when clear cut for steam-donkey 
skidding. Attendant problems 
of fire protection, silviculture, 
and forest management vary 
greatly under the two methods. 
Transportation 
Rail hauls of about 50 miles 
are common and veneer logs 
are hauled much greater dis- 
tances. It is not uncommon 
for logs to be moved by rail 
and water 150 to 200 miles or 
more. In the larger operations, 
standard-gage railroads extend 
to all parts of the area and the 
logs are hauled directly to the 
mill or to waterway. Stream 
driving, never very common 
here, is now practiced in only 
a few places. Puget Sound and the Columbia and 
Willamette Rivers have made possible cheap 
transportation of logs. Large flat rafts (fig. 24) 
are towed considerable distances on these waters 
and are used to a lesser extent on other waterways. 
Ocean-going rafts or barges are used to move logs 
coastwise; cigar-shaped rafts are towed from the 
Columbia River to San Diego, Calif., a distance 
of 1,100 miles. Practically all the merchantable 
timber in western Washington and a large part 
of that in northwestern Oregon is within 30 or 
40 miles of tidewater or navigable streams. 
Sk 
F 347420 
Ficure 24.—Log raft being towed up the Willamette River at Portland. At right are storage 
booms and sorting pond 
The increased mileage of improved highways in 
the past few years and the development of efficient 
and economical motortrucks have extended the 
use of trucks from small operators to many of the 
large companies, which are now using them partly 
or wholly to move logs from woods to mill (fig. 25). 
The use of trucks, particularly in connection with 
such mobile and flexible skidding machinery as the 
modern tractor and arch, makes it practicable to 
harvest small isolated tracts of timber, or timber at 
long distances—sometimes 50 miles—from water 
or railhead, provided there are public highways 
Se 6 ere OS ee ree 
o * 
F 348199 
Ficure 25.—Truck with load of about 4,000 to 6,000 board feet. Larger trucks haul as much as 10,000 board feet 
