furnish approximately three-fifths of the region's total lumber cut. Production in these two units must 

 be reduced to about one-third of their present levels within three decades, if present trends continue. 



5 Immediate adoption of sustained yield would mean drastic reductions in the cut of principal lumber- 

 manufacturing centers. In spite of present sacrifice involved in reducing the cut now the longer such 

 reduction is postponed the greater will be the shock of eventual curtailment enforced by lack of merchantable 



raw material. . 



6 The forest industries are the only manufacturing industries of any importance in this region. 



7 Forest lands of this region are valuable for many purposes other than timber production. These 

 include furnishing summer range for the important livestock industry and the protection of watersheds 

 which furnish water for irrigation of the most intensively farmed land in the region. 



8. This region has 22.1 million acres of forest land, which is one-third of its total land area. Nearly 

 three-fourths of the forest land is commercial conifer land. 



9. A total of 13.4 million acres is occupied by stands of saw-timber size, of which 10.4 million acres or 

 78 percent supports ponderosa pine forests. 



10 Second-growth conifers occupy 3.7 million acres, 43 percent well stocked, 42 percent medium 

 stocked, and 15 percent poorly stocked. Only 0.3 million acres is totally deforested as a result of cutting 



OT ^l' The region's total saw-timber stand is 127.1 billion board feet, log scale, Scribner rule of which 

 81 5 billion board feet or 64 percent is ponderosa pine. Next is Douglas-fir with 18.5 billion board feet, 

 followed by western larch with 6.7 and white fir with 6.4 billion board feet. 



12. Total cubic volume in trees 5 inches and larger in breast-high diameter is 30.8 billion cubic feet. 

 Roughly 80 percent of this volume is in trees of saw-timber size. _ . 



13 Approximately half the region's forest land and saw-timber volume is m national forests, about 

 one-third is privately owned, and the remainder is in other public or Indian ownership 



14 Annual gross drain on saw-timber stands is 2.6 billion board feet. Approximately half results from 

 cutting and half results from destruction by insects, fire, wind, and disease 



15 Approximately 1.1 billion board feet, or 87 percent of the total cutting depletion, was in the form 

 of sawloes More than three-fourths of this was cut in Oregon. 



T6 Current annual gross growth is 1.1 billion board feet. Mortality from insects, wind throw, and 

 disease is believed to offset growth in mature stands and a portion of growth in immature stands, thus 

 reducing current annual net growth to 219 million board feet. 



%o2l: pine suffers 87 percent of total cutting depletion but provides only 48 P-cn^aM^ 

 current net growth" four-fifths of the drain is from trees 22 inches and larger, whereas only one-fifth of 

 the total net growth is furnished by trees of these sizes. 



8 Current growth can be increased by conversion of nongrowing mature forests to growing condition 

 This can be don! most effectively by selective timber management. There is a dearth of saw-timber size 



gr °t9 nS OnTy k one-third of the region total of ponderosa pine saw timber is in private ownership, but two- 

 thirds of the drain on this species is from private timber. 



