvement of the 

 forest, either through the harvesting of 

 mature and decadent trees or the thin- 

 ning of young stands so as to increase 

 growth. His yearly plan of work in- 

 cludes the sale of the trees on such 

 areas, and it is geared to the needs of 



his people. Within the allowable an- 

 nual cut of his district, prescribed by 

 the long-range timber-management 

 plans and the limitations of the avail- 

 able administrative time and money, 

 the annual sales program forms a large 

 part of his work. While he may have 

 some large sales of timber to the larger 

 operating companies, much of his time 

 and effort is taken up with the making 

 and administration of small sales. 



To ILLUSTRATE the handling of a 

 sale and its place in the local economy, 

 let us consider the case of the owner 

 of a mountain farm that is near the 

 Blue Ridge and almost surrounded by 

 forest. The farmer and his boys had 

 finished their fall work. He had a 

 small sawmill, a tractor for power, and 

 a truck. He needed lumber for repair 

 of his buildings ; a neighbor had spoken 

 about building a new barn, the big 

 yard in town would take any lumber 

 he could bring in, and a paper mill 

 not far away was buying pulpwood. 

 The farmer had a market for all wood 

 he could harvest; he knew of a patch 

 of old-growth timber a mile above his 

 house on the national forest and of a 

 young stand of pole-sized trees that 

 would make pulpwood. 



He went to see the ranger, who con- 

 sulted his maps and records, and then 

 examined the timber. The ranger saw 

 that some of the older trees were ready 

 to be cut, and he laid out the boundary 

 of the timber that could be sold. He 

 selected the trees that should be cut 

 and those that, by reason of thrift and 

 quality, should be left for future 

 growth. Those to be cut were marked, 

 the volume of each was tallied, and 

 the stumpage value was calculated, 

 based on the difference between the 

 sale value of the lumber and the cost 

 of producing it, less a proper allow- 

 ance to the farmer for profit and risk. 



Because the amount due the Gov- 

 ernment was less than $500, no public 

 advertisement was required, and the 

 sale contract was drawn up at once. 

 The farmer elected to pay for the trees 

 in lump sum. He mailed his remittance 



