Major Forestry PrnJ)Jems 



Liquidation of virgin timber, closing of large 

 sawmills and logging camps, and subsequent shifts 

 in landownership have led to some serious economic 

 difficulties in parts of the region. 



Not only the counties and other local tniits of 

 government, but the States as well, have been 

 affected by declining revenue from forest lands and 

 forest industries. Also, the States have had to 

 absorb some of the bond indebtedness of cut-over 

 taxing districts, and to provide large aids for educa- 

 tion, roads, and relief (12, 17, 25 , 35). These bur- 

 dens have impaired the ability of States and units 

 of local government to engage in full-scale forest 

 management. 



The present mixed pattern of forest ownership 

 complicates the job of initiating sustained-yield 

 forest management; that is, management of timber- 



I lands for steady and more or less equal annual 



jl yields coordinated with the needs of dependent 

 industries. 



Ptiblic agencies, although holding large acreages 

 of cut-over land, do not have their properties well 

 consolidated; they lack control of strategic areas 

 needed to round out sustained-yield management 



i units. 



1 Forest industries, with a very few exceptions, do 

 not control sufficient timberland to operate inde- 

 pendently on a sustained-yield basis. Large kmiber 

 companies continue to drop out as their timber 

 holdings disappear. Ptilp companies and most 



j other wood-using indtistries are dependent upon 

 purchases of wood and stinnpage for the greater 



[part of their requirements. 



I Thousands of individuals— farmers, summer home 



I owners, speculators, and others— plus a few large 

 mining companies and estates, control most of the 

 privately owned timberland in the Lake States. 



,They have a wide variety of aims, and very few have 



jbeen interested in timber growing as a business. 



On the luilization side, the region has excess 

 mill capacity in industries consuming favored spe- 

 cies, a condition which leads to intensive competi- 

 tion for certain woods, high prices, and overcutting 

 in the forest. It has too few industries adapted to 

 use the species and sizes of timber now available in 

 surplus quantities, or to salvage woods and mill 

 waste. 



To be able to deal with these complex and 

 difficult problems intelligently, and to initiate a 

 program for forest improvement, people in the 

 Lake States will need specific information on (1) 

 what the significant facts are as to the present con- 

 dition of forest lands, the qtiantities of timber re- 

 maining, the present rate of cutting, and present 

 rate of growth; (2) who ovv'ns this timber and how 

 the owners treat it; (3) what the wood-using indus- 

 tries amoimt to, and ho^v much of a drain they 

 make on the forest now and prospectively; and (4) 

 the present and estimated reqtiirements for forest 

 products in this region. 



With these facts as a background, the people of 

 the Lake States will be able to find an approximate 

 answ^er to these two major questions: 



1. What is a logical goal in timber production in 

 the Lake States? In dealing with this, they must 

 give consideration to the region's relation to other 

 wood-producing regions and to large wood-consum- 

 ing centers as well as to the needs of the Lake 

 States region itself. They must also seek a balance 

 between present and futine needs for forest products 

 and a balance between commodity requirements and 

 other forest services. Moreover, they inust keep 

 their aims within the bounds of financial feasibility. 



2. What forestry practices luill be needed to ac- 

 complish the proposed goal within a reasotiable 

 period of time? Some steps will be necessary to 

 Ijuild tip the growing stock and establish a balanced 

 division of age classes so that future yields will be 

 not only larger but also steady from year to year and 

 consist of the species and kinds of wood desired. 



Forest Resources of the Lake States Region 



