Some Approaches to a Better Forest Situation 



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IN VIEW of the recent sharp decline in the forest re- 

 source, the present outlook is for contraction in 

 some of Mississippi's important wood-using indus- 

 tries, reduced income for the people of the State, and 

 inability of the State to contribute its share toward 

 meeting national timber needs. The prospect is that 

 products such as softwood lumber, standard hardwood 

 lumber, veneer logs, and tight cooperage will be hit 

 heaviest, but softwood pulpwood and other products 

 may also go into decline. 



The situation calls for immediate substantial im- 

 provements in timber management and utilization. 

 Even a moderately good general level of timber man- 

 agement and eflficient utilization may not avoid a tem- 

 porary contraction in the output of some products, 

 but at least the prospective reductions can be mini- 

 mized while the forest begins recovery and a start is 

 made toward timber abundance. 



Mississippi's forest problems are centered on the 90 

 percent of the forest which is in private ownership. 

 Although most of the large industrial holdings and 

 some of the smaller properties are under good timber 

 management, the general level of private forest man- 

 agement is poor. This could be deduced from inven- 

 tory trends. It is also shown to be fact by a separate 

 analysis of management practices — an examination of 

 cutting practice, fire protection, and, in the south, 

 grazing protection. Little more than a fourth of the 

 forest held by Mississippi's 146,000 private landowners 

 rates fair or better in respect to management; nearly 

 three-fourths rates poor or worse. 



Improved Utilization 



Forest industry has made many adjustments leading 

 to the use of smaller and poorer quality timber and 

 less desired species. These adjustments will probably 

 be carried much further. As the sawlog inventory 

 shrinks, a larger proportion of the total cut may be 

 taken from cordwood and small sawlog sizes. As the 



volume of higher grade timber shrinks, industry will 

 need to accept more of the lower grade trees. As the 

 more valuable species become less plentiful, industry 

 faces the alternative of using less desired species. The 

 shifts from pine to hardwood use that have occurred 

 already do not help the forest situation much, since 

 hardwood is declining at least as rapidly as pine in the 

 grades and species demanded. 



Integration of logging operations so as to utilize dif- 

 ferent parts of a tree for diflferent products is a promis- 

 ing way of stretching out the resource. A case in point 

 is combining pulpwood and sawlog operations in pine 

 stands, so that the tree tops commonly left in the woods 

 by sawlog operators are utilized for pulpwood. A 

 year's accumulation of usable pine tops amounts to 

 about a fifth of the total pulpwood output. At pres- 

 ent this type of joint logging is practiced on only a 

 small fraction of sawlog operations. Similarly, in 

 hardwood stands, the resource can be extended by 

 integrating the production of sawlogs and veneer logs 

 with the output of smaller products like tie logs and 

 slack cooperage bolts. 



Products with exacting requirements can be given 

 first call on timber of the requisite quality. Hardwood 

 trees, suitable for quality veneer, need not be cut for 

 sawlogs or cooperage bolts, and trees suitable for 

 veneer, sawlogs, or cooperage bolts need not be taken 

 for fuel wood. 



Thinnings improve the spacing of crop trees and 

 remove the trees least likely to develop into good tim- 

 ber. By concentrating the growth on the best trees, 

 they are an important silvicultural tool. At the same 

 time they suggest one of the best approaches toward 

 extending the forest resource. Thinnings can provide 

 a large volume of wood for pulpwood and minor 

 products such as fuel wood, without reducing the in- 

 ventory for more exacting products. 



This opportunity is understood by the pulp com- 

 panies, some of the large lumber companies, and other 

 landowners, who use it profitably on their own lands. 



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