exhausted. In regard to material for lumber manu- 
facture it was assumed that Douglas-fir will be the 
principal species used during the next two or three 
decades, and that a certain quantity of Douglas-fir 
of lower economic availability will be taken before 
hemlock and other species are used extensively, but 
that during the second and third decades species 
other than Douglas-fir will be used in greater quanti- 
ties thanat present. The quantity of pulp manufac- 
tured in the region was assumed to increase mate- 
rially during the 30 years covered by the calculations. 
The estimates of depletion in the region and in 
individual forest-survey units theoretically indicate 
not only how far the supplies of raw material now 
available will go but what shifts of logging opera- 
tions from district to district are likely to take place. 
On the 1933 basis, according to the figures given 
in table 37, by 1963 the region’s total volume of all 
species in all ownership and availability classes 
would be reduced to about 70 percent and the vol- 
umes in the various districts would be reduced as 
follows: Grays Harbor, to one-half; Puget Sound 
and Columbia River, to two-thirds each; Willa- 
mette River and Oregon coast, to about three- 
quarters each; and south Oregon, to something 
more than nine-tenths. 
According to the estimates the total national- 
forest volume in 1963 would be 97 percent of the 
1933 figure, but the total volume on other lands in 
1963 would be only 54 percent of the 1933 figure: 
the difference is explained by the fact that in 1933 
there was three times as much class I timber on 
other lands as on the national forests and that the 
national forests are managed under a sustained- 
yield policy. 
According to estimate, in 1963 the national-forest 
volume would exceed the volume on all other lands 
in the Puget Sound, Columbia River, and Willa- 
mette River districts, would about equal it in the 
Grays Harbor-Willapa Bay district, and would fail 
by a considerable margin to equal it in the Oregon 
coast and south Oregon districts. The estimates 
were based on the present ratios of national-forest 
area to other land area. 
Let us consider, with the 1933 inventory data as a 
basis, how the assumed rates of depletion and 
growth would affect the supply of raw material for 
the wood-using industries in each major district of 
the Douglas-fir region. 
104 
Sawlogs 
PUGET SOUND DISTRICT 
Douglas-fir saw timber in availability class I is 
practically cut out in the north and central Puget 
Sound units. The entire Puget Sound district con- 
tains about 154 billion board feet of saw timber of 
all species in all ownership classes, of which only 
about 81 billion is in availability class I, including 
only 40.9 billion feet of Douglas-fir. The depletion 
assumed for this unit during the decade 1933-42 
totals about 30 billion feet. Of the remaining 124 
billion feet, 55 to 60 billion would be in class I and 
only 21 or 22 billion Douglas-fir. During this 
decade Douglas-fir will continue to form a major 
part of the cut, most of which will be manufactured 
somewhere in the Puget Sound district, and un- 
doubtedly some high-grade Douglas-fir logs will be 
brought in from British Columbia and from Oregon 
points as far away as the Willamette Valley. So 
long as there is an open log market on the Sound 
a supply of raw material for the existing manufac- 
turing plants will be assured, and this situation is 
likely to continue until 1942 to 1945; by that time, 
although probably there will still be an open log 
market on Puget Sound for’ species other than 
Douglas-fir, it is possible or even probable that a 
few large operators will control by far the greater 
part of the Douglas-fir in the district. 
Sawlog production in the Puget Sound district in 
the period 1925-33 averaged about 3 billion feet 
per year; the 28-billion-foot cut assumed for the 
decade 1933-42 would allow the industries in the 
district an annual- supply of that magnitude. 
About two-thirds of the logs used in 1925-33 were 
Douglas-fir, and this ratio could continue in 1933-— 
42. Almost the entire supply of Douglas-fir logs 
would have to come from the central and south 
units, since the north unit has only between 7 and 8 
billion feet of class I Douglas-fir left. 
For the period 1943-52 the total assumed deple- 
tion for the Puget Sound district is about 2814 bil- 
lion feet, log scale, of which slightly more than 27 
A considerable 
reduction in cutting is assumed in the north and 
central units, and a material increase in the south 
During that decade most of the Douglas-fir 
timber of sawlog size will be depleted, but local 
timber resources should be adequate to supply the 
billion feet is assigned to cutting. 
unit. 
