342 PLANTS AND MAN 



as being assured of future returns upon their investment. The 

 ideal lumbering operation is one which carefully selects the trees 

 to be removed on a basis of size, vigor, and distribution in the 

 stand; requires care in the cutting of low stumps, in the felling 

 of trees so as to leave undamaged the succeeding timber crop, 

 and in the removing of the logs from the forest. Slash, or logging 

 debris, is burned at the proper time, or dragged and distributed 

 so as to facilitate early decay; left untreated in the forest, slash 

 constitutes a serious fire hazard in many regions. Caterpillar 

 tractors for assembling logs prior to transportation by truck, 

 railroad, or water, have largely replaced the old and more 

 destructive method. This consisted of long cables, rigged to a 

 tall spar tree and stretched out in all directions for two thousand 

 feet or more, from which were suspended pulleys and cables used 

 to drag or swing the logs to the assembling point. This method, 

 as formerly practiced, was very destructive to young trees left 

 standing in the forest. Tractor logging is much less damaging; 

 in fact the exposure of mineral soils by the tractor tread often 

 provides the best kind of seed bed for germination of certain 

 tree seeds. 



Indirect Benefits of the Forest 



Man is so inclined to measure the value of objects in his 

 environment in terms of direct financial returns that he often 

 overlooks some very valuable assets of the forest, aside from their 

 direct value as producers of timber and other primary forest 

 products. Many of these "other benefits" of the forest may be- 

 come of primary importance locally. 



One of the most important non-commercial uses of the forest 

 is in the form of watershed protection. Forests retard the surface 

 run-off of rainfall, protecting the soil from erosion and resulting 

 in a regulated stream flow. Even in regions whose climate or soil 

 will not grow commercial timber, a scrub forest, or brush cover, 

 should be maintained for watershed protection. The value of 

 such cover was strikingly shown in the case of a fire in a southern 

 California canyon which destroyed the brush cover. Shortly 

 thereafter a cloudburst resulted in a flood originating in this 



