good protection and management in young forests, 

 there is danger of a hiatus between the last cut of okl 

 timber and the first substantial yields from the new. 

 This gap can be disastrous to forest industries. 



6. Long-run potentialities of the Lake States 

 forests are good. With good management over a 

 period of 70 years, the Lake States forests could l)e 

 made to yield twice as much cubic volume annually 

 as at present and two and one-half times as much 

 saw-timber volume. Later they could yield even 

 more. 



To attain the larger yields, of course, will require 

 definite improvements in forest management. 



7. Mixed and unstable ownership complicates 

 forest management. Publicly controlled forest 

 land, amounting to 41 percent of the total, is 

 administered by a number of different Federal, 

 State, and local agencies, with somewhat differing 

 policies and objectives. Some is widely scattered 



land not yet under any definite plan of management. 

 Some northern counties, custodians of large acreages 

 of cut-over forest land, for financial reasons are 

 unable to give the lands the kind of care required. 

 Only about 1 1 percent of the privately owned 

 j forest land is controlled by forest industries. The 

 ■ rest is held by thousands of farmers and other inde- 

 pendent landowners. Relatively little of it is being 

 j:held for permanent forest management. In some 

 flocalities, a heavy general property tax or uncer- 

 tainty as to future taxes tends to discourage private 

 ■forest management. Special yield tax provisions in 

 'State laws frequently are inoperative because of 

 Uocal objections. 



Public and private lands are rather extensively 

 intermingled. This mixed ownership inakes it 

 necessary for wood-using industries to draw their 

 wood supplies from a variety of sources. Because 

 of a lack of integration of cutting plans, the flow of 

 Iwood from these sources tends to be irregidar— a 

 situation unfavorable for both the industries and 

 the local people engaged in woods work. 



Specific Measures Needed to Gain Objectives 

 \ To build up the forests for larger future yields 

 and at the same time to provide for the essential 

 needs of going industries will require a constructive 

 program along several lines. 



1. Measures to extend life of merchantable stands. 



Opening inaccessible flr^r/v.— Remote tracts where 

 iiiiature and overmature timber is going to waste 

 ishould be opened up for marketing as rapidly as 



Forest Resources of the Lake States Region 



feasible. Through (onsi ruction of access roads to 

 a few large areas and to innumerable small tracts, 

 a considerable volume of additional timber can be 

 put on the market and will remove some of the pres- 

 siue from the more accessible areas. 



Repeated partial cutting.— It has been demon- 

 strated on both public and private forests lluu 

 selective logging, either for sustained yields or for 

 progressive liquidation, is piacticable in northern 

 hardwoods and will add substantially to the total 

 yield over a 20- or 30-year period. 



Sliift fro/n softwoods to Itardwoods.— Industries 

 must find ways to use more aspen, elm, paper birch, 

 red maple, beech, etc., while reducing their use of 

 pine, spruce, and preferred hardwoods. In some 

 localities hemlock and balsam fir are fairly abundant 

 but generally only the hardwoods are in surplus. 

 The forests can support some new industries of the 

 right sort, but will be hurt by additions which make 

 further demands upon declining species. 



Iinproxied utilization .—\\th.ot\ii).\ the Lake States 

 region has advanced farther than most in utilizing 

 small and defective timber, it should go even farther. 

 Research agencies, as well as loggers and mill men, 

 should concentrate on possibilities for using more 

 short logs, tops, and large limbs now going to 

 waste in the woods, and also upon practicaljle plans 

 for more closely integrating the woods and mill 

 o]X'rations of different industries (fig. 44). 



F — 445446 



Figure AA.— Yields can be substantially increased by closer 

 utilization. Pile of low-grade logs on farm forty in north- 

 ern Michigan to be used as chemical wood. 



2. Measures to stimulate development of yoimg 

 stands. Anything which will stimulate growth and 

 hasten the maturing of present sapling, pole, and 

 second-growth saw-timber stands will help to bridge 

 the threatened gap in supplies and thus aid in 

 stabilizing industries. Several possibilities deserve 

 attention. 



49 



