FORESTRY AMONG THE GIANTS 



651 



sprouts which come up 

 naturally after logging, is 

 it necessary, and is any- 

 one going to be interested 



in doing any?' 



And 



Total 



someone else may inquire 

 "How about agricultural 

 or other uses for some of 

 this land?" 



In order to give a prop- 

 er perspective to the first 

 question I will try to an- 

 swer the second one first. 



Redwood stump land is 

 difficult and very expensive to clear. Most of the 

 land lies on steep hillsides from which the coarse 

 textured soil erodes rapidly under cultivation. Cli- 

 matic and soil conditions are not conducive to a high 

 yield per acre of agricultural products. Only 18 per 

 cent of the land cut over to date has been devoted 

 to farm purposes. Professor W. T. Clark, who has 

 given much thought to the agricultural possibilities 

 of redwood lands, points out such serious obstacles 

 to successful fruit growing as oak root fungus and flat 

 headed borer (both of which are ever present on 

 tan bark oak) and emphasizes the lack of transpor- 

 tation facilities resulting 

 from the broken character 

 of the topography. Some 

 of the best dairy land in 

 the world is to be found 

 on the flats along the lower 

 Eel River but most of this 

 was not redwood but spruce 

 land and practically all of 

 it is already improved. 

 Grazing on hill lands is 

 largely an unknown quan- 

 tity as yet but judging 

 from the experience of one 

 or two companies who have 

 tried it rather extensively 

 the returns do not look 

 promising as compared 

 with timber production. 



Conservative estimates 

 place io% of the total area 

 as the absolute maximum 

 that will ever be used for 

 agriculture. Even this will 

 be dependent on permanent 

 timber production on forest 

 lands in order to make a 

 profitable market for agri- 

 cultural products. Forestry 

 and agriculture must go 

 hand in hand to develop 

 the resources of the region 

 most extensively. 



Probable Future Use of Redwood Lands 



Agricuiiure of all kinda - - - 



Barrens, rocky areas and brush- 

 fields ______ 



Recreational areas including state 

 and national parks, public play- 

 grounds and summei home sites 



Land suited only for timber pro- 

 duction ______ 



140,000 acres 



280,000 acres 



80,000 acres 



900,000 acres 



1,400,000 acres 



LOOKING ACROSS THE ROWS OF REDWOOD LOGS USED FOR 

 SEATS TOWARDS THE STAGE IN THE OPEN-AIR THEATRE, 

 BOHEMIAN GROVE, RUSSIAN RIVER. THE TREES IN THIS 

 FINE OLD GROVE ARE MAINTAINED AS A SETTING FOR 

 TH'' AN^-T'T, GROVE PLAY GIVEN HERE EACH YEAR 

 DURING JULY. 



In order that we may 

 have some general notion 

 of what land in the red- 

 wood region will be used . 

 for, I have set down the 

 appended figures. These 

 are believed to be con- 

 servative and although 

 necessarily only approxi- 

 mations they do bring out 

 the overwhelming impor- 

 tance of timber produc- 

 tion. 



These figures allow for 

 over 50% increase in the present agricultural area 

 and contemplate extensive future recreational develop- 

 ment. The barren area is made so large because of 

 much of the older cut-over land. Reforestation on part 

 of this may be feasible at some time in the future. 



And now we come to the answer to that first ques- 

 tion. Here are nearly a million acres of land so fa- 

 vorably situated as regards mildness of climate and ade- 

 quacy of moisture, that it will grow softwood timber 

 more quickly than any area of similar size in the world. 

 Because of high humidity fire protection is less of a 

 problem here than anywhere in the west. This means a 



high degree of security for 

 investments in growing tim- 

 ber. Natural reproduction 

 of sprouts comes up after 

 logging in such a manner 

 as to take care of 1/3 to 

 1/2 of each acre, but under 

 l^resent methods of logging 

 this must be supplemented 

 in order to obtain a fully 

 stocked stand. Unless 

 stands are fully stocked 

 they will have nothing like 

 the quantity or quality of 

 timber that is possible when 

 enough trees aie present. 

 These supplementary trees 

 must be provided for in one 

 of two ways. Either log- 

 ging methods must be mod- 

 ified so as to leave a suffi- 

 cient number of seed trees 

 per acre which is at best a 

 doubtful silvicultural meas- 

 ure and well nigh impossi- 

 ble when high speed log- 

 ging machinery is used, or 

 the trees must be raised ar- 

 tificially and planted. The 

 latter seems to me by far 

 the most reasonable course 

 to pursue. After logging, 

 the land is in ideal condi- 



