Forest Protection 



Unless adequate protection against fire, insects, 

 and disease can be assured, opportunity for private 

 forestry will be narrowly limited. Fire is usually 

 the greatest forest enemy, but in this region forest 

 insects have in some years caused destruction equal 

 to the volume of cut. The individual private owner 

 is helpless and cooperative action on the part of 

 public and private agencies is essential to meet this 

 problem. In the main the Federal Government 

 will have to assume the greatest burden. Added 

 expenditures for research and annual surveys to 

 discover impending epidemics are needed. When 

 epidemics threaten, provision must be made for 

 control by concerted action on the part of private, 

 State, and Federal agencies. 



A fire-protection system is in force that with some 

 additional expenditure should keep losses to a 

 reasonable minimum. It is increasingly evident 

 that additional funds needed to provide satisfactory 

 fire control must come from the Federal Govern- 

 ment. The Clarke-McNary Act provides the ma- 

 chinery for giving aid and the maximum additional 

 appropriations for which it provides should be 

 made. This would still fall short of funds needed, 

 however; the authorization must be increased be- 

 fore adequate aid can be given. 



Forest Management 



Unsolved problems in the actual physical man- 

 agement of the resource are no serious impedi- 

 ment to public or private forestry. Known 

 methods and tools of forest management are far 

 in advance of their application. Employment of 

 recently developed tools and methods of fire 

 control is limited by the inability of the forest 

 owner to pay higher protection costs. Critical 

 examination shows that many so-called manage- 

 ment problems really stem from economic malad- 

 justments, which frequently prohibit use of the 

 best method of cutting to obtain regeneration and 

 improved slash disposal methods that research 

 and trial have developed. Research may show, 

 however, as in the case of the maturity-selection 

 system, that adoption of improved silvicultural 

 practice results in immediate pecuniary rewards. 



A fundamental measure has been proposed by 

 Keen (8), namely, consideration of insect sus- 



ceptibility in selecting trees to be cut. Foresters 

 generally agree that light selection cutting is best 

 in managing ponderosa pine forest. However, the 

 silvicultural, economic, and entomological factors 

 cannot always be harmonized perfectly in select- 

 ing trees to be cut. When conflicts occur, de- 

 cision must be made on the basis of the economical- 

 ly feasible procedure that will benefit the forest 

 most in the long run. Continued studies of growth 

 and mortality following various types of selective 

 cutting are needed to furnish information to guide 

 the selection of the trees that will best serve this 

 objective. 



Achievement of full productive capacity rests on 

 utilization of species other than pine, which make 

 up one-third of the region's growing stock and 

 potential growth. Research in utilization of these 

 species, now little used, is urgently needed. 



Studies in thinning and pruning ponderosa pine 

 stands are now being conducted. Possibly results 

 of these studies may not be applied for many years 

 but it is desirable that research be well in advance 

 of application. 



Economic Problems 



Obviously, stability of forest-land ownership is 

 fundamental to stability of forest management 

 during transition from liquidation to sustained 

 yield. Once sustained-yield management is firmly 

 established, interruption in continuity of tenure 

 will be less important. Partial removal of certain 

 economic obstacles to stable private ownership 

 would probably result in immediate adoption of 

 sustained-yield management on the part of certain 

 private timber owners who have sufficient timber 

 to form an operating unit. Others, who have only 

 sufficient timber to make the nucleus of an opera- 

 tion, would have to negotiate cooperative agree- 

 ments with Federal or State governments or pur- 

 chase additional timber from other private owners. 

 Owners possessing only a small volume of timber 

 would probably continue the same general course 

 followed in the past. Some manufacturers would 

 find their plants entirely too large to be operated 

 continuously; in such cases adjustments in plant 

 capacity would have to be made. 



Chief among the economic problems, in some 

 respects interrelated, are taxation, difficulty of 



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