THE SPRUCE REGION 217 



Intensive methods of management are here usually out of 

 the question owing to the unsettled state of the region. 



Since the management for the different types is often dis- 

 similar it will be best to consider the types separately. 



Spruce Slope. — The forest of this type, it will be remembered, 

 lies on steep slopes with shallow soil, where it is exposed to great 

 danger from the wind. The situation often would make it ad- 

 visable to hold these stands untouched, or at most culled only 

 of a very few of the largest trees, as protection forests for the 

 upper watersheds of New England's important streams. But 

 the spruce slope contains a great deal of valuable timber, which, 

 when conservatively cut, can be harvested without destroying 

 the protective power of the forest.^ 



How shall this be done? For two reasons the use of the 

 selection system in the spruce slope type appears to be out of the 

 question. First, because the stands are comparatively even- 

 aged, and of such density that the culling out of the bigger trees 

 here and there results in heavy damage through windfall of 

 trees standing next to those cut. Second, because the cost of 

 logging timber on steep slopes far from the lower valleys is high 

 and a considerable quantity of timber per acre (more than would 

 be secured under the system of selection) must be cut in order 

 to make a paying operation. 



Some system of clear cutting must be used. But it must 

 radically differ from the ruthless slashing and complete clearing 

 of timber, now being made on steep slopes by many lumber 

 companies. The clear-cutting system when skillfully applied 

 is of great use and the disastrous results which have followed its 

 use in northern New England, especially in the White Moun- 

 tains, are due to its wrongful application and lack of protection 

 from fire after the cutting. 



In applying the clear-cutting method to the spruce slope 

 type, clumps of seed trees can often be selected on spots which 

 are comparatively safe from windfall. (Clear-cutting system 



^ There are many scrubby and unmerchantable stands at high elevations which 

 should be retained always uncut as protection forests. 



