rational plan must rest upon analysis and weighing 

 of the relative physical and economic factors which 

 may differ widely tract by tract. 



The most serious obstacle to general adoption of 

 this system has its roots in the concentration of 

 manufacturing capacity in a few localities. Such 

 uneven distribution of sawmills with respect to 

 raw material creates a pressure to cut that makes 

 it seemingly impossible to ration supplies unless 

 ownership is concentrated in a few hands. The 

 outstanding example of this condition is Klamath 

 Falls. It is not likely that mill owners in such 

 localities will drop out of the competitive race for 

 raw material as long as stumpage can be pur- 

 chased. Mills that have been fully depreciated 

 from an accounting standpoint are able to bid 

 higher, other factors being equal, than mills still 

 charging off annual depreciation. As a general 

 rule most mills in the areas of industrial concentra- 

 tion fall in the first category. Sharp competition 

 for stumpage between such mills forces timber on 

 the market and makes sustained-yield operations 

 difficult to establish. Manufacturers holding 

 stumpage reserves, who might operate on a sus- 

 tained-yield basis if they could be assured of obtain- 

 ing additional stumpage at reasonable prices to 

 supplement their own stumpage, are forced into 

 liquidating by the abnormal stumpage price. This 

 results in maintaining high production in the con- 

 centrated industrial areas until the available stump- 

 age is virtually exhausted and a sharp and drastic 

 curtailment is unavoidable — a process repeated 

 time and time again in various other forest regions. 

 Fortunately, in this region the substantial backlog 

 of operable public-owned timber insures a mini- 

 mum continuous production that will at least main- 

 tain forest industries on a reduced scale. The 

 chances of a liquidating operation adopting selec- 

 tive timber-management practices are small. 

 There is no great advantage in this system if 

 liquidation is the objective of an enterprise. 



The size of the manufacturing unit may have 

 some influence on the application of sustained- 

 yield management and selective timber manage- 

 ment. Superficial reasoning would indicate that 

 the mammoth industrial plant with heavy capital 

 investments implies permanency. Actually the 

 reverse may be true. Such plants have large over- 

 head costs and often must maintain high produc- 

 tion during adverse market conditions. Geared to 

 high continuous production during their operating 



life as determined by the period of depreciation, 

 they draw raw material from a wide area. Gen- 

 eral adoption of a light-cutting practice can extend 

 the territory of operations beyond the limits of 

 economical transportation. For these reasons small- 

 and medium-sized manufacturing units would seem 

 to fit better into selective timber-management 

 plans for private operations. 



The most logical means of checking too rapid 

 liquidation is through stabilizing ownership of 

 standing timber. Various methods have been pro- 

 posed to accomplish this end, but the most likely 

 appears to be public acquisition of key properties 

 and organization of cooperative sustained-yield 

 units composed of Federal and private timber. 

 There are a few instances of prospective adoption 

 of sustained-yield policies by private owners whose 

 holdings will make a feasible operating imit. Un- 

 doubtedly stabilization of ownership will promote 

 selective timber management. 



Slash Disposal 



Under the forest practice of the immediate past, 

 involving approximately an 80 to 90 percent cut, 

 slash disposal has been a serious problem and one 

 that has been the subject of intensive study (13). 

 Neither in Oregon nor in Washington have the 

 compulsory slash-disposal laws been enforced as 

 long and as consistently as in the Douglas-fir 

 region. For a number of years they were inter- 

 preted by private operators as requiring burning; 

 and as broadcast burning was cheapest, this meth- 

 od was used. Other methods were considered 

 too costly, although piling and burning was and 

 still is practiced on public lands. Broadcast burn- 

 ing is exceedingly destructive to advanced repro- 

 duction and usually delays forest regeneration 

 several decades or in many instances longer. 



Revision and recent liberal interpretation of the 

 laws permit partial burning and other methods of 

 hazard abatement than burning. Intensive pro- 

 tection of slash as a substitute for burning is now 

 practiced. In spite of this progress, the slash- 

 disposal problem is not satisfactorily solved on all 

 land, and broadcast burning is still practiced on 

 some operations. Widespread adoption of the 

 maturity-selection system or any type of lighter 

 cutting would automatically ease this situation 

 and, if comparatively inexpensive protection were 

 provided, the slash could be left to enrich the soil. 



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