FOREST MANAGEMENT 



(Forest Working Plans.) 



PARAGRAPH I. 

 DEFINITIONS AND INTRODUCTION. 



The term "forest management," used in a broad sense, comprises 

 collectively the branches of forestry known as forest survey, forest 

 mensuration, forest finance and forest working plans. Used in a nar- 

 row sense, the term "forest management" deals with forest working 

 plans only and is usually defined as that branch of forestry which deter- 

 mines upon and regulates the sustained yield (la possibilite) of forests; 

 or, by others, as a systematic arrangement of the rules by which abnor- 

 mal woodlands are transformed into normal forests. 



American forest management will do well to rest on a broader foun- 

 dation. It should determine, in science, as well as in practice, upon 

 the ways and means by which the desire of the owner, relative to the 

 use of a forest (for revenue, timber supply, shelter, pasture, ornament, 

 water protection, game preserves, etc.) can be best accomplished. In 

 the majority of cases the owner desires to draw from the forest the 

 largest possible revenue. As a consequence American forest manage- 

 ment will have to deal usually with the various means by which given 

 forestal investments can be developed in a manner producing the high- 

 est dividends in the long run. 



In Europe financial considerations are rarely applied to forest man- 

 agement. Since 1871, however, the adherents of John Frederic Judeich 

 insist that forest management (like farm management, railroad man- 

 agement and any other business management) should see its goal in 

 a strife for the highest rate of interest obtainable from all productive 

 capital engaged in the forest. 



The owners of forests (like the owners of farms, mines, hotels, rail- 

 road stocks) cannot be expected to seek any other managerial end in 

 the administration of their property. 



The rapidity of any development depends (in forests, farms, mines, 

 perhaps in all investments), pre-eminently on the owner's financial 

 ability to make desirable moves at the most desirable time. 



In many instances development is possibly only with the help of 

 money borrowed by the owner. Borrowed money (mortgages, bonds) 

 usually proves a curse to the owner of forests after the lapse of a few 

 years. His policy of development is handcuffed by the necessity of 

 meeting the indebtedness, year in and year out, irrespective of market 

 conditions and labor conditions. Forestry, in such cases, must be de- 

 structive. It must pay the bonds as they mature out of the substance 

 of the forest. 



