FOREST PROBLEMS IN THE PHILIPPINES 



Cutting rules for non-agricultural 

 land : 



1. Diameter limit of forty centimeters 

 (fourteen inches) breast height for 

 Lavan, Apitong, Panao, Giujo, Tan- 

 guile, or trees of the first group. 



2. All sound trees of other species may 

 be cut, and those of more than seventy- 

 five centimeters must be cut and 

 utilized. 



3. None of the above-mentioned 

 species or first group woods shall be 

 used for logging construction, except 

 with the special permission of the forest 

 officer in each case. 



4. Workmen must not destroy seed- 

 lings of the above-mentioned species 

 or first group. 



The chief objections to these rules 

 are that, firstly, it is unwise to clear- 

 cut a part of the forest for agricultural 

 land when it is not needed for settle- 

 ment and may not be needed for a good 

 many years. Secondly, the diameter 

 limit of fourteen inches is far too low. 

 A limit of twenty- four inches would 

 not cause much loss to the lumberman 

 and would save some fine young poles. 



The concessions taken up are being 

 worked with characteristic American 

 enterprise. On two concessions logging 

 railroads have been run up into the 

 forests and regular stream logging, 

 hauling the logs to the railroad by 

 donkey engines, is being carried on. On 

 one concession, that of the Insular 

 Lumber Company, the operations are 

 an exact copy of the lumbering opera- 

 tions of a large company in Seattle, 

 Wash., and the sawmill, of 100,000 

 board-feet daily capacity, is as thor- 

 oughly fitted up with up-to-date appli- 

 ances and as well run as almost any 

 mill in America. It must be remem- 

 bered that all this is a new venture, be- 

 lieved to be utterly impossible a few 

 years ago. It has rendered not only 

 possible, but profitable, the utilization of 

 the large quantities of Diptocarps, until 

 recently considered practically useless. 



We now come to the keynote of the 

 whole policy of the bureau the estab- 

 lishment of forest reserves. Until re- 

 cently the necessity for doing this was 



not fully realized. Hence, with the ex- 

 ception of one small reserve at Limao, 

 across the bay from Manila, none has 

 so far been established. 



Since the policy was started prelim- 

 inary work has occupied the entire at- 

 tention of the bureau. It was first 

 necessary, of course, to locate the for- 

 ests before asking to have them re- 

 served. This work consists of making 

 a thorough reconnaisance survey of the 

 whole islands, a very difficult undertak- 

 ing. The only maps they have to begin 

 with are what are called compilation 

 maps. These are the regular coast- 

 guard maps (giving merely the coast 

 line 'and an occasional prominent peak), 

 on which they have put all the streams 

 and villages which are known. They 

 must have as many names of villages 

 as possible, so as to be able to tell the 

 cargidores (Filipino carriers) where 

 they are going. Because the native will 

 not start off so many miles in such and 

 such a direction, but must know that he 

 is going toward some village he has 

 heard of. Often he will not go at all, 

 thus creating a serious difficulty in this 

 kind of work. The coast-guard maps 

 are accurate enough with regard to the 

 coast line itself, but are sometimes away 

 off in giving the width of the islands. 

 For instance, the northern part of the 

 Island of Luzon was found to be six 

 to ten miles wider than the coast-guard 

 map gave it. Hence, they can be used 

 only for putting in the forests along the 

 coast. For the interior of an island 

 they go through lengthwise and cross- 

 wise as many times as is necessary to 

 cover it all, keep trail notes by hand 

 compass and pacing every foot of the 

 way. These notes are plotted on cross- 

 section paper in the field on a scale of 

 i to 10,000. The sheets are sent in to 

 the bureau and put onto the final map 

 on the scale of i to 100,000. The for- 

 ester who has done most of this work 

 has wisely made the rangers keep the 

 trail notes themselves, believing that 

 it is better to have them learn to do it, 

 even though it may not be done quite 

 so well at first, because, when once they 

 have learned to do it, it is easier to do 



