vate owners there was widespread opposition to 
the sale of public timber. But as timber shortage 
came to be widely felt, the Forest Service adopted 
a policy of obtaining from each forest the maxi- 
mum possible output consistent with sustained- 
yield management. ‘This involves a great expan- 
sion in timber survey and management plan work. 
It means taking every opportunity to cull decadent 
timber from otherwise vigorous stands and to 
make desirable thinnings in young stands. It calls 
for a far-flung road-building program to gain 
access to undeveloped areas. 
Financing of access-road construction, given im- 
petus during the war and assumed in part by 
the National Housing Agency in 1947, has sub- 
sequently fallen far below what is needed. Ex- 
tending roads rapidly into undeveloped localities 
helps spin out the old growth by making it possible 
to spread the cut over a wider area. It permits 
salvaging of bug-killed timber before it rots. It 
enables marketing of a large volume of inferior 
species hitherto untouched. It facilitates selective 
cutting in types adapted to it, thus adding to the 
effective annual growth. 
Although the volume of virgin timber in the 
West is substantial, the opportunities for greater 
output are limited. The national-forest cut is 
already more than double what it was before 
the war and may eventually be doubled again. 
The cut from other public lands may also be in- 
creased. But this is sure to be offset, in part, by 
a decline in the cut from private lands. The 
situation in most of the older lumber-producing 
localities is precarious. Lack of stumpage has 
caused many mills to shut down in recent years 
and this process is likely to be accelerated. 
In the Pacific Northwest, depletion has already 
progressed so far that there is little hope of sub- 
stantial increase in saw-timber cut (fig. 13). New 
opportunities for large-scale operation, generally 
dependent upon construction of access roads, are 
confined largely to southwestern Oregon, where 
sawmill capacity has already reached the sustained- 
yield capacity of the forest. It is doubtful whether 
increased output from southwestern Oregon can 
offset the inevitable decline in the older localities 
farther north. Indeed, considering the region as 
a whole, operation for a few decades at the present 
rate would so reduce the timber supply that out- 
put would need to taper off, perhaps, to some 
3 billion feet below the 1944 level. This would 
bring it down to the level suggested in the alloca- 
tion of the growth goals. 
In the North Rocky Mountains, more. access 
roads and utilization of the less-favored species 
may increase the cut almost 1 billion board feet 
annually for 30 to 40 years. But after that, output 
might taper off again to somewhere near the 1944 
levels. Similarly, if economic conditions permit, 
the output of the South Rocky Mountain region 
could be doubled. But that would represent a 
gain of only 0.5 billion board feet. Increasing 
the cut in these regions is not simple. Much of 
of the timber is of little-used species and in light 
stands. A good part of it is on rough, rocky 
ground where logging will involve more expense 
than is usual at present. 
California—in spite of prospective shortages in 
several of its producing centers, and operating 
conditions often as difficult as in the Rocky Moun- 
tain regionsseems to have the timber to permit, 
with good forestry, increased output in the years 
ahead. If access roads were built to open up the 
remaining virgin areas in the course of 30 to 40 
years, and if partial cutting were generally ap- 
plied, the effective annual growth would soon 
assume large proportions. Drain, reported at 3.1 
billion board feet in 1944, could increase to 5 bil- 
lion board feet 20 years hence. However, after the 
virgin stands had all been worked over, output 
would need to drop again, probably to somewhat 
below the 1944 figure. 
Summing up the situation nationally, the cal- 
culations indicate that for the next 30 years the 
largest feasible output from the West under a 
constructive program of forestry will not fully 
offset the necessary reduction of output in the 
East. The indicated drain of about 50 billion 
board feet would ordinarily include a lumber 
output of 30 to 31 billion board feet, which is 
less than current consumption, to say nothing of 
the goal. 
Alaska can contribute pulpwood.—Alaskan tim- 
ber resources have not yet been tapped on a large 
scale. The accessible timber occurs in a narrow 
fringe of the national forests along the tidewater 
of southeastern Alaska. It is chiefly valuable as 
pulpwood. The bulk of it is western hemlock, 
intermixed on the better sites with Sitka spruce— 
often of large size and high quality—and some 
cedar. 
Forest Service policy calls for the establishment 
of pulp mills in Alaska as the foundation for in- 
44 Miscellaneous Publication 668, U. 8. Department of Agriculture 
