382 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



revested lands are classed as commer- 

 cial timberland. More than half of 

 these lands still support stands of virgin 

 timber, and most of the remainder is 

 restocking to forest; the young trees 

 vary from nearly merchantable second 

 growth to seedlings and saplings in 

 recently logged areas and burns. Some 

 50,000 acres, however, are in the Tilla- 

 mook "burn" and are largely denuded. 



By the act of August 28, 1937 (50 

 Stat. 874) , Congress provided for the 

 permanent management of the re- 

 vested lands valuable for timber pro- 

 duction. The act specifies that such 

 lands shall be managed for permanent 

 forest production and that the timber 

 thereon shall be sold and removed in 

 conformity with the principles of sus- 

 tained yield for the purpose of pro- 

 ducing a permanent source of timber 

 supply, protecting watersheds, regu- 

 lating stream flow, and contributing to 

 the economic stability of local com- 

 munities and industries. 



The act also (1) provides that the 

 annual productive capacity of these 

 timberlands shall be determined and 

 declared as promptly as possible and 

 that until such determination be made 

 the average annual cut of the lands 

 shall not exceed one-half billion board 

 feet; (2) specifies that the annual sus- 

 tained capacity of the lands shall be 

 sold each year or so much thereof as 

 can be sold in a normal market at 

 reasonable prices; (3) authorizes the 

 subdivision of the lands into sustained- 

 yield units to provide, as far as prac- 

 ticable, a permanent source of raw 

 materials for support of the dependent 

 communities and local industries of 

 the region; (4) stipulates that timber 

 sales from a forest unit so established 

 shall be limited to the productive ca- 

 pacity of the lands in such units; (5) 

 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior 

 to enter into cooperative agreements 

 with other Federal agencies, State 

 agencies, or private forest-land owners 

 or operators for coordinated adminis- 

 tration of the resources of the revested 

 lands and the other Federal, State, or 

 private lands within the forest unit, 



with the objective of promoting sus- 

 tained production. 



To carry out the policies for the 

 administration and use of these lands 

 as specified by Congress, a forestry or- 

 ganization to make timber sales, in- 

 augurate studies of sustained yield, 

 make timber-management plans, and 

 perform the numerous other tasks nec- 

 essary to manage this valuable public 

 property was established with head- 

 quarters in Portland, Oreg. Since 

 formation of the Bureau of Land Man- 

 agement in 1946, by the combination 

 of the General Land Office and the 

 Grazing Service, forestry work on these 

 lands, as well as on the unreserved 

 public domain, has been under the 

 general direction of the Division of 

 Forestry in the office of the Director, 

 Bureau of Land Management. A re- 

 gional forester in the office of the re- 

 gional administrator, Bureau of Land 

 Management, in Portland, exercises 

 general supervision and furnishes tech- 

 nical direction; on-the-ground forestry 

 activities are performed by the staffs of 

 five district foresters, each of whom is 

 responsible for a prescribed area. Fire 

 protection is performed by the Forest 

 Service or by State or local fire-pro- 

 tection agencies on the basis of coop- 

 erative agreements. 



The Bureau of Land Management 

 is actively selling timber from these 

 lands, as directed by Congress. The 

 policies that govern timber sales call 

 for silvicultural practices adapted to 

 the particular site and designed to as- 

 sure reforestation of the lands by the 

 desired tree species, the protection and 

 perpetuation of highway screen strips 

 and lands valuable for recreation, and 

 the safeguarding of local watersheds. 

 Progress has been made on the long- 

 term task of determining the sustained 

 timber-producing capacity of the lands 

 and in devising management plans for 

 the utilization of the timber resources 

 on a permanent production basis. Be- 

 cause of the checkerboard pattern of 

 the revested lands, an important as- 

 pect of long-term management is the 

 development of coordinated manage- 



