FOREST LAND MANAGEMENT 



33 



privately favors burning or is indifferent to it, he is 

 usually aware of sufficient opposition among his neigh- 

 bors so that he will not readily admit being a woods 

 burner himself. 



More than two-thirds of the owners condemn forest 

 burning vigorously, not only on their own land but on 

 any forest land. Roughly one-fifth of the owners are 

 mildly opposed, and only a small fraction of them 

 appears to be indifferent to fires or actually in favor of 

 them. Average annual burn for owners expressing 

 strong opposition to forest fires is less than the bum 

 for owners who express only mild opposition, and 

 much less than the burn for owners who are indifferent 

 or who actually favor fire. 



The stigma attached to woods burning does not ap- 

 ply to the burning of open land. Hence, owners of 

 one-sixth of the forest do not hesitate to say that they 

 burn their fields, chiefly to improve grazing and to 

 clear brush. This is not a measure of the extent of 

 woods burning by landowners, since many owners who 

 burn their fields wish to avoid woods burning. Never- 

 theless, good intentions, unless joined to action, are 

 not effective in preventing fire from getting away into 

 the woods. Owners who burn their fields have a larger 

 annual forest burn than those who do not burn their 

 fields. 



Concepts of Timber Management 



Concepts of what timber management means vary 

 greatly, but the forest landowners can be grouped 

 according to their dominant ideas about timber man- 

 agement. Owners of close to half the private forest 

 apparently have no idea at all; or think it is govern- 



ment nonsense; or have some notion limited to fire 

 protection, or at best, to planting. Most of these own- 

 ers do not recognize that their timber management 

 could be improved. So much forest land under the 

 control of these owners, most of them small owners, 

 points out a vast field for forestry education. 



Clearer ideas, which recognize the need to refrain 

 from complete cutting of all merchantable timber, are 

 held by owners of more than half the private forest. 

 The highest concept of management, that of a high, 

 continuing yield of timber products, is limited to 

 owners of one out of every six acres. Forest-products 

 concerns are the chief owners in the latter group, but 

 owners from many occupation groups are also included. 



That concepts of timber management have a direct 

 bearing on management practice is borne out by the 

 fact that management rating improves steadily as 

 owners' concepts of timber management become more 

 comprehensive and accurate (fig. 33). 



About half of the owners whose management prac- 

 tice rates poor or worse have definite explanations for 

 their poor practices. Most prominent among the ex- 

 planations are the inability of some owners to super- 

 vise forestry operations because of physical limitations 

 or the demands of more remunerative activity; the lack 

 of interest in timber production because other activities 

 are held to be more important; the preference for 

 present high prices over the uncertain prices of the 

 future; and the need to liquidate timber for cash 

 (fig. 34), a motive which may become more compell- 

 ing in the event of economic depression. 



These explanations are frequently a result of mis- 

 conceptions and inadequate understanding of forestry. 



DCDrcMT^c NO CONCEPT 



PERCENT OF (i 499 000 ACRESl 



FOREST AREA d.'fS'i.OUU ALKtb) 



INTERMEDIATE 

 CONCEPT 



HIGHEST CONCEPT 

 (2,307,000 ACRES) 



bO 







|i|ipi 





25 









L , r;:::H 











50 



25 



SO 



25 





EG F P VP D 



EG F P VP D 



E 6 F P VP D 



Figure 33. — Management rating of forest land by owners' concepts of timber management, 1947-48. (£= excellent, G=^good, F=Jair, P=poor, 



¥?"= very poor, D^ destructive.) 



