Lvists. The residual timber mav be felled and burned and 

 rhe area may then be planted or allowed to reproduce 

 naturally. Or a sufficient portion of the residual stand 

 may be disposed ot to permit the establishment of western 

 white pine from a continuing seed source in well-distrib- 

 uted pine trees, supplemented to some extent by seed 

 stored in the forest floor. Either approach is costly, the 

 ff)rmer probably the more so. Yet it cannot be em- 

 phasized too stronglv that unless some such practices as 

 these are generally adopted, the western white pine 

 industry will operate on a shrinking base. 



The Forest Service has met this problem in part, al- 

 though not all ot the logged areas in the national forests 

 have reseeded with western white pine. In general, the 

 present policy is to avoid cutting saw-timber stands con- 

 taining a substantial volume ot sound trees ot other species. 

 The thought behind this policv is that the prices tor the 

 secondary species may improve sufficiently within the 

 coming vears to make them marketable. In such event, 

 the problem ot opening up the stands and obtaining western 

 white pine reproduction would be partly solved. Under 

 current practice on the national forests, the purchasers of 

 timber deposit money in a special fund to be used tor stand 

 improvement work. This involves disposal of such de- 

 tective saw timber and suppressed hemlock and grand fir 

 as interfere with the reestablishment ot western white pine. 



Because of limited finances, the stand-improvement 

 work on the national forests is confined to the best of the 

 cut-over land. Although very little disposal work has 

 been done on private lands, many cut-over tracts are 

 coming back to western white pine. This is primarily 

 because heavv logging has created conditions generallv 

 favorable for the species' regeneration, and there has 

 happened to be an adequate seed source. No data are 

 available to indicate what proportion ot the area logged in 

 recent vears has passed from western white pine to some 

 other type. 



The economics of the situation undoubtedlv does not 

 warrant the attempt to perpetuate western white pine on 

 all areas originally carrying stands ot this species. The 

 private owner may reasc^nably be expecteti so to protect 

 his land during logging as to leave a green forest cover. It 

 would seem unreasonable, ho\ve\er, to demand that he cut 

 and burn at dead-weight expense a large volume of un- 

 marketable residual timber purely to benefit reproduction 

 in which he has no immediate interest. F.ven the public 

 is not justified in spending the many dollars necessarv to 

 rid all ot its logged land of inferior timber to make way for 

 western white pine reproiiuction. 



Local Aspects 



The past heavy logging in the Satuipoint and Cocur 

 d'.Alcne-St. Joe districts makes the attainment of sus- 

 taineii-vicld management much less likelv in these localities 



than in the Clearwater district. The age itehcicncies ar<. 

 greater. .Also, the western white pine saw-timber stands 

 which remain are much lower in quality and volume per 

 acre than those which have already been logged. .Asa result, 

 the allowable cut of western white pine for all ot northern 

 Idaho except the Clearwater district is 64 million board 

 feet per year, whereas it overutilization had not taken 

 place, and even with the present rate of fire loss, the 

 allowable cut would be something more than 100 million 

 feet. It will be a long time before these deficiencies can 

 be made up and a cut ot IW million feet or more sustained. 

 In the period 1935-38 the cut of western white pine outside 

 the Clearwater district averaged 159 million board feet 

 annually. 



A general feeling exists that the greater the volume of 

 saw timber in any given area the more fortunate are the 

 industry and the commimities ot that locality. From 

 the public standpoint and over a long period ot time it is 

 probably more correct to consider an excessive volume of 

 saw timber as a liability. It might be compared to giving 

 the average improvident man his lite income in one lump. 

 The situation in the Clearwater district is a case in point. 

 Fiftv-four percent ot this area contains stands over 100 

 years ot age. Yet the cutting budget tor p>ermanent 

 operation is comparatively little greater than it there were 

 only a small fraction ot that amount ot saw timber and all 

 the age classes were properly represented. Thus, to the 

 average operator, this great excess of saw timber offers 

 little except a temptation it not necessity to cut out 

 and get out. 



The average annual cut of western white pine in the 

 Clearwater district during the peritKl 1935-38 was 192 

 million board feet. In the perio«.l 1931-38, which includes 

 the low depression vears, the cut was 145 million. The 

 allowable cut ot western white pine from all lands in 

 the Clearwater district is only ~1 million board feet per 

 year."' There exists, however, in this locality a real 

 opportunity to make scientific forest management pay. 

 A large area contains young western white pinesaw-timber 

 stands ideally suited to partial cutting. The western 

 white pine trees remaining after juiiicious logging of this 

 type increase rapidly in size and value, so that a second 

 profitable cut can be made in j"K>ssibly 20 to 40 vears. 

 Ihis requires more than leaving the trees; those to be left 

 must be carefully selected. If full advantage is taken of 

 this opportunity for partial cutting it is jxissible that the 

 present .illowable cut might l>e raised as much as 20 jxt- 



'- 1: will be tuitcii that the allowahlc cut nl the Clearwater liisiricc 

 aiidctl to that ol the rest ot northern Idaho talis several million boani 

 feet short of the .illowable cut as calculatevi tor northern Idaho as a single 

 unit. This apparent discrepancy results because, in the lacier case, the 

 surplus of saw timber in the Clearwater district compensates Itir shi" 

 ages elsewhere, but for the Clearwater district by itself the surplus dix-» 

 not materially increase the allowable cut. 



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