36 BULLETIN 418^ U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGETCULTURE. 



MANAGEMENT OF WESTERN YELLOW PINE FORESTS. 



The economic conditions which affect the management of timber- 

 land held in pubhc ownersMp are so different from those which con- 

 trol the management of privately owned lands that a separate dis- 

 cussion of each class is necessary. The administration of public 

 forests, such as those held by the Federal and State Governments, 

 is aimed to secure the greatest good to all concerned for all time; 

 i. e., present-day financial returns are secondary to the larger con- 

 siderations of sustained profit and public welfare. Privately owned 

 forests must be so administered as to yield the greatest present-day 

 profits, and this usually means harvesting the maximum yield within 

 the lifetime of the individual owner. Table 14 shows the proportion 

 of yellow-pine timberland in Oregon held under each class of ownership. 



Table 14. — Ownership of the yeilow-pine forests of Oregon, 1913. 



Character of ownership. 



Area. 



Volume. 



Acres. 



Per cent. 



Feet b. m. 



Per cent. 





4,448,026 

 16,332 



4, 742, 148 

 800,000 



44.4 

 .2 



47.4 

 8.0 



34,812,400,000 

 51,400,000 



27,398,300,000 

 9,100,000,000 



48.6 



In State ownership 



.1 



In Federal ownership: i 



National forests ... 



38 5 



Indian reservations 



12.8 







Total 



10, 006, 506 



100.0 



71,362,100,000 



100.0 







1 Tc this might be added two or three hundred thousand acres in the public domain which carries four 

 million feet of yellow pine, most of which is too scattered and of too inferior quality to be considered of 

 commercial importance. 



FOREST MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC LANDS. 



It is the policy of the Federal Government to administer the pubHc 

 forest lands in such a way as to perpetuate the forest on all the land 

 which is better suited to the production of timber than anything else, 

 and to make it yield for all time the greatest quantity and the best 

 quality of timber. 



The perpetuation and proper utilization of the public forests of 

 yeUow pine, i. e., the practice of forestry on these lands, consists of 

 four lines of work: (1) The protection of the virgin forest from fire; 

 (2) the cutting of the mature trees in such a way that the immature 

 trees wiU be spared from injury; (3) the intensive utihzation of all 

 the merchantable timber designated for cutting; and (4) the proper 

 disposal of the logging debris in order to make possible the subse- 

 quent protection of the stand of immature timber from fire. 



PROTECTION OF THE VIRGIN FOREST PROM FIRE. 



It has been shown that the normal yellow-pine forest in Oregon is 

 many-aged and that it should have an abundance of trees of the 

 younger age classes along with the old trees. Absolute fire protec- 

 tion of the virgin woods is necessary, therefore, not alone to prevent the 

 damage or killing of commercial trees, but to prevent depreciation in 

 the future yields. 



