National Resources Committee 



wider establishment of conservation and sustained-yield 

 management operations, the greater emphasis in the 

 program has been placed upon proposals for immediate 

 action. 



The report of the Regional Planning Commission 

 itself is a covering statement intended to summarize 

 its view of the situation, the more urgent needs, 

 and the findings and recommendations of the whole 

 study. 



Findings and Recommendations 



The forests are of the utmost importance to the 

 region, not only furnishing livelihood for a large propor- 

 tion of the population, but constituting important 

 support to busmess and service activities and to local 

 agricultural enterprise and providing the chief means of 

 payment for the products of other areas.'' Further- 

 more, they enter intimately into the life of the entire 

 population through such channels as protection of 

 water supplies, flood mitigation, and soil conservation. 

 The range livestock industry, important both locally 

 and nationally, depends to a great extent upon forest 

 land for summer range. Development of the recrea- 

 tional assets of the region is largely dependent upon the 

 continued existence of the forests, and the destiny of 

 this region as a forest-growing territory seems further 

 influenced by the fact that a major part of the 94 

 million acres of forest land in the region is also used 

 extensively for recreational purposes. 



The facts that half the remaining timber supply and 

 40 percent of the water power resources of the United 

 States are located m this Region would necessarily 

 compel attention from a national standpoint. But the 

 additional facts that these resources exist in an area of 

 strategic importance as a gateway to future foreign and 

 domestic commerce, an area of considerable industrial 

 promise, and one significant from the standpoint of 

 equable and attractive living conditions, would seem 

 to demand that they be given permanent places in the 

 national develojiment plan and economic structure. 



The Regional Planning Connnission believes the situ- 

 ation with respect to this forest resource is critical, that 

 the threat of loss of a resource of incalculable value is a 

 serious one, and that solution of the problem will be 

 increasingly difficult with the passage of each year in 

 which some substantial progress in conservation, in- 

 cluding protection and improved management, is not 

 made. 



Depletion is no mere fantasy. In spite of their stra- 

 tegic importance, the forests are being depleted at a 

 dangerous rate, and the region is approaching a crisis 

 which promises to be as severe as it was in any of the 

 forest-impoverished regions of the East. The gen- 

 erally recognized remedy of sustained-yield forest 



» See staff Report, sec. 2. 



management is not being widely appUed — no definite, 

 widespread attempt to adjust forest cutting to forest 

 growth is being made. The national significance of 

 these trends is greater than it was in the East because 

 this Pacific Northwest Region marks the end of the 

 trail so far as virgin timber is concerned. 



So far as merchantable timber and the timber indus- 

 try are concerned, substantial depletion may come about 

 in a relatively short time with respect to the national 

 hfetime. At the rates of production of the 1920's, this 

 may occur perhaps in 5 or decades. Considering 

 only the portion of the timber economically accessible, 

 the time of substantial depletion is far more difficult to 

 estimate, but would be considerably shorter — perhaps 

 a nuitter of only 3 to 4 decades so far as a major timber 

 industry is concerned. Depletion of some large sub- 

 areas of the Region is proceeding at such rates that the 

 life of a major timber industry therein seems to be 

 limited in instances to a comparatively few years — say, 

 a single decade. In other subareas the time of depletion 

 may vary upward to a consitlerable period of time. 



Some species, such as the very valuable Idaho white 

 pine, may be substantially gone, at present rates of cut, 

 in a matter of only 2 decades. The Port Orford cedar, 

 of still higher quality and unit value, but much more 

 limited as to quantity and annual cut, will be about 

 gone in little more than a decade if ciuTent rates jjrevail. 



The danger of resource depletion should be of deep 

 concern to the public and the industry ; it warrants the 

 keenest concern of governmental and private interests. 

 If depletion is not arrested, serious economic disloca- 

 tions within parts of the Region, the Region as a whole, 

 and the entire Nation are involved. Within the Re- 

 gion, substantial depletion of the resource would be a 

 calamity which might be only partially and belatedly 

 ofl'set, if offset at all, by development and growth of 

 new means of economic subsistence. 



Sustamed-yield management, as broadly defined, 

 seems to present the complete general answer to the 

 forest problem. If forest land is managed so as to 

 produce its maximum yield and if total consumption of 

 forest products balances this yield, the maximum of 

 community benefits is bound to result. With sustained 

 yield the varied forest uses are develop.ed and co- 

 ordinated under a broad system — the timber industry 

 tends toward stabilization; recreational facilities and 

 development are assiu'ed of continuation; wilderness 

 areas are perpetuated ; wildlife is managed to prevent 

 undue losses; livestock grazing is maintained; industry 

 and communities receive protection of water supplies; 

 and potential losses from erosion and flood are sub- 

 stantially reduced. 



One maj' possibly be misled, through a merely casual 

 reading of the report, into a feeling of security by the 

 rather imposing totals of remaining public timber. 



