12 



National Resources Committee 



reduced funds with which to meet pay rolls and conse- 

 quent lower wages, althougli wages are liigher in the 

 forest industries of this region than anywhere else. 

 Depressed prices have reduced the forest industries' 

 ability to buy su])plies and services, to make improve- 

 ments, to intensify utilization and refinement of prod- 

 ucts, to develop by-product industries, to practice 

 better forestry. Depressed prices have also lowered 

 the income of most of the people of the Region, so 

 many of whom are directly or indirectly, wholly or 

 partly, dependent upon the forest industry. Overpro- 

 duction and depressed prices for the linnber products 

 of this region have tended to hinder the practice of 

 forestry throughout the United States. 



.Sustained-yield forest management, although essen- 

 tial to continued community support, is at present an 

 ideal far from attainment in this Region. Yet, it is 

 not an idle dream, since it has been applied for genera- 

 tions in older countries where the necessity for sound 

 forest management was recognized sooner than in 

 America. The principle has been applied to the 

 management of the national forests within the region 

 for many years. It is being applied on some private 

 lands here, is in the process of being initiated on others, 

 and should eventually be appUed to most of them. 



Sustained yield in practical procedure must be 

 applied to moderate-sized forest units, and mill capacity 

 in the long run must be adjusted to this. In many 

 places in tlie region sawmills have cut all the available 

 timber and have disappeared; while in other places the 

 present sawmill capacity is greatly in excess of the 

 sustained-yield capacity of the remaining available 

 forest land. In such places, sustained yield is not 

 likely to become practicable until, after many years 

 of little or no forest operations, new forests have grown 

 to constitute a new source of supply for new mills 

 which may then be established. However, there are 

 many places in the region where it is possible to estab- 

 lish a balance between the sustainetl-yield capacity of 

 the local forest and the already existing local mills, or 

 the mills which may be built in the future. Early 

 application of the principle will, of course, be crude, 

 but nevertheless effective. With passing years, prac- 

 tices will be improved as reproduction and protection 

 methods become more effective, and as a better distribu- 

 tion of forest age classes is secured. It will at best 

 require several human generations to attain reasonably 

 good, general application of the principle in every part 

 of the region, but this does not preclude substantial 

 progress being made in many localities in the immediate 

 future. 



It should be emphasized that sustained-yield man- 

 agement requires, as a mininnun, (1) that the forest be 

 reproduced after cutting operations, (2) that the forest 



be protected before, during, and after cutting opera- 

 tions, (3) that the average amiual cut be adjusted to 

 the sustained-yield capacity of the forest, and (4) that 

 there be stable forest ownership. Furthermore, it 

 should be kept in mind that the better the condition 

 in which the forest is left after cutting and the more 

 effective the protection, the greater the sustained-yield 

 capacity. 



Transition from the present rather general liquida- 

 tion policy to one of sustamed yield is especially difficult 

 in this Region because generally there is relatively too 

 much nongrowing, high value, old growth timber, and 

 too little young forest growing rapidly in quantity, 

 quality, and value. Sustained yield will be easier to 

 maintain after a good distribution of age classes has 

 been secured, thus creating a low-investment, currently 

 productive forest. Wliile the application of the prin- 

 ciple is difficult, it is essential. Fortunately, it is not 

 necessary to do everything perfectly at once, but rather 

 to know the goal and to proceed step by step in that 

 direction as rapidly as possible. In order that the 

 Region may benefit by such management, proper 

 economic conditions should be created promptly by 

 public and private action: (1) to encourage the appli- 

 cation of sustained yield where it is practicable, (2) 

 to discourage development of mill capacity in excess of 

 forest capacity, and (3) elsewhere, through protection 

 and provision for reseeding, to secure the best feasible 

 forest management short of sustained yield so that 

 eventually it may become practicable. 



Fortunately for some communities, as in north- 

 western Washington, where sawmill operations have 

 greatly reduced forest resources, there have developed 

 other forest-using industries, such as pulp and paper, 

 which support a given number of people on less forest 

 resources than required by the lumber industry. It is 

 highly important that, where practicalile and to the 

 extent that the forest can permanently support them, 

 there be established special wood-using industries which 

 will refine wood products more highly than at present, 

 and which will utilize material not now merchantable. 

 This will make the forest more fully productive, more 

 profitable, and will at the same time employ more 

 people per acre of forest. 



Private timber management generally, as well as 

 much public timber management, is based on the idea 

 of early liquidation, and, as previously indicated, there 

 are powerful pressures tending to force such liquida- 

 tion. These pressures must be lessened in order to 

 secure conditions favorable for sound forest manage- 

 ment. Unreasonable forest land tax burdens are 

 generally recognized as an extremely serious hin- 

 drance to good forest management. But forest taxa- 

 tion is a highly complicated subject which cannot be 



