The 173 billion board feet of privately owned 
timber in availability class I has a market value 
probably in the neighborhood of $400,000,000. 
Complete public acquisition is obviously impracti- 
cable for fiscal reasons. Moreover, any large 
Federal timber acquisitions would disturb the 
sound purchase 
sustained- 
Hence a 
that 
possible through minimum 
tax base. 
one 
counties’ 
program is will make 
yield management 
acquisition. 
Maximum effectiveness can be obtained through 
locating timber purchases (both old-growth and 
second-growth) on areas where there is no con- 
siderable exploitation at present but where major 
exploitation is in prospect in the near future. 
First choices for acquisition under a cooperative 
sustained-yield plan would be in working circles 
where practically all the timber remaining in 
private ownership would be committed to such a 
management plan. Timber purchased could be 
of either availability class I or class II; class II 
timber would cost far less. If owners would agree 
to cut under a sustained-yield management plan, 
which ordinarily would mean an annual cut smaller 
than under liquidation, the plan would schedule 
cutting on their lands first in return for assurance 
that a stumpage supply would later be available 
to them from the publicly acquired lands. 
In any working circle that might be selected for 
such acquisition there would probably be some 
timber owned by mill owners and some owned by 
nonoperating owners. Persons owning both saw- 
mills and timber would be expected to have a 
greater interest in a cooperative sustained-yield 
project than the nonoperating (very often specu- 
lative) owners. Nonoperating owners might not 
be interested at all in such a plan, since under 
present circumstances there is no such financial 
inducement in sustained-yield management as 
Usually their 
timber would have to be purchased, involving 
purchase of both class I and class II timber. 
is offered by prompt liquidation. 
134 
The possibilities of purchase under this scheme 
are greater in Oregon than in Washington. In the 
remaining old-growth timber stands in western 
Washington that are primarily valuable for sawlos 
production, liquidation has gone so far that the 
bulk of the remainder could be bought only at 
high prices including depreciation charges for the 
facilities already installed to cut and manufacture 
this timber at rates materially in excess of sustained- 
yield cutting allowances. This is not true of the 
large areas of pulp-timber types in the coastal 
belt in Washington, but the owners of much of this 
timber may be expected to operate it on a strictly 
private sustained-yield basis. 
Federal timber purchases should be used to con- 
vert existing forest enterprises to a sustained-yield 
basis where this is still possible, and to discourage 
the installation of new liquidating ventures. Pur- 
chases should preferably be made on areas where 
there are definite possibilities for cooperative sus- 
tained-yield management. It is estimated that 
approximately 30 billion board feet could be 
purchased to advantage on this basis at the present 
time. Purchases that would effect complete public 
ownership of forest resourees in a working circle 
should be undertaken only when cooperative 
management has been found impracticable and 
then only if the working circle has particular 
importance for industrial stability. 
Federal timber purchases for the promotion of 
sustained-yield management are an investment of 
Federal funds that would result in substantial local 
benefits in the Douglas fir-region. The counties in 
which such purchases are made will eventually be 
in a much sounder financial condition by reason of 
the industrial stability obtained than if the present 
liquidation process is permitted to run its course. 
However, such purchases adversely affect the im- 
mediate fiscal position of the counties, by removing 
mature timber from the tax rolls. Some plan to 
reimburse the counties, during the adjustment 
period, for tax losses thus caused is apparently 
necessary. 
