poor survival and growth, 

 the sand pine orchard was 

 later moved to the Ocala. 



The pine program that 

 began with the first 

 selections in 1961 was 

 essentially completed by 

 1 967. The original selections 

 recognized 38 

 species-geographic source 

 combinations consisting of 

 loblolly, longleaf, sand, 

 shortleaf, slash, Virginia, 

 and eastern white pine. 

 The hardwood program 

 started in 1 968 contains 

 black oak, white oak, 

 northern red oak, chestnut 

 oak, cherry, and 

 yellow-poplar selections 

 (Kitchens 1985). 



The original objective of the 

 tree-improvement program 

 was the eventual 

 replacement of existing 

 timber-producing stands 

 with improved trees from 

 superior tree selections. 

 That objective proved to be 

 more idealistic than practical 

 or realistic and was modified 

 a few years later to 

 recognize the role of natural 

 regeneration for many 

 stands and sites. 



The Wilderness Act-On 

 September 3, 1964, the 

 Wilderness Act was passed. 

 By that act the Linville Gorge 

 Wild Area in the Pisgah 

 National Forest was legally 

 designated a Wilderness. 



The stage was set for the 

 Eastern Wilderness Act of 

 1975 and Roadless Area 

 Reviews I and II. Those 

 acts and reviews were to 

 have a significant impact 

 on the area of commercial 

 forest land in the national 

 forests. 



Harvests Increase -Within 

 the decade though, annua! 

 timber harvests continued 

 to increase steadily in spite 

 of market fluctuations. The 

 volume of timber sold in 1 

 year passed 1 billion board 

 feet in 1 970. By the end of 

 that year, the annual timber 

 harvest was approaching 1 

 billion board feet from the 

 10,764,000 acres of 

 commercial forest land still 

 open to timber production. 

 The value of the 921 ,923,000 

 board feet harvested that 

 year was $23,946,596 

 (USDA Forest Service 

 1985a, unpubl., and 1985c, 

 unpubl.). 



Of nearly 1.5 million acres 

 successfully regenerated 

 by artificial means since 

 1933, over 1 million acres 

 had been planted or 

 seeded, mostly to pine. 

 During that same period, 

 approximately 6 million 

 acres of growing timber 

 stands had been released, 

 precommercially thinned, 

 pruned, fertilized, or 

 prescription burned for 

 understory species control 



42 



