THE flnnUflL UUESTERD UJHITE PIPE CUT 



PRESENT CUT 



AVERAGE 



1935-1938 



ALLOWABLE CUT 



PRESENT 



IF FIRE LOSSES 

 ARE ELIMINATED 



AFTER 2 MORE 

 DECADES OF 

 PRESENT DRAIN 



SHOULD BE 



COULD nOUU BE 



mflY BE in \9S9 



EACH TRUCK REPRESENTS 50 MILLION BOARD FEET (LOG SCALE) 



Figure 39. — TAe more western white pine cut today — aboBe an allowable 140 million board feet — the less there will be for tomorrow. 



it could be advanced now to 166 million board feet. Under 

 proper management, the future production can eventually 

 be stabilized at a still higher level. 



Today there is a shortage ot western white pine stands 

 of the intermediate ages, and there will be a dearth of 

 suitable timber in the future, unless cutting in the present 

 saw-timber stands is so reduced that their volume is 

 spread evenly over the years required for the present 

 young stands to grow to maturity. The estimated allow- 

 able cut of 140 million board teet takes into account this 

 necessary reduction. With the age deficiency reduced, 

 but under present management practices, the present 

 rate of losses trom fire and other causes, and the present 

 acreage of western white pine stands, the sustainable 

 output of western white pine might rise to 200 million 

 board feet per year. It losses were reduced, the sustain- 

 able production would, of course, be still higher. 



If logging continues for another 20 years at the 1935-38 

 rate of 351 million board feet per year, and if the fire loss 

 likewise remains the same, the age deficiencies will be 

 greatly magnified by 1959 (fig. 39). It sustained produc- 

 tion were instituted at that time, the allowable cut would 

 be somewhere near 70 million board feet during the many 

 years which would elapse before this great deficiency 

 could be made up. This is just half ot the present allow- 

 able cut and only one-fifth of the actual 1935-38 pro- 

 duction. 



The Forest Service is committed to sustained-yield 

 production and is cutting 34 million board feet of western 

 white pine annually (1935-38) as against a national- 

 forest capacity of 47 million board feet per year. The 

 great overcut ot western white pine is on lands other than 

 national forests. The present volume ot western white 

 pine on private and State lands is 6.3 billion board teet. 

 It is being logged at the rate of 0.3 billion board feet per 

 year. Thus, considering growth and fire loss, the present 



rate of production on private lands can hardly continue 

 for more than 20 or 25 years. 



The Problem of Reproducing Western White Pine 



Despite disastrous fires and extensive logging in the 

 past, the moimtains of northern Idaho are still green-clad, 

 tor the most part, owing to the remarkable ability of the 

 coniter forest to perpetuate itself. But it is one thing to 

 obtain reproduction and another to secure the proportion 

 ot western white pine in this reproduction needed to 

 maintain the present allowable cut of western white pine. 

 Less than one-third ot the 1.4 million acres ot stocked, 

 cut-over timberland in northern Idaho now contains 

 western white pine stands. Since this species has been 

 the lifeblood of the northern Idaho lumber industry tor 

 three decades, it seems reasonably certain that consider- 

 ably more than one-third of this cut-over area was orig- 

 inally western white pine land. This shrinking area is a 

 real problem of long-time forest management. Unless 

 the full 2.4 million acres of the western white pine type 

 continues to grow western white pine stands, and unless 

 the proportion ot this species continues to be heavy, the 

 preceding management calculations ot sustainable pro- 

 duction are worthless for anything beyond the supply of 

 commercial timber now definitely in sight. 



The reason for this downward trend is threefold: (1) 

 Western white pine reproduces best following single burns 

 which eliminate competing growth, but logging frequently 

 does not remove this competition. Residual stands ot saw- 

 logs, poles, or saplings of other species have retarded the 

 successful development ot western white pine reproduction. 

 (2) In some stands an insufficient number of mature 

 pines has been left tor seed source. And (3) on some areas 

 repeated fires have killed all reproduction that did start. 



Two approaches are open to the problem of reestablishing 

 western white pine following logging where competition 



42 



