THE DEL MONTE FOREST 



BY LIEUT. D. T. MASON 



TENTH UNITED STATES ENGINEERS (FOREST) 



THE Division of Forestry at the University of Cali- 

 fornia has given considerable attention to the 

 famous Del Monte Forest on the Monterey pen- 

 insula, about 125 miles south of San Francisco. Duncan 

 Dunning, one of the recent graduates, spent several 

 months on the forest in the spring making a working 

 plan for the forest as research work for a graduate de- 

 gree. In the summer the senior students spent some 

 time in this forest doing 

 field work in silviculture and 

 management, and incident- 

 ally checking the working 

 plan. Foresters find many 

 things of interest in the Del 

 Monte Forest, especially be- 

 cause it is one of the few 

 forests in the United States 

 where there is opportunity 

 for management as inten- 

 sive as that on most French 

 or German forests. 



The Monterey peninsula, 

 on which the forest is lo- 

 cated, has been aptly term- 

 ed the "Cradle of Pacific 

 Coast History." The Span- 

 ish explorer Cabrillo dis- 

 covered its pine-clad hills 

 in 1542. Vizcaino, another 

 Spanish explorer, landed at 

 the same point and took 

 possession in the name of 

 King Philip, naming the 

 place "Monterey." In 1770 

 Padre Junipero Serra, pres- 

 ident and founder of the 

 California missions, found- 

 ed a mission at Monterey 

 and a year later founded 

 another mission at Carmel 

 on the opposite side of the 

 peninsula. At the same 

 time Monterey was made 

 the Spanish Capitol of Cali- 

 fornia. Many historic buildings are found in Monterey. 

 Thus the Del Monte Forest was the earliest in western 

 United States to begin to yield its products regularly to 

 the white man. 



The Del Monte Forest of about 5,600 acres includes 

 principally Monterey pine in even-aged stands of various 

 ages. In addition there is about one hundred acres of 

 Monterey cypress and four acres of Gowan cypress. 

 There are also five hundred fifty acres of grassy 



A STAND OF MONTEREY PINE TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OLD 



This species has wonderful ability to 

 it grows with great rapidity, though 

 full maturity at the age of fifty years. 



openings suitable for grazing, about one hundred 

 sixty acres of scrubby beach protection forest 

 close to the ocean, and four hundred acres of sand 

 dunes. Most of the area consists of gentle slopes 

 with a deep sand soil ; in the central part of the for- 

 est there is a hill about eight hundred feet high with 

 steeper slopes and shallower soils. 



Although only eighteen inches of rain falls during 



the year, the large amount 

 of fog and the mild cli- 

 mate the year round, aver- 

 aging about fifty-six de- 

 grees with the average 

 for the warmest month less 

 than twelve degrees above 

 the average for the coldest 

 month, are very favorable 

 to rapid tree growth. Until 

 about ten years ago cutting 

 had been going on for gen- 

 erations without regard for 

 the welfare of the forest. 

 The market demands, for- 

 tunately, had not been suf- 

 ficient to damage the for- 

 est by over cutting. The 

 splendid ability of the 

 Monterey pine to reproduce 

 quickly restored the cut- 

 over areas to forest. This 

 species, which grows with 

 great rapidity both as indi- 

 vidual trees and in volume 

 per acre, is short-lived, 

 reaching full development 

 at the age of fifty years. In 

 the forest the age classes 

 are fairly well represented 

 although there is a slight 

 deficit in the middle age class. 

 Considerable damage oc- 

 curred from insects about 

 twelve years ago but a vig- 

 orous campaign practically 

 eliminated the trouble. There is considerable damage 

 from mistletoe and peridermium. Wind-fall ordinarily 

 brings down about five hundred cords of wood each 

 year. Last winter, however, the damage from this 

 source in one severe storm amounted to about three 

 thousand cords. (One owner of a small tract in this 

 forest, not satisfied with natures rate of growing Mon- 

 terey pine trees, "cultivated" his trees by exploding a 

 few sticks of dynamite in the ground near the roots of 



365 



"come back" on cut-over areas, as 

 it is short-lived, usually reaching 



