Regeneration Comes to 

 the Fore 



Managers previously 

 worried about adequate 

 stocking of desired species. 

 Now they had to address 

 stocking controls and 

 thinning regimens and 

 regeneration of 

 second-growth stands now 

 approaching maturity to 

 ensure sustained yields of 

 timber in a steady flow. 



This meant working toward 

 establishing a balanced 

 system of age classes, 

 classifying site quality for 

 various timber species, and 

 applying prescribed 

 silvicultural systems 

 designed to achieve full 

 productivity of those 

 sites-all in keeping with 

 management objectives 

 that stressed multiple use 

 of the resource. The 

 changes in management 

 emphasis and intensity that 

 followed were questioned 

 and even seen as 

 controversial inside and 

 outside the Forest Service. 

 Stage two in the 

 development and 

 management of the 

 southern national forests 

 had begun. 



On the Francis Marion 

 National Forest in South 

 Carolina, large areas of 

 second-growth loblolly and 

 longleaf pine were reaching 



the age and condition where 

 management had to 

 consider regeneration over 

 substantial areas. Under 

 the direction of Forest 

 Supervisor Roland J. 

 Riebold, the Francis Marion 

 became in 1950 the first 

 national forest in the country 

 to adopt even-aged 

 management and regulation 

 entirely by area. Other 

 national forests followed 

 suit as new management 

 plans were developed or 

 old ones revised. 



Not until 1 963 did even-aged 

 management become a 

 matter of policy and 

 direction for the southern 

 national forests. That turning 

 point was rounded at the 

 Southern Region's 1963 

 Even-Aged Management 

 Training Conference, 

 following national direction 

 from the Chief's office in a 

 1962 policy statement 

 developed by Donald J. 

 Morris, a former supervisor 

 of the National Forests in 

 North Carolina. 



In the interim, a number of 

 national forests continued 

 marking and selling timber 

 in accordance with the 

 silvicultural guidelines in 

 earlier management plans, 

 particularly in hardwood 

 and other stands containing 

 several size or age classes. 

 However, in the 1950's, 

 before Donald Morris's 



36 



