owners, there would be continuing forest employ- 
ment for a small number of part-time farmers. 
Forest Land Use 
The present area of forest land, 29 million acres, 
will probably remain practically constant for some 
time to come. This vast area represents a natural 
resource not only for the production of timber and 
other commodities, but also for watershed pro- 
tection, recreational use, wildlife production, and 
grazing use. Practically every body of forest land 
can serve efficiently more than one of these uses and 
in many cases all simultaneously and without 
conflicting. 
Status of Cut-Over Land 
As of 1933 the forest-survey data show that 5.36 
million acres of forest land in the Douglas-fir region 
has been cut over and not put to other use (table 
28). Of this area about 3.20 million, or 60 percent, 
was cut over prior to 1920. 
Thirty-six percent of the land cut over prior to 
1920 and 71 percent of that cut over later is not 
restocking satisfactorily, amounting to 50 percent 
of the total 5.36 million acres. The 2.68 million 
acres of cut-over land that has restocked satis- 
factorily is widely scattered. Reforestation has 
resulted from several combinations of circumstances. 
The methods of logging and slash disposal practiced 
varied from early-day light ground logging with no 
slash burning to clear cutting with complete slash 
burning. Many tracts were clear cut with no 
slash burning; still others were clear cut and slash 
burned, but owing to weather conditions were 
burned only lightly. Most of the total area, how- 
ever, was slash burned after logging and thereafter, 
either by intention or by chance, not reburned. 
Fire-protection agencies in the region, in com- 
piling fire statistics, do not record areas on which 
slash is burned under permit. They attempt to 
cover all areas reburned, either by accidental fires 
or in connection with the original slash burning of 
adjoining areas. Undoubtedly many accidental 
fires reburning cut-over areas are unreported, al- 
though reporting service is much better now than 
formerly. Fires reported by the protective agencies 
burned over an annual average of 85,000 acres of 
74 
recently cut-over land (cut since January 1, 1920) 
during the 5-year period 1926-30, or more than 
half the 13-year average of 165,000 acres cut over 
annually during the period 1920-32. Actually, 
these reported burns have covered much less than 
half the cut-over jands, since they undoubtedly in- 
cluded each year substantial acreages of repeated 
burns. Barely more than one-fourth of the recent 
cut-overs have restocked satisfactorily, and ap- 
parently fire has not been solely responsible. 
Elsewhere unreported accidental reburning of cut- 
over areas in connection with annual disposal of 
slash may be to blame. Certainly fire or destruc- 
tive logging methods must be responsible for the 
difference in this respect between lands logged 
before and after 1920. Analysis of data on lands 
logged prior to 1920 shows that as of 1932 nearly 65 
percent were satisfactorily restocked. Much of 
this area was logged under less: destructive condi- 
tions than prevailed in later years, and no part of 
it was subject to the extreme fire hazard of proxim- 
ity to large areas of recently logged lands. It is a 
safe assumption that by 1943 not much more than 
half the lands clear cut in 1920-32 will be satis- 
factorily restocked if present practices persist, 
largely because of repeated fires. 
This raises the question whether clear-cut areas 
can be burned in a manner that does not endanger 
adjacent forest land. Without doubt, vast im- 
provement over past practices and results can be 
attained, and determined efforts to restrict slash 
fires to areas cut over during the current year would 
result in far more reproduction. 
The principles and detailed practices involved 
in slash disposal in this region, after the conven- 
tional clear cutting, are covered in a previous 
report (7/6) and will not be discussed here. 
Timber Production 
In this region 26 million acres, nearly 90 percent, 
of the forest land was classified as suitable for com- 
mercial production of softwood timber and more 
than half a million acres additional for commercial 
hardwood timber. Under improved forest manage- 
ment practically all this land, on which timber 
production will be pre-eminent for many years to 
come, can perform other functions without inter- 
ference with its main resource. On the privately 
