EAOPRS Ea SleerRsern SOW RIC VES OF Tt HE'D OU GL 
ASS Siem be baa eas ee Hy Ge a © IN 
Forest-Land Management Problems 
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OREST land is the basic resource of the 
Douglas-fir region; its products constitute the 
raw material for the region’s leading indus- 
Past and present unwise treatment of forest 
land will influence greatly the future economic 
history of the region. If forest land is not kept con- 
tinuously productive and protected against de- 
tries. 
terioration, industry will decline and communities 
break down. The results of unrestrained forest 
exploitation are already apparent locally. Deple- 
tion of virgin timber within the radius of feasible 
transportation of several sawmill communities has 
resulted in serious economic and social loss. 
Properly managed, the region’s forest land could 
permanently supply raw material for forest indus- 
tries of approximately the present magnitude, if 
these were properly distributed within the region. 
Although timber production is the major use of 
forest land here, other uses are increasing in im- 
portance, namely, watershed protection, forage 
production, recreation, and hunting and fishing. 
Intelligent forest management involves two major 
principles: (1) Wood removed from the forest 
should on the average be limited to a volume ap- 
proximately equal to the increment, and the grow- 
ing stock—the forest capital—should be main- 
tained; (2) every forest area should be made to 
serve as many uses as possible, and these uses should 
be so correlated as to effect maximum production. 
The first is called the principle of sustained yield; 
the second, that of multiple forest-land use. The 
two are compatible. 
One important prerequisite of forest management 
for continuous production is stability of forest-land 
Many of the problems that aggravate the 
forest situation in this region are inherent in the 
tenure. 
existing distribution of forest-land ownership. 
115 
Ke 
Uses of Forest Land Other Than 
for Timber Production 
Effective plans for management for continuous 
production must in the main be based on areas of 
forest land that can be expected to produce forest 
crops continuously. Areas now forested that may 
in the near future be more valuable for agriculture, 
or for a type of recreation or wildlife production 
that allows but little or no cutting, can play little 
It is therefore 
necessary to consider here the present use and 
part in_ sustained-yield plans. 
future requirements of forest land for agriculture, 
recreation, and wildlife production. 
Future Agricultural Expansion 
As was stated in the section on land use, agri- 
cultural use of land has about reached a condition 
of equilibrium, and any expansion of agricultural 
production in the next two or three decades will be 
the result of increasing the productivity of exisiting 
farmlands and clearing wild land in existing farm 
holdings. This does not mean that efforts will not 
be made to convert a considerable area of present- 
day forest land into farms, much of it in localities 
Un- 
less adequate zoning laws are enacted, this cannot 
be prevented. Although the aggregate area of such 
lands placed under cultivation in the forest zone is 
where farming probably will not be feasible. 
small, timber production is endangered by hazards 
created through careless use of fire in clearing them. 
Forage Production 
Future attempts to use large areas of forest land 
for range may be of greater consequence in limiting 
