Four Billion Feet of Beetle-Killed Spruce 



resources, and much of the timber re- 

 mains out of reach. Roads are needed 

 to harvest the dead spruce and also 

 much of the ripe green timber. 



During the war, some so-called tim- 

 ber-access roads were built, including 

 the 14 miles to open up Glinetop Mesa. 

 A 20-mile, 16-foot surfaced road has 

 since been built that opens up 150 mil- 

 lion board feet of spruce timber on 

 Coffee Pot Mesa. Surfacing of forest- 

 development roads also has been un- 

 dertaken, permitting salvage of more 

 and more of the bug-killed spruce. 



The primary need in the insect- 

 killed area is for more timber-hauling 

 roads. It is estimated that a million 

 cords of pulpwood can be made ac- 

 cessible on the White River National 

 Forest alone by an expenditure of 

 $750,000 for access roads. 



The insect-killed timber can be used 

 for lumber if salvaged within 3 or 4 

 years after being attacked. The tree 

 dries and cracks open up the stem. 

 Where the woodpeckers have removed 

 some of the bark, the cracking or 

 checking process is speeded up on the 

 time during which the timber can be 

 salvaged for lumber is reduced. 



Dead timber no longer suitable for 

 sawed products has been proved to be 

 usable for making paper. Sample car- 

 loads have been tested by some of the 

 mills in the Lake States. The reports 

 are that the dead spruce is entirely sat- 

 isfactory if minor changes are made in 

 processing. Since there is no pulp or 

 paper industry in the central Rocky 

 Mountain region, it is logical that this 

 spruce should be used to help alleviate 

 the shortage of pulpwood in the Lake 

 States. Many of these pulp and paper 

 companies are looking forward to the 

 day when their own forests will sustain 

 their plants. In the meantime, the next 

 10 to 15 years is the critical period, and 

 if the dead Engelmann spruce can help 

 a part of the industry over this trying 

 period, it will have served a useful 

 purpose. 



Insect-killed spruce is expected to re- 

 main usable for pulpwood for 15 years 

 or more. The development of a pulp- 



421 



wood-logging industry in Colorado is 

 now in the early stages. Small operators 

 are trying their hand at it. One Wis- 

 consin pulp and paper company has 

 sent in its own crews and equipment to 

 test the feasibility of logging and ship- 

 ping the dead spruce to its Wisconsin 

 plant. Another has purchased 43,000 

 cords of which about 6,000 cords were 

 cut by the end of 1948. One of the dif- 

 ficulties in getting local operators to cut 

 pulpwood was their lack of experience 

 and proper equipment to handle 100- 

 inch pulpwood sticks. Also, as long as 

 the dead timber could be made into 

 sawed products, there was more profit 

 in such products than in producing 

 pulpwood. Except in limited areas of 

 recent attack, the latter is no longer the 

 case, and with experience and more 

 specialized equipment available the 

 production of pulpwood by local opera- 

 tors should increase, provided the 

 selling price permits a profitable opera- 

 tion. 



Freight rates from Colorado points 

 adjacent to the bug-killed timber to 

 mills in Wisconsin have been estab- 

 lished at $15.12 a cord for a minimum 

 carload of 24 cords or more. This makes 

 for high-priced raw material when the 

 cost of production ($15to$16a cord) 

 is added. An added difficulty is a 

 marked scarcity of gondolas large 

 enough to carry the minimum load of 

 24 cords. Railroad officials are not too 

 optimistic about relief from this situa- 

 tion and, so far, changes in the freight 

 rate to cover lower minimum carload- 

 ing have not been favored. 



A permanent industry can hardly be 

 built on the basis of salvaging insect- 

 killed timber alone. Perhaps local in- 

 dustries might be established which 

 could use the dead wood that is sal- 

 vageable, then continue to operate on 

 green timber. Felt-pulp plants for mak- 

 ing roofing paper have been suggested. 

 Other possibilities for better utilization 

 include chipping in the woods and 

 shipping baled chips to pulp or chem- 

 ical conversion plants. So far, the most 

 promising and practical outlet seems 

 to be the shipment, as wood, to exist- 



