The rates of cutting calculated for the transition 
are shown in table 40 in comparison with the record 
of cutting depletion for the period 1925-33, the cuts 
in 1933 (which are approximately the lowest of the 
whole depression period), the assumed depletions 
for the three decades of 1933-62 as set up in the 
survey, and the potential ultimate rates of cutting 
under the sustained-yield plan. The potential 
ultimate sustained annual cut for the region as a 
whole of 8.08 billion board feet exceeds slightly the 
average annual cut during 1925-33 and is nearly 
three-fourths greater than the 1933 cut. It is note- 
worthy that the 1925-33 average annual cut of 7.9 
billion feet is about 1.66 billion feet in excess of the 
annual cut estimated to be allowable for the first 
transitional period of 70 years, but that the cut for 
1933 fell short of the estimate by 1.48 billion feet. 
It is apparent that the three northern districts, 
Puget Sound, Grays Harbor, and Columbia River, 
having river and tidewater facilities and most of 
the region’s wood-using plants, are seriously over- 
cutting, but that the Willamette River, Oregon 
coast, and south Oregon districts are undercutting 
(table 40 and fig. 39). The extent of the over- 
cutting in the first three districts is as follows: 
Billion 
Puget Sound: board feet 
NO Z5S—3S race eacauesegaer eve averse ewe chop susan eacRobsuetelone 153, 
IES ee mein aa eis ecm AA. Anam aa s Gaia dS . 14 
Grays Harbor: 
LO 25 = 33 eicaacs wesccret oer ret ciaieiene Colaaeie oie eer . 89 
AO 33 Mya Borel awareneteien sien Colel ae vekevereheiereker ken eoeeun eer 19 
Columbia River: 
TODS ABS eiiacccvca store Oraetarerers opscererbelorey steve re stoke Tone STL 
eh pE ean tin RenCh raed auaobenean aaan 36 
If sustained yield were brought into effect in the 
Puget Sound, Grays Harbor, and Columbia River 
districts, the rate of cutting would be reduced to 
half the 1925-33 average and even below the 1933 
figure. In the other districts the annual cut would 
be double the 1925-33 average and more than 
three times what it was in 1933. Obviously, any 
such radical changes are not going to take place 
in the immediate future. 
The Oregon coast and Willamette River districts 
are now shipping logs of all grades into the Colum- 
bia River district and high-grade logs into the 
Puget Sound and Grays Harbor districts. If sus- 
tained yield were brought into effect in each of 
these five districts, the two southern districts 
could add 1.27 billion board feet to their average 
annual shipment of logs to the three northern 
districts as of 1925-33; but this contribution 
would fail by 0.78 billion feet to meet the shortage 
in the annual cut of the northern districts as com- 
pared with their average for 1925-33. 
Overcutting will presumably continue in the 
Grays Harbor, Puget Sound, and Columbia River 
districts, in order to keep mills running and men 
employed, as long as private timber lasts. 
A number of sawmills in the three overcutting 
districts have ceased operations, because of short- 
age of timber available to these particular mills. 
Within 20 years more widespread lack of raw 
material will cause serious dislocation of sawmill 
employment throughout the overcutting districts. 
Cutting is already tapering off in the Puget Sound 
and Grays Harbor districts. Increasing woods and 
mill operations in Oregon and operation of newly 
installed pulp mills in Washington will probably 
employ many of the people deprived of employ- 
ment by abandonment of sawmills in these two dis- 
tricts. A voluntary further reduction in the rate 
of cutting logs for sawmills would lessen the shock 
that will occur if cutting goes ahead at the current 
rate for a few more years until raw materials sud- 
denly become nonavailable. It would, however, 
be as difficult to obtain any voluntary reduction of 
cut in the overcutting districts as to increase pro- 
duction in the undercutting districts, which at 
present cannot compete with the other three in the 
principal markets. A regional economy based on 
maintaining a specified production is so exceedingly 
rigid that efforts to divert production to unde- 
veloped localities are strongly resisted, until absolute 
exhaustion of raw material compels such diversion. 
This is the major unsolved problem of the region. 
Forest-Land Ownership 
Stable Owrership Essential to Continuous-Production 
Management 
Application of the sustained-yield principle would 
be far easier, other things being equal, on areas 
where only one ownership was involved. One of 
the major difficulties in the way of universal adop- 
as. 
