354 



Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 



Squirrels, chipmunks, and mice add to 

 the difficulties by destroying tree seed ; 

 rabbits damage the natural or planted 

 seedlings. Cone- and seed-destroying 

 insects are serious pests, as are the cut- 

 worms and weevils that kill seedlings. 



Insect enemies of larger trees are a 

 serious menace to the timber kept in 

 reserve as growing stocks. Sometimes 

 the pests force premature or undesir- 

 ably heavy cutting. The worst are bark, 

 or engraver, beetles. Their depreda- 

 tions exceed the losses caused by fire. 



Of tree-killing diseases, the blister 

 rust of sugar pine is the most feared, 

 although it has not yet become wide- 

 spread. The ring scale fungus, the In- 

 dian paint fungus, the incense-cedar 

 dry-rot, and many other fungi, which 

 are not primarily tree killers, neverthe- 

 less cause heavy losses by destroying the 

 heart wood of standing trees. 



The climate of California often gets 

 bad marks perhaps unjustly from 

 forest managers. The long, warm, dry 

 summers contribute to an excessive fire 

 danger. As to tree growth, however, 

 better understanding gained in recent 

 years tends to discount the opinion that 

 high summer temperatures and low 

 growing-season rainfall are extremely 

 adverse features. The trees are well ad- 

 justed to survive these normal rigors 

 of their environment. Close observa- 

 tion has shown that most failures of 

 planting and natural seeding resulted 

 from crowding by weeds and shrubs, 

 damage by rodents and insects, or 

 faulty timing and methods. More 

 knowledge and improved skill can 

 overcome these obstacles. 



With respect to topography and 

 transportation, the national forests in 

 California have disadvantages as com- 

 pared with other forest regions. The 

 bulk of the timber covers the mani- 

 fold ridges and canyons of the western 

 Sierra Nevada and northern inner 

 Coast Range between altitudes of 3,000 

 and 7,000 feet. The Coast Range 

 timber is least accessible by roads. Ter- 

 rain of the northeastern volcanic pla- 

 teau, with its extensive forests of 

 ponderosa pine, is more favorable. 



Offsetting the difficulties of trans- 

 port is the large and expanding local 

 market for lumber. From one-third to 

 one-half of the lumber manufactured 

 by the mills in the State goes into pro- 

 duction and marketing of farm crops. 

 The growing population is bringing 

 to the State new industries and new 

 home building likely to maintain a 

 good local market for wood. 



The varied pattern of land owner- 

 ship in California also complicates 

 timber management. There are about 

 18,300 private holdings of forest land 

 in the State as a whole, many of which 

 are inside the national forest boun- 

 daries. Fire control has long been ac- 

 complished by cooperation among the 

 private owners, the State Board of 

 Forestry, and the Forest Service under 

 provisions of the Clarke-McNary Law. 

 Recent congressional and State laws 

 also provide for cooperative defense 

 against insect enemies and tree dis- 

 eases. Another recent congressional 

 law the Sustained-Yield Unit Act- 

 authorizes cooperative management of 

 the interdependent private and federal 

 timber, but no agreements have yet 

 been consummated. Problems arising 

 from divided responsibility have been 

 simplified in many instances by land 

 exchanges. 



The wood-growing capacity of the 

 national forests of California under 

 good management is estimated to be 

 slightly more than a billion board feet 

 a year. The allowable cut during the 

 period of converting the old growth to 

 thrifty and well-ordered stands is re- 

 stricted to 972 million board feet. The 

 volume actually logged has averaged 

 much below the allowable cut and in 

 1947 was 555 million feet. The rate of 

 cutting obviously can be increased by 

 opening up inaccessible areas. 



After cutting started in 1898, the 

 proportion of the sawmill production 

 in the State that came from the na- 

 tional forests rose gradually to about 

 10 percent in 1939. Thereafter the pro- 

 portion has risen more rapidly, reach- 

 ing 20 percent in 1947. Depletion of 

 the more accessible private timber 



