Pine Forests of California 



355 



doubtless will continue this trend in 

 cutting on the public forests. An era 

 of accelerated use is at hand, present- 

 ing the opportunity to improve and in- 

 tensify all management procedures. 



The direction that such improve- 

 ment should take is suggested by the 

 lessons from 50 years of experience. 



Naturally, the early years of admin- 

 istration were devoted to surveying 

 boundaries, classifying the land, con- 

 structing improvements for adminis- 

 tration and fire control, suppressing 

 fires, inventorying the timbered areas 

 to guide cutting and preparation of 

 forest working plans, and directing tim- 

 ber cutting under sale contracts. These 

 activities continue today, some of them 

 expanded and intensified as better 

 methods have been discovered by ex- 

 perience and research or as population 

 and markets have increased. 



Advancements in timber manage- 

 ment depended largely on the market 

 for old growth. There has been no ap- 

 preciable outlet for the small trees that 

 should be removed in thinnings to im- 

 prove young stands on cut-over land. 

 Lack of markets for young growth also 

 has been a deterrent to reclamation of 

 deforested areas by planting. Some- 

 what more than 300,000 acres of old 

 growth have been cut over in timber 

 sales; approximately 30,000 acres of 

 young stands in cut-over land have 

 been subjected to thinning and crop- 

 tree pruning; and about 28,000 defor- 

 ested acres have been planted. 



The early timber-sale administrators 

 were forced to begin cutting at a time 

 when forestry was a mere word with- 

 out local significance. They had no 

 research and only limited experience to 

 guide them. Tree growth and seeding 

 habits, the behavior of competing 

 brush, insect risks, and nearly all other 

 important factors of forest manage- 

 ment were subjects of conjecture. 



Those early foresters were conserva- 

 tive, fortunately, and determined to 

 leave on the land the best growing 

 stock possible. They marked for cut- 

 ting little more than half the stand 

 volume, leaving a large share of ponde- 



rosa and sugar pines in the hope that 

 natural seeding would increase the pro- 

 portion of these species in the new 

 stands. They reduced waste by requir- 

 ing that stumps be cut low and small 

 top logs be utilized. To reduce fire dan- 

 ger, they insisted that logging engines 

 have spark arresters, that all logging 

 slash be piled and burned, and that all 

 dead trees be felled. They also origi- 

 nated and enforced many logging re- 

 strictions to prevent damage to seed 

 trees and young growth. The early-day 

 outlook on future markets being rather 

 dim, the first sales were made on the 

 assumption that second cuttings would 

 not be feasible in fewer than 30 to 60 

 years. 



To determine the effects of cutting 

 procedures as well as to improve them, 

 studies were begun almost with the 

 first sales. Within 10 years the records 

 showed that reserving heavy propor- 

 tions of pine and drastically reducing 

 the firs accomplished little or no im- 

 provement in the proportion of pines 

 growing in young forests. It became 

 evident, also, that the many large pines 

 left uncut continued to grow at slow 

 rates or suffered heavy losses from in- 

 sect attacks, windthrow, and other 

 agencies. Such information, and the 

 good markets during the First World 

 War and in the early 1920's, led to 

 heavier cuttings that sometimes re- 

 moved as much as 80 percent of the 

 stand volume. 



A trend towards the lighter cutting, 

 which began about 1928, can be traced 

 to three causes: The general depres- 

 sion in markets, already felt in the lum- 

 ber industry ; information from studies 

 that showed that heavy financial losses 

 resulted from cutting pines smaller 

 than 18 to 22 inches, or firs smaller 

 than 30 inches in diameter; and im- 

 proved standards for selecting the trees 

 least apt to die if left for seed and 

 growth. The introduction of tractors 

 also made logging more flexible and 

 permitted lighter cuts and wider option 

 in selecting the trees to harvest. 



The revival of markets that began 

 with the Second World War did not 



