material could be salvaged. The fire records used 
by the survey did not, however, include any 
catastrophic fires such as the Tillamook fire of 
1933, losses from which have been only slightly 
It is undoubt- 
edly fear of such major conflagrations, which can 
occur in the region at any time, that causes many 
tmberland owners to drop their holdings after 
liquidating their stumpage and that perpetuates 
the practice of many timber companies of scattering 
reduced through salvage operations. 
their holdings over a considerable area. 
No insurance company has offered to insure 
standing timber against loss by fire, but a recent 
study (20) indicates that forest fire insurance is 
feasible and could be a profitable undertaking. 
If forest fire insurance is made available to timber 
it undoubtedly — greatly 
opportunities for timber holding. 
Risk of loss by insects, wind throw, etc. is not 
great in this region, although epidemic losses of 
considerable magnitude have occurred here at 
owners will increase 
long intervals in the past. 
UNCERTAINTY OF FUTURE MARKETS FOR 
FOREST PRODUCTS 
The uncertainty of the chances of selling timber 
10, 20, 50, or more years from now naturally 
bothers the average owner. It appears to him 
problematical how long the Douglas-fir region will 
have a Nation-wide market for its large surplus. 
A large part of the Douglas-fir lumber production 
is shipped abroad; future possibilities of holding 
these markets are uncertain. Owners of timber- 
land not tributary to an open log market are 
particularly concerned as to their opportunity to 
sell their timber profitably to operators. 
OTHER INVESTMENT FIELDS MORE 
ATTRACTIVE 
The belief that other forms of investment will 
bring greater returns than holding timberland to 
grow a second crop has been one reason for failure 
to hold such land in this region as in other parts 
of the United States. 
During the era of rapid development in the 
United States, there was no inducement for a 
timberland.owner to hold his land for a long period 
in order to grow trees. It was more profitable to 
liquidate investments in stumpage and buy new 
stumpage from the Government, timber specula- 
tors, or from homesteaders, in a new region. 
This, therefore, was the usual procedure of private 
timberland owners in all forest regions in the 
United States developed prior to those of the Pacific 
Coast. 
profits in stumpage, although the initial costs 
were low, have been dissipated by the heavy car- 
rying charges, as the period of speculative invest- 
ment was premature by a score or more of years 
In the Douglas-fir region as a whole the 
(as measured by the progress of depletion in the 
East and South). 
DIFFICULTY OF FINANCING 
Obtaining low-cost capital in sufficient amounts 
to carry timber for a sustained-yield operation is a 
The 
capital required for a manufacturing plant averages 
larger than elsewhere. 
particularly serious problem in this region. 
Fire-protection costs are 
high; risk of loss is great. ‘There is no intermediate 
grazing revenue as in the ponderosa pine region. 
With rough topography and much inaccessible 
country heavy expensive equipment is needed for 
logging including transportation. 
of 
markets outside the region results in large pro- 
Dependence wood-working industries on 
duction units, the manufacture of high-quality 
products to offset high cost of transportation, and 
All these factors 
combine to increase the amount of capital neces- 
the carrying of large inventories. 
sary to finance operations in this region. 
EXTENT OF PUBLIC-OWNED FORESTS 
The proximity of publicly owned forest land may 
or may not be an obstacle to private owners in 
setting up sustained-yield plans, depending on 
Neither 
the cut from the national forests in this region nor 
type of public ownership and on locality. 
that from Oregon & California Railroad land- 
grant timberlands has been large enough to influ- 
ence cutting of private stumpage in the past. In 
southern Oregon and even in parts of the Willa- 
mette River district, private owners forming plans 
for sustained yield will have to be guided by the 
policies governing administration of Oregon & 
California Railroad timber under the sustained- 
yield law of 1937. 
policies as to sale of timber on State school lands 
In western Washington future 
