ORIGINAL WORKING PLAN DATA 



515 



(6) COMMUNAL FOREST OF FILLINGES (HAUTE-SAVOIE) 



In the revision of the working plan for the communal forest of Fillinges, there is pre- 

 sented an excellent example of what recovery a forest can make during a period of 19 

 years. The inventory in 1891 and 1910 follows: 



According to the above table the percentage of volume increase was 157 per cent in 

 19 years. The growth in this case, of course, was exaggerated because many trees just 

 below 20 centimeters in diameter passed into the merchantable class which was calipered 

 in the revision. Taking these figures, however, as correct, it means an average growth 

 of 8.7 cubic meters per hectare per year for a forest which had been mismanaged in the 

 past. According to the original working plan: 



"The working group has been completely transformed in the course of a period. The 

 stand formerly very broken, open, often formed of sparse groups of conifers or isolated 

 trees as it existed in 1891 has given place to a thrifty young selection forest sometimes 

 even dense, which is rapidly beginning to suppress the broadleaf understory with which 

 the conifers are still in mixture at certain points. It is to be regretted, however, that the 

 small yield did not allow cutting over the entire working group by selection fellings 

 during the period and that consequently several compartments are crowded with over- 

 mature and deformed trees." 



In the second working group, the recovery (for average and old wood) was from 12,265 

 cubic meters to 27,452 cubic meters in 19 years; 124 per cent. In five compartments of 

 the first working group, the growth averaged 8.7 cubic meters per hectare per year, 

 and in 14 compartments of the second working group the same average rate of growth 

 was maintained, varying from 4 to 11.5 cubic meters per hectare per year. It is interest- 

 ing to note that the yield was formerly fixed at 157 cubic meters per year for the entire 

 forest of 166.45 hectares. According to Schaeffer's revision of 1910, the entire forest 

 was thrown into one working group. He figured the old wood at 16,048 cubic meters 



32 802 X 5 

 and the deficit of old wood was — - — ^ or a total of 20,501, meaning a deficit of 



8 



4,453 cubic meters. The average wood amounted to 16,754.2, an excess, since 



32 802 X 3 



— ' — ^ — — = a total of 12,301. Therefore, in accordance with the procedures ex- 



o 



plained on page 234, trees 0.35 meter in diameter were transferred to the old wood, 

 thus justifying still further economy of yield. Since the rotation was fixed at 162 

 years, the yield under this formula would be 16,048, the volume of the old wood 

 divided by 54, one-third the rotation, would be 297.1 plus 1 per cent of the growth of 

 the average wood (i.e. 1 per cent of 16,754, or 167.5) making a total estimated cut of 

 464.6 which equals 1.41 per cent of the volume, or 3.2 cubic meters per hectare per 

 year. In the working plan, Schaeffer pointed out that the growth, according to 

 Pressler's formula, would have been 654.16 cubic meters per year. This working plan 

 is an example of how the French are rehabilitating worn out forests; one-quarter of the 



