Economic considerations prevent some woodland 

 owners from practicing good forest management: 

 some owners are not interested; most need professional 

 assistance. The State Department of Conservation 

 employs several foresters to serve timberland owners 

 that request assistance. These foresters provide a 

 number of services such as cruising timber, marking 

 trees that are ready for harvest, preparing a simple 

 management plan, suggesting possible markets, and 

 ordering planting stock. The foresters now employed 

 are unable to keep up with the requests for such 

 assistance. 



For many years the State Agricultural Extension 

 Service also has worked with forest land owners to 

 improve management and cutting practices. 



Another source of help available to woodland 

 owners is the Agricultural Conservation Program of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture. Wood- 

 land owners may apply to the local county ACP 

 committee for financial assistance in (1) planting 

 trees for erosion control, watershed protection, or 

 forestry purposes, (2) improving a stand of forest trees 

 for erosion control, watershed protection, or forestry 

 purposes, and (3) constructing permanent fences to 

 protect woodlands from grazing. 



Improvement qf Markets and Marketing Practices 



To aid the woodland owner and timber operator in 

 following improved cutting practices, better markets 

 and marketing services than now available are needed. 

 So that volume of commercial importance may be 

 realized, small-w^oodland owners find it necessary to 

 cut heavily. Also, an operator may recognize a num- 

 ber of valuable products on these small woodlands, 

 but may be able to pay for and cut only the timber 

 for the one product he uses. 



Commercial concentration yards could help to in- 

 tegrate operations and provide for more orderly 

 marketing of small quantities of wood products. 

 Commercial loggers would be able to cut trees and 

 obtain the most valuable products if yards \\'ere 

 available where the various products might be con- 

 centrated for shipment. Concentration yards could 

 also help the secondary industries by channeling logs 

 and bolts to their best use. In this way the processing 

 of many high-quality logs into low-value products 

 would be prevented. 



New markets might help some woodland owners 

 and timber operators to follow improved cutting 

 practices. Because many trees are so poor in quality 



that it does not pay the operator to cut them for any 

 product, they are left standing. The woodland 

 owner does not fell or girdle these cull trees because 

 he belie\'es that it is more profitable to spend his time 

 doing other things. 



Indiana does not need any more markets for high- 

 quality wood — it does need them for low-quality \vood. 

 At present such markets are best represented by 

 industries using chipped wood to manufacture roofing 

 felt, insulation board, paper, chemicals, and so on. 

 Wise use of such markets could enable the timber 

 owner to remove culls and low-quality trees from his 

 woods, thereby leaving them in condition to grow 

 more high-quality timber. 



Protection oj Woodlands from Damaging Agents 



Protecting woodlands from fire, insects, diseases, 

 and other damaging agents can help to grow more 



high-quality timber. 



Fire 



Indiana is protecting more than 4 million acres of 

 forest land and old fields from fire. This area is all 

 that is considered necessary to protect. Except for 

 abnormal situations, such as occurred during the 

 1952 fire season, the program to protect Indiana 

 forests from fire is generally considered adequate. 

 Many counties, especially in northern Indiana, have 

 such small, scattered tracts of timber that fire is not a 

 serious problem. Fire is more serious in southern 

 Indiana where the danger is greater and where there 

 is difficulty in maintaining the present program be- 

 cause of increasing costs for labor and equipinent. 

 During the past 10 years the average for the area 

 burned has been less than one-half percent of the 

 protected land. 



Although this area is not great, its acreage could 

 still be reduced because most of the fires in Indiana 

 are man-caused, generally through carelessness. The 

 State Division of Forestry has the largest fire-fighting 

 and prevention organization within the State. The 

 ^Vayne-Hoosier National Forest personnel handles 

 fires on lands within its jurisdiction. These two or- 

 ganizations cooperate \sith each other as the need 

 arises. Since 1942 the State has organized and 

 trained the volunteer Forest Fire Fighters Service. 

 In 1949-50 this Service trained more than 2,500 

 volunteers, mostly high school students, as fire fighters 

 (fig. 35). Continued training of this kind plus the 



26 



Forest Resource Report No. 10, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



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