tucky is and probably always will be hardwood, 

 special mention should be made of the softwood 

 timber resource. The amount of pine in hardwood 

 stands on sites adapted to pine can be increased by: 

 (1) Releasing pine reproduction overtopped by hard- 

 woods, (2) planting pine in appropriate openings in 

 hardwood stands that have no adequate pine seed 

 source, and (3) cutting hardwoods heavily where 

 pine seed trees are available to establish a new crop. 

 To encourage timberland owners to practice 

 forestry, some States are deferring or reducing taxes 

 on forest land and timber crops. Since owners of 

 young timber usually must wait a number of years 

 to harvest a crop, tax deferment may be a matter 

 of equity as well as an inducement to grow trees. 

 Although the initial cost of stand improvement may 

 seem high to some woodland owners, tax deferment 

 or reduction might encourage them to go ahead 

 with such work. 



Protect the Forest from Fire, Insects, and Disease 



Uncontrolled fire in a forest retards tree growth, 

 kills reproduction, paves the way for insect and 

 I disease attacks, and— because of the resulting rot- 

 lowers the quality and reduces the volume of mer- 

 chantable material. Much of Kentucky's forest is 

 understocked because fire killed the young trees. 

 Almost all fires in Kentucky are man-caused and 

 can be prevented. In 1951, debris burning, smoking, 

 and incendiarism caused 82 percent of the fires. 

 Reducing fires alone will go far toward increasing 

 '.he stocking and reducing the annual loss due to 

 fire, insects, and disease. 



Kentucky is making progress in its program to pro- 

 tect its forests from fire. In 1942, when only about 

 1 1/-2 million acres were under organized protection, 

 the State had 6,751 fires— 6,000 of them on unpro- 

 tected land. More than 633,000 acres burned that 

 year but only 33,000 acres were on protected area. 

 In 1951 more than 5,600,000 acres of forest land 

 were systematically protected from fire. On this area 

 some 14,000 acres burned dining 1951. Of the 

 6,200,000 acres of forest land still in need of or- 

 ganized protection from fire, about 238,000 acres 

 burned in 1951. 



Some 670,000 acres were added to the protected 

 area in 1952. Organized protection from fire should 

 also be extended to the remaining 5,500,000 acres 

 in need of protection. All forest land would then 

 be under organized protection, except an estimated 



Kentucky's Forest Resources and Industries 



100,000 acres in scattered small woodlands in the 

 heart of the Bluegrass region. 



Discourage Livestock Grazing on Timberland 



Grazing as commonly practiced in hardwood for- 

 ests kills reproduction of desirable tree species, de- 

 creases giowth and increases cull in the surviving 

 trees; in extreme cases it exposes tree roots to 

 trampling and other injury, compacts the soil, and 

 destroys ground litter and humus (fig. 37). The 

 degree of damage, of course, depends upon the in- 

 tensity of grazing. Studies conducted in Indiana (/) 

 and Illinois have shown that woodland forage is 

 inferior to that on cleared pasture both in quantity 

 and in nutrition. However, further research is 

 needed in Kentucky to determine whether some de- 

 gree of livestock grazing may be compatible with 

 optimum timber production and watershed pro- 

 tection. 



If a landowner chooses to grow hardwood tim- 

 ber, livestock should be kept out of his woodlands. 

 If he prefers to produce forage rather than timber, 

 he should convert the area to pasture— provided, of 

 course, that it is suitable for such use. The possi- 

 bility of erosion must always be considered. Badly 

 eroded areas and slopes too steep to be held in place 

 under ordinary pasture use should be restored to 

 forest cover and not grazed. 



Encourage Integrated Harvesting, Marketing, and 

 Utilization Systems 



Effective marketing of timber in Kentucky is 

 difficult, partly at least, because of the pattern of 

 small woodland ownerships. A commercial opera- 

 tor may recognize a number of valuable products 

 on these small woodlands, but can afford only to 

 pay for and cut the timber for the one product he 

 uses. Concentration yards and cooperative harvest- 

 ing and marketing systems might lead to more 

 orderly and profitable marketing of timber from 

 small woodlands. Also, because most woodland 

 owners cut timber so seldom, ordinarily they can- 

 not own equipment to handle heavy timber prod- 

 ucts. Cooperative ownership might enable a num- 

 ber of woodland owners to own such equipment 

 and to have a better income from their woods by 

 harvesting and marketing the timber themselves. 



Much of the timber in Kentucky is low in quality, 

 so it is difficult to sell and brings a low price at best. 



33 



