200 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



or whether their forests are to be cut with a thought for 

 the future, the land kept in a timber-producing condition, 

 and the important lumber industry perpetuated indefi- 

 nitely. Action should be taken accordingly. 



What is the forest problem of the Douglas fir region 

 of Oregon and Washington, how may it be solved, and 

 what is being done to solve it? 



A half-century ago there was a practically unbroken 

 stretch of forest, either old or young, from timberline on 

 the Cascade Range to the Pacific Ocean and from British 

 Columbia to Southern Oregon. A few meadows and 

 "prairies," especially in Oregon, and some rock barrens 

 made the only breaks in the natural forest cover. Within 

 the altitudinal zone suitable for commercial tree growth, 

 i. e.', below an altitude averaging about 3,000 feet, 

 Douglas fir was the principal tree, and so this forest 



A 54-YEAR-OLD "SECOND-GROWTH" FOREST OF DOUGLAS FIR 



This is in Western Oregon, which originated from seed stored in the ground 

 after a disastrous forest fire that killed the virgin timber. This view is 

 taken on a sample plot upon which all the tagged trees are periodically 

 measured and which by actual record is growing at the rate of 1,259 board 

 feet per acre per year. 



region is called the Douglas fir region. Upon the coming 

 of the white man this region was by no means all covered 

 with heavy virgin stands of old timber, for there is every 

 indication that fires had played havoc in this country 

 from time immemorial. Where these fires had run, 

 second growth stands had nearly always replaced the 

 old timber and consequently every gradation from the 

 very young stands of seedlings to the old timber was 

 found. In some places, particularly on the high moun- 

 tains and adjacent to the valleys inhabited by Indians, 

 too oft-repeated fires had annihilated the forest, and 

 brush or grass had taken its place. Many of the stands 

 of old timber had been so scourged with fire and yet not 



killed broadcast that they carried but a portion of the 

 merchantable timber of a normal, well-protected forest 

 So it is that in the region as a whole considering second- 

 growth stands after burns, fire-scourged stands and all 

 the average stand per acre is only about 30,000 feet, 

 whereas it should have been 100,000 feet per acre. 



The following tabulation gives the best available esti- 

 mates, some of them taken from scanty data, of the 

 amount of merchantable timber and of the acreage of 

 commercial virgin timber and of cut-over land within 

 the Douglas fir region of Western Oregon and Washing- 

 ton, in both public and private ownership: 



Total 

 Western Western Douglas Fir 



Oregon. Washington. Region. 



BILLION FEET, B. M. 



Merchantable Timber 



National forests 



Private, State and In- 

 dian Reservation. . . . 



85 



260 



65 



150 



Virgin Timber Land 



National forests 3,000,000 



Private, State and In- 

 dian Reservation. . . . 7,000,000 



Cut-Over, Not Cultivated 



National forests 10,000 



Private, State and In- 

 dian Reservation.. . . 1,200,000 



ACRES. 



2,500,000 

 4,500,000 



ACRES. 



25,000 

 2,500,000 



560 



-17.000,000 



3,735,000 



The lumber industry did not develop to large propor- 

 tions in the Douglas fir region until about 20 years ago. 

 The annual cut of logs in Washington is now about 

 6,000,000.000 feet and in Oregon about 1,500,000,000 feet 

 annually. This means the cutting over of nearly 200,000 

 acres annually in the western part of these two States. 

 There is every indication that the industry has not 

 reached its zenith of production, and that with the 

 exhaustion of the Southern pine forests and the increase 

 in the export business the Douglas fir forests are to be 

 drawn upon even more heavily. 



The customary logging practice and the only one 

 practically feasible with these large trees is to cut clean 

 and log the timber off with steam donkey engines. This 

 method is not inimical to good forestry practice, for the 

 silvical characteristics of Douglas fir and most of its 

 associated species are such as to demand clean cutting. 

 jAfter the area is logged it is burned broadcast, often by 

 accident, if not by intent, for the State laws require the 

 burning of slash during the safe seasons to remove its 

 menace to surrounding timber during the summer. This 

 is well enough from the forester's viewpoint, provided 

 the burning is done at the right season, for it has been 

 found that when a Douglas fir slashing is burned over 

 once immediately after logging there is almost sure to 

 follow a dense stand of seedlings. The origin of this 

 new crop has been somewhat of a mystery until the 



