Coal-company Forestry 



Concern for the condition of their forests has been 

 more or less thrust upon the coal companies, for the 

 devastation of the forests has injured their primary 

 business of mining. Intermittently this concern has 

 led to specific steps to protect the forest from fires 

 or to plant devastated areas, though such effort has 

 generally been short-lived. 



One coal company, however, has employed a full- 

 time forester and has had an active program in 

 operation since 1913 (fig. 13). The primary objective 

 has been the prevention and control of forest fires. 

 A year-round crew of about 20 men is maintained 

 and modern equipment is used. During nonhazard- 

 ous seasons this crew is kept occupied with the cutting 

 of safety strips and other fire-prevention operations. 



Figure 13. — One coal company has had an active forestry program 

 since 7973. 



Recently this company purchased 20,000 acres of 

 watershed adjacent to its coal-field holdings, some 

 of it run-down farm land, to guarantee a supply of 

 fresh water for washing coal. On a part of this land 

 the company has planted 125,000 seedlings — white 

 and red pines, larch, and Norway spruce — for water- 

 shed protection. It has also experimented with 

 mine waste-bank planting. Besides its holdings in 

 the coal-field area, this company owns about 43,000 

 acres in the western Poconos. This forest land has 

 been managed for water supplies, mine timbers, and 

 game, and more recently for saw timber. 



For a number of years during the 1930's another 

 company employed a full-time forester who concerned 

 himself with fire prevention, reforestation, brush 

 removal, and water-supply control, a program that 



resulted in greatly increased respect for the com- 

 pany's lands among employees and local residents. 

 Several other coal companies have at various times 

 been active in promoting fire prevention and fire 

 control. A number of companies cooperate with 

 the State organization by maintaining at collieries 

 standby crews that may be called out in case of fire' 

 on company lands. 



Other Private Owners 



Most of the smaller privately owned tracts of forest 

 get no conscious management and are left to grow 

 as they will. Occasionally an owner sells timber 

 rights to a commercial operator for a lump sum; 

 whereupon the operator clear-cuts the property. 

 Some owners use their land for hunting and camping. 

 Many properties are not used at all. 



However, one large forest-land owner, whose hold- 

 ings total about 60,000 acres, has had the services of 

 a private forester for more than 20 years. Water- 

 supply companies, some of which own much land 

 and all of which are primarily interested in protecting 

 their water supplies, have generally restricted cutting; 

 and about 50,000 acres are thus under some degree 

 of management. 



Most of the mine-timber operators work by a clear- 

 cutting system. Rarely are they able to return to the 

 same area for another cut until 40 or 60 years later. 

 An exception to this is one of the largest companies, 

 which operates several sawmills and a planing mill, 

 besides producing mine timbers. About 25 years ago 

 this company realized that a slight adjustment in 

 cutting practices would permit more frequent cuts 

 from their timber land; so they instituted a diameter- 

 limit cutting system, removing only trees of 6-inch 

 stump diameter or larger. Since then they have been 

 buying up timber land until they now own approxi- 

 mately 12,000 acres, some of which they are managing 

 for the production of high-grade lumber. In 1942 

 the company experimented with even lighter cuts 

 and determined that diameter-limit cuttings of about 

 10 inches at the stump were most economical. They 

 are now able to return for subsequent cuts at about' 

 10-year intervals. 



Flood Control 



Several organizations have been formed to deal 

 with flood-control problems. Those of the Lehigh 

 watershed are being studied by the very active Lehigh 

 Valley Flood Control Council, with headquarters in ; 



14 



Miscellaneous Publication 648, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



