UTILIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF LODGEPOLE PINE. 23 



It is impossible to fix a single rotation for the ordinary stands now 

 found in the lodgepole-pine region, because of their variable density. 

 Some of the more open stands are ready for cutting before they have 

 reached the age of 140 years, while many of the denser ones will 

 never produce large-sized material without a thinning. For aver- 

 age, well-stocked, unthinned stands on average sites, however, a 

 cutting at 140 years should yield 8,000 or 10,000 board feet per acre, 

 with a fair proportion of large-sized timber, and at the same time 

 leave from 200 to 500 of the smaller trees for future growth. On 

 the better sites the rotation would be shorter and on the poorer 

 sites longer. 



METHODS OF CUTTING. 



DETERMINING FACTORS. 



A number of things have to be considered in determining the best 

 method of cutting lodgepole pine. The forest must be left in such 

 a condition that it will continue to furnish protection to the water- 

 shed, the increment of the whole stand must be increased as much 

 as possible, the trees which are left must not be unduly exposed to 

 injury from windfall or sun scald, and the material removed must 

 be of sizes for which there is a ready market. The object of the 

 cutting must also be considered. 



HISTORY OF FRENCH GULCH TIMBER SALE. 



In order to give a clear idea of the present plan of management for 

 lodgepole pine on the National Forests, the methods employed in the 

 French Gulch timber sale on the Deerlodge National Forest will 

 be briefly described. Owing to the Forest's proximity to Butte, 

 where material of all sizes can be disposed of, it has been practicable, 

 on limited areas at least, to use a number of different systems of 

 cutting. The first cutting followed the selection system. 1 Although 

 the stand was opened up rather heavily in places, there has been 

 but little windfall and the trees are growing faster than before the 

 cutting. 2 This system was not used for a sufficient length of time 

 early in the operation, however, to give it a thorough trial. At 

 about the same time the single-tree system was also practiced in 

 some places, but with unsatisfactory results. 



The first definite marking rules were promulgated in October, 

 1906. They provided for cutting clean strips 150 feet wide, run- 

 ning with the slope, with 75-foot strips between. These latter 

 were divided into blocks 75 feet square, alternate blocks being cut 



1 Properly speaking, the selection system is one used in many-aged stands of tolerant species, from which 

 the large trees are removed in order to admit light to the smaller ones and to start reproduction. The 

 system used on the French Gulch sale area was really a culling or form of partial cutting, but the term 

 "selection system" is the one applied to this method in the lodgepole-pine region. 



2 French Gulch is in the Anaconda smelter-smoke zone, which tends very largely to offset the usual 

 benefits which follow the opening up of a stand. 



