cost ?19,000,000. Because of the great values at stake 

 fire protection is something which cannot be done without, 

 and blister rust control is almost as essential. 



Of the commercial forest, 59 percent, including 45 per- 

 cent of the commercial white pine, is privately owned. 

 The management of private land constitutes the biggest 

 forest problem in northern Idaho. The timber operator 

 is faced with such heavy protection charges, high risk, and 

 inequitable taxation as to make the practice of forestry of 

 doubtful permanence. In many cases, his sawmill is 

 larger than his forest can support. He is not able to log 

 at a profit more than a small part ot the abundant resource 

 of secondary species. These facts tend to make liquidation 

 a far more attractive proposition than a permanent timber 

 business. But, most important ot all for the virgin forest 

 with its high proportion ot saw timber, the advantages of 

 quick "cashing in" exceed any case which can be built for 

 permanent forestry. Several ot the contributory factors 

 may change, but the present outlook tor private forestry 

 on a very large part ot the area is not bright. 



The situation with regard to the State-owned forest land 

 is, at present, only slightly more satisfactory. Nine per- 

 cent of the commercial forest, including 18 percent of the 

 white pine saw timber, is owned by the State. Despite 

 the importance ot this timber area, it is not yet managed 

 on a perpetual-cut basis. On the other hand, the national 

 forests are being operated on such a basis. They occupy 

 47 percent ot the commercial forest area and include 36 

 percent ot the white pine saw timber. 



Although there may be some difference ot opinion re- 

 garding the major factors contributing to the local forest 

 situation and even wider difference as to the remedies, the 

 general obiectives of forest-land management seem fairly 

 clear. Forest-land management should make its maximum 

 contribution to the welfare ot the people — not trees for 

 trees' sake, but trees for the greatest social good. The 

 threefold local problem, therefore, is (1) to furnish adequate 

 raw material to stabilize forest industries and communities 

 at the highest possible level; (2) to afford the maximum 

 protection to the vast watershed, in retarding water runoff 

 and reducing erosion; and (3) to make the most of recrea- 

 tional opportunities offered by wooded areas. 



The most serious phase of this problem is the necessity 

 for making the timber furnish a permanent substantial 

 income to the people of northern Idaho. This area 

 already has had communities dislocated and people 

 stranded because of the crumbling of the lumber industry 

 beneath them. This report is concerned 'primarily with 

 ways of making the forests return the maximum income to 

 the local people. Although watershed protection and 

 forest recreation receive less emphasis in the following 

 pages, their great social and economic importance is also 

 recognized. 



Realism is the zone ot hard common sense separating 

 defeatism from unwarranted optimism. It is the intent 



of this report to stay within that zone. No aspect of the 

 forest problem is insurmountable if the need and desire 

 are sufficiently great, but no very satisfactory outcome 

 may be expected unless an aggressive effort is made to 

 solve the problem. It is not possible at this time to 

 advance the complete solution, but from the' marshaling 

 of the facts in their proper relation to each other a clearer 

 understanding and a sounder action can develop. 



A reasonable compromise between theory and prac- 

 ticality in the northern Idaho situation would be: 



1. To increase the effort to make permanent private 

 forestry possible through greater public cooperation with 

 the private owner. 



2. To insist that all forest lands be so handled as to 

 keep them in a productive condition. In some cases this 

 will mean a tightening of regulations affecting the private 

 operator. 



3. To accept the fact that the present heavy cutting of 

 privately owned western white pine saw timber will 

 probably continue over much ot northern Idaho, and to 

 act accordingly. 



4. To hold back the sale of publicly owned western white 

 pine saw timber as much as practicable, but to develop 

 cooperative sustained-yield units wherever feasible. 



5. To push State or Federal acquisition of forest lands 

 which are definitely imsuited tor private ownership. 



Methods of the Survey 



The timber and land inventory of northern Idaho was 

 begun in 1932, and within 5 years the field work was com- 

 pleted. \^'herever obtainable, private and public informa- 

 tion on the condition, species, and volume of timber was 

 checked, and adjusted to Forest Survey standards. Areas 

 of merchantable timber not so covered were cruised by the 

 line-plot method, or "washed in" with adjacent cruised 

 areas, or the volumes were determined by ocular estimate. 

 Whether the first or one ot the latter two methods was used 

 depended upon the value of the timber. 



Type maps were made tor the entire area. Field men 

 covered the country systematically, demarcating the non- 

 forest land from the forest land, commercial forest land n 

 from the noncommercial, the western white pine type from 

 the ponderosa pine type, and so on into many classifica- 

 tions. The finished product for each township was a map -fl 

 showing the boundaries of the types and the forest type, 

 age, stocking, size class, site quality, and board-foot i 



volume of each stand. From this information, the volume 

 and area inventory estimates summarized in this report 

 were compiled. 



Growth estimates were computed from normal-growth 

 tables adjusted to actual stand conditions on the basis ot a 

 growth study made in 1937-38 that included the measure- 

 ment of the preceding 20-year growth on 272 one-fifth-acre 

 sample plots established in representative areas. 



