feet) per acre on the Texas 

 national forests (USDA 

 Forest Service 1985c, 

 unpubl.) These estimates 

 indicate a substantial 

 improvement in growth 

 rates in less than 20 years. 

 Policy statements and 

 management plans in the 

 1930's showed net annual 

 growth rates as low as 14 

 board feet in stands having 

 a sawtimber volume of 

 1 ,000 board feet or more 

 per acre. Although 

 approving one working 

 circle's timber management 

 plan for 1 941 -51 , the Chief's 

 office commented that the 

 expected pine growth of 

 112.4 board feet per acre 

 per year might be a little 

 high (USDA Forest Service 

 1938b, unpubl.). 



The timber harvest in 1952 

 was 504,973,000 board 

 feet, and 40,760 acres of 

 timber-producing lands 

 were regenerated to 

 desirable timber species by 

 planting, seeding, and 

 other artificial measures. 

 Timber stand improvement 

 work to improve the growing 

 condition of established 

 stands was done on another 

 21 5,483 acres. 



conflict, national forest 

 managers were not the 

 only people aware of the 

 rapidly increasing volume 

 and value of the timber 

 being grown on national 

 forest lands acquired and 

 placed under management 

 less than 40 years 

 previously, most of it not 

 even 20 years earlier. With 

 the support of Congressmen 

 and key constituents in 

 congressional districts 

 where Louisiana's Kisatchie 

 National Forest and the 

 National Forests in Texas 

 were located, proposals 

 were made in the late 1 940's 

 and early 1950's to break 

 up and sell the national 

 forests to private parties. 

 One such proposal would 

 have sold 40-acre parcels 

 by lot. A "forty" was an 

 easily identified and 

 understood land unit in the 

 general land survey States 

 but less readily visualized 

 by prospective purchasers 

 of the scattered irregular 

 metes and bounds tracts of 

 national forest land in the 

 other Southern States. The 

 proposals eventually died, 

 apparently for lack of public 

 support, until revived 30 

 years later in another 

 administration. 



Controversy Builds 



As the country returned to 

 a peacetime economy, with 

 a pause during the Korean 



For all these reasons, the 

 period was characterized 

 by tension. Timber stand 

 improvement work, 

 particularly hardwood 



38 



