FOREST PROTECTION 



217 



Table 133.^ — Catastrophic timber destruction in continental United States since 1900 



Major cause 



States 



Date 



Approxi- 

 mate 

 volume 

 killed 



Approxi- 

 mate 

 volume 

 salvaged 



Propor- 

 tion of 

 killed 

 volume 

 salvaged 



Insects: 



Spruce budworm _ _ - . . . _ 



New England 



Lake States 



1910-19 

 1913-26 

 1911-35 

 1921-37 

 1931-37 

 1940-51 



Million 



bd.-ft. 



8, 000 



5, 800 



15, 000 



12, 600 



6,000 



5,000 



Million 

 bd.-ft. 

 900 

 (') 



50 

 (') 

 (') 

 2 29 



Percent 



Spruce budworm 





Mountain pine beetle _ - 



Idaho-Montana 





Western pine beetle 



Oregon 





W^estern pine beetle 



California 





Engelmann spruce beetle 



Colorado 











Total - - - -- - - 



52, 400 



979 



2 





Washington 



1902 

 1910 

 1933 





Fire: 



Yacolt fires - . . . 



12, 000 



8,000 



11, 830 



1,000 



800 



2 5, 000 





Idaho-Montana fires 



Idaho- Montana 





TOlamook burn . - _ 



Oregon . _ _ 











Total - 



31, 830 



6,800 



21 





Washington . 



1921 

 1938 



1949-52 





Wind: 



Olympic l)lo\vdo\vn . . . _ . 



5,000 



2, 650 



12, 000 



200 

 1,250 



2 1,000 





New England hurricane 



New England 





Douglas-fir blowdown and bark beetle 

 attack - - 



Oregon- Washington 









Total - -- - 



19, 650 



2, 450 



12 





Northern _ . _ _ 



1912-24 

 1925-40 





Disease : 



Chestnut blight - - -- 



13, 396 

 4,757 



5,063 

 755 





Chestnut blight - -- - - -- - 



Southern 











Total .. - - - 



18, 153 



5,818 



32 











Total all causes 



122, 033 



16, 047 













' Salvage nil or no estimate available. 



^ Salvage still in progress. 



Minnesota was not included because it burned 

 largely on cutover land and hence did not ]v;ill a 

 volume of timber comparable to the others. 

 Twenty-one percent of the timber killed in the 

 three fires was salvaged. The greater salvage on 

 the Tillamook burn was made possible by better 

 equipment and accessibility and increased timber 

 values. 



Wind has also caused tlu-ee major catastrophes 

 since 1900. The Olympic blowdown of 1921, the 

 New England hurricane of 1938, and the Douglas- 

 fir blowdown and bark beetle attack of 1949 to 

 1952 are well known to foresters. Most of the 

 Douglas-fir blowdown occurred in December 

 1951. Loss from wind tends to be concentrated, 

 and a high percentage of timber thus killed can 

 often be salvaged. Very little of the Olympic 

 blowdown of 1921 was salvaged because of inac- 

 cessibility and lack of equipment and markets 

 at that time. Following the New England hur- 

 ricane of 1938, salvage operations were organized 

 by the Forest Service on an emergency basis 



and 47 percent of the loss in volume was milled 

 and used. 



The recent heavy losses from wind and bark 

 beetles in the Douglas-fir stands of western Oregon 

 have brought about a determined salvage efl^ort by 

 all agencies. Federal, State, and private. One 

 billion board-feet has already been salvaged and 

 the work is still in progress. 



Catastrophic insect losses have been spread out 

 over large areas and over periods of many years. 

 As a consequence, the problem of salvage can be- 

 come a gigantic one. Only 2 percent of the tim- 

 ber destroyed in the insect outbreaks cited in 

 table 133 has been reported as salvaged. The 

 opportunities for salvaging insect-killed timber are 

 increasing considerably and progress is being made 

 in meeting this problem. 



The chestnut blight killed the entire commercial 

 stand of chestnut from New England and the Mid- 

 dle Atlantic Regions into the Deep South. Be- 

 cause of the commercial value of the tree, its wide 



