356 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



reverse but accelerated, rather the 

 trend toward lighter cutting in the na- 

 tional forests. With good markets, it 

 became profitable to log less accessible 

 timber, lighter volumes, smaller and 

 lower-quality trees, and less valuable 

 species, and to make return cuts at 

 shorter intervals. This opportunity has 

 been seized to bring about a long-de- 

 sired change in methods of converting 

 the old, decadent forests to younger, 

 thriftier ones. 



The procedure now followed is to 

 make a light initial cut that covers the 

 old growth as rapidly as possible and 

 utilizes the trees that would die if log- 

 ging were delayed. A second cutting 

 will follow in less than 30 years to 

 open new areas for seeding, give the 

 young, established seedlings room to 

 grow, and harvest any additional trees 

 that appear likely to die. 



A critical factor in success of this 

 procedure is the ability to identify the 

 trees threatened with death. Effective 

 rules for recognizing such high-risk 

 trees have been formulated from many 

 thousands of case histories of individ- 

 ual trees dating from 1910. Properly 

 applied, those rules can reduce the vol- 

 ume of wood lost through mortality. 

 Test cuttings in a 10,000-acre demon- 

 stration forest over a 10-year period 

 reduced volume loss more than 80 per- 

 cent. That was accomplished by re- 

 moving as little as 15 percent of the 

 total volume in the stand and cutting 

 only the high-risk trees. 



Such risk-tree selection is more ef- 

 fective in forests of ponderosa pine. In 

 stands of other conifers it must be sup- 

 plemented by salvaging trees that are 

 actually dying or dead before the wood 

 is stained or destroyed by fungi. Both 

 high-risk and salvage logging require 

 ready access by good roads. 



Much remains to be done before 

 the national forests can serve their 

 many functions at full capacity. Three 

 great jobs are ahead: Reclaiming 

 nearly a million acres of deforested 

 land by planting, increasing stocking 

 on more than 500,000 acres of land 

 cut over before acquisition, and con- 



verting in an orderly way the 5 l /2 mil- 

 lion acres of old growth to productive 

 growing stands. The first two are the 

 most difficult. 



The planting job has been scarcely 

 touched in the exploratory efforts that 

 have been possible so far. Before rapid 

 headway can be made, special heavy- 

 duty machines must be developed for 

 removing tough shrubs from steep, 

 rocky land without excessive soil dam- 

 age; cheaper, more lethal chemical 

 methods for clearing brush must be 

 perfected ; and effective means of con- 

 trolling destructive rodents must be 

 found. Planting also is involved in 

 building up stocking on the cut-over 

 land from its present 26 percent of soil 

 capacity to 75 or 80 percent. 



Thinning and pruning overdense 

 young stands and removal of large de- 

 fective trees are most needed on the 

 cut-over lands. Here, also, less expen- 

 sive methods must be developed as the 

 work is expanded. * 



Future cutting methods for the old- 

 growth areas doubtless will advance 

 beyond the tree-selection philosophy of 

 today in the direction of detailed con- 

 trol of stocking on small areas. Log- 

 ging must be more varied to fit stand 

 conditions as they change from acre to 

 acre. Cutting also must be closely co- 

 ordinated in time and place with other 

 supplementary measures, such as clear- 

 ing and scarifying the soil to make 

 favorable seedbeds, planting spots that 

 fail to seed naturally, rodent control, 

 blister rust control, and thinning and 

 pruning in young-growth stands. 



The years immediately following 

 the logging are the most critical; fre- 

 quently they determine whether the 

 new plant cover will be pines, firs, or 

 mere brush. Once the stand is opened, 

 the conversion process must be con- 

 tinued until trees are reestablished. 

 An error in timing, such as logging 

 when there is no tree seed or omission 

 of some necessary step (for example, 

 not planting when seed crops fail), 

 may mean loss of area to brush. That 

 is more lastingly expensive than loss 

 of trees. Once brush takes control, rec- 



