through concerted action by industry and gov- 
ernment, be put under sustained-yield manage- 
ment during the next 25 to 50 years. 
Future Situation [f Present Trends Continue 
If present trends continue, it is predicted that 
sawlog production will decline greatly during the 
next two or three decades in the Puget Sound, 
Grays Harbor, and Columbia River districts which 
are now being overcut, and will increase corre- 
spondingly in the Willamette River, Oregon coast, 
and south Oregon districts. Determined efforts 
will be made to maintain industries in present 
locations, by drawing on distant localities for raw 
material. 
compete sharply for the remaining old-growth 
Well-established wood-using plants will 
timber within economic transportation limits. 
Logging of large second growth in accessible loca- 
tions when it is making maximum growth will in- 
crease alarmingly. Tax delinquency probably 
will increase greatly on young second-growth and 
recently cut-over areas in the northern and cen- 
tral parts of the region and on old-growth areas in 
the southern part. 
put of lumber and other sawmill products is 
expected for a few years, followed by a gradual 
decrease of such production accompanied by an in- 
An increase in regional out- 
crease in wood-pulp and plywood production. The 
transition from railroad and donkey-engine meth- 
ods of logging to the more flexible truck and tractor 
methods seems certain to proceed at an accelerated 
pace. With all its disadvantages clear cutting will 
undoubtedly continue, but selection cutting of 
Cut- 
ting out of the old growth on private lands in cer- 
various types will become more prevalent. 
tain localities may be expected, particularly in 
north-central Washington and northern Oregon. 
Fire protection upon the increasing acreage of 
highly hazardous cut-over lands will undoubtedly 
become progressively poorer unless State and 
Federal appropriations are increased. 
Fire-protective associations are likely to concen- 
greatly 
trate on protecting the remaining private com- 
mercial saw timber, leaving protection of young 
second-growth and cut-over land to the States. 
The 
efforts to convert forest land to grazing use, par- 
increase of cut-over area will stimulate 
Re) 
ticularly in southern and western Oregon. 
This 
activity may not be confined to deforested lands; 
misguided attempts may be made to convert areas 
of second-growth and old-growth timber to graz- 
ing land. 
Recreational use of public forests, and demands 
for restricting commercial use of recreational areas, 
are increasing greatly, and it may be necessary to 
dedicate additional areas of Federal, State, and 
county forest land to this use. 
Canning and processing of farm products, metal- 
lurgical industries stimulated by Federal power 
projects, pulp and paper manufacture, and other 
industries will undoubtedly expand within the near 
future and absorb some of the workers released by 
the decrease in lumbering in some parts of the re- 
gion. It is expected that an increase will take place 
in local remanufacture of lumber, facilitating dis- 
posal of the lower grades and giving additional 
employment. 
Considerable forest land now privately owned 
will pass into public ownership through tax delin- 
quency. Many counties, particularly in Oregon, 
apparently are reluctant to transfer tax-reverted 
lands to the State or Federal Government, hoping 
that these lands, somehow, may be restored to the 
tax rolls. As time passes and these lands increase in 
extent, county governments will realize that oppor- 
tunities for permanently restoring tax-reverted forest 
to the tax rolls are very limited. 
Stabilizing Forest-Land Ownership 
The following program, although not necessarily 
a complete solution of the problem created by the 
instability of forest-land ownership, would if adopted 
vastly improve the situation: 
1. All Federal forest land chiefly valuable for 
commercial timber production should be managed 
under a uniform policy. 
2. Tax-forfeited lands should be promptly clas- 
sified as to most suitable use and ownership. Forest 
lands judged suitable for public use and ownership 
should be transferred to the State forest agency, and 
those within national-forest boundaries and nation- 
al-forest exchange limits should then be transferred 
to the Forest Service in exchange for Federal lands 
inside State-forest units. 
