Rebuilding a Southern Forest 



339 



above all, a new approach to one part 

 of our forestry problem. 



DAHL J. KIRKPATRIGK, a native of 

 the Pacific Northwest, is the son of a 

 pioneer forest ranger. He was grad- 

 uated from the College of Forestry of 

 the University of Washington in 1929, 



and became a member of the Forest 

 Service in 1930. He has served in vari- 

 ous capacities in the Pacific Northwest 

 since that time and is presently a mem- 

 ber of the regional forester's staff in 

 Portland, Oreg., handling activities 

 connected with the administration of 

 the Sustained-Yield Unit Act. 



REBUILDING A SOUTHERN FOREST 



FRANK A. ALBERT 



The rebuilding of the Bienville 

 National Forest began on June 15, 

 1936. It was then a sorry tract in the 

 middle of Mississippi, about 45 miles 

 east of Jackson. Severe logging and re- 

 peated wildfires had wasted it away. 



The 175,375 acres in the forest 

 should produce 10,000 board feet of 

 timber to the acre. But, in 1936, only 

 89,455 acres were well enough stocked 

 with timber to be considered salable; 

 on that part, the average was only 569 

 board feet to the acre. The rest was 

 even worse. The average stand for the 

 whole forest was 298 board feet; it 

 varied from 48 board feet to 4,011 in 

 a few spots. 



The bad economic conditions then 

 reflected the exhaustion of the forest 

 and the general depression. Between 

 50 and 75 percent of the land of the 

 large lumber companies and 40 to 50 

 percent of the land of small owners 

 was tax delinquent. Nearly all the saw- 

 mills in the area were losing money. 

 The governments of Jasper, Newton, 

 Scott, and Smith Counties, in which 

 the forest lies, and the citizens were 

 impoverished. Many of the people were 

 sustained by the relief programs. This 

 was the cut-over, burned-over, abused 

 land that the Government bought in 

 1936. With the help of the Civilian 

 Conservation Corps and the Works 

 Progress Administration, work started. 



The residents considered the area as 

 wild land ( laying out not being used) 

 and therefore subject to burning and 

 trespass at will. The aims and methods 



of the national forest program were ex- 

 plained to them ; they had thought the 

 Government was buying the land as 

 a boondoggle. 



In the tasks of changing such think- 

 ing into something cooperative as well 

 as constructive, the first item was fire 

 prevention. Demonstrations were given 

 of what good forestry would mean to 

 the welfare of the communities. Results 

 were almost immediate. In 1941, Bien- 

 ville had only 46 fires that burned 1,655 

 acres. 



To control fires and develop the re- 

 sources, fire lookout towers, telephone 

 lines, residences for fire lookouts, ware- 

 houses, repair shop, fences, and 172 

 miles of roads were constructed. The 

 first fire-suppression work was done 

 mainly with hand tools. Today the 

 work is handled by small crews of three 

 or four men equipped with mobile ra- 

 dio and fast, light tractor-plow outfits. 

 Modern methods and equipment have 

 greatly reduced the losses and costs. 



After the protective measures of fire 

 control were under way, constructive 

 action was started to restore the 

 wrecked stands and the large denuded 

 areas. The removal of the pine timber 

 from those areas had left too great a 

 proportion of low-grade hardwoods, 

 and the areas were covered now pri- 

 marily with brush and the worthless 

 species. 



Work to improve the timber stand 

 was carried on in pine reproductions. 

 The work consisted of felling or gir- 

 dling the overtopping, worthless hard- 



