224 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



Previous Related Appraisals 



Interest in the condition of cutover lands has 

 been expressed sinci^ the beginning of conservation 

 efforts in the United States. During early stages 

 of forestry development, some landowners and 

 public agencies adopted policies of making cutover 

 area surveys. For several decades a major effort 

 of forest research has been to determine the effects 

 of cutting methods on subsequent growth and to 

 develop methods that would increase growth. 

 There is a voluminous forestry literature, both 

 technical and general, relating to cutover lands. 

 However, for only little more than a decade have 

 there been comprehensive efforts to appraise the 

 condition of cutover lands over broad areas in 

 terms of specific standards or criteria. Only one 

 such effort, the Forest Reappraisal of 1946, has 

 been on a national basis. 



Surveys of this kind are described briefly below: 



1. During 1942-45 Louisiana State University 

 conducted a survey in the loblolly-shortleaf 

 pine type of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mis- 

 sissippi covering five sample areas typified 

 by small- to medium-sized forest ownerships 

 and published the results as Bulletin 393. 

 This study developed standards which recog- 

 nized the two elements of species composition 

 and pine stocking. Classifications of these 

 two elements were integrated into a pine 

 stocking index. This index was considered 

 indicative of productive capacity and was 

 related to the number of owners and the 

 total forest area in each ownership type and 

 size class. 



2. In 1945 the Forest Service conducted a com- 

 prehensive nationwide reappraisal of the 

 forest situation, part of which was a survey 

 of forest practices. Results of this survey 

 were included in the publication Forests and 

 National Prosperity, LTnited States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture Bulletin No. 668, 1948, 

 commonly known as the Reappraisal Report. 

 This was the first nationwide attempt to 

 collect and interpret statistical material on 

 forest practices. Cutting practice guides 

 were developed for each major forest type as 

 a median standard. This standard included 

 the numbers of trees of various sizes and 

 species groups needed after cutting to qualify 

 for the median or "fair" cutting practice 

 level. It placed considerable emphasis on 

 the operable volume of timber left on the 

 ground after cutting. However, alternatives 

 to this were provided. 



Additional guides provided means for 

 judging the degi-ee of forestry effort expended 

 on the ownership. Each ownership exam- 

 ined was then classified into one of five levels 

 of practice. These ranged from "high order" 

 to "destructive," with two of the five rating 



above the median "fair" level and two below. 

 Differences between the standards for "fair" 

 practice and the practices on a particular 

 ownership both as to stand of timber left 

 after cutting and degree of forestry effort on 

 the cutover area and elsewhere on the owner- 

 ship were observed and used as the basis for 

 classification. The entire area of each prop- 

 erty with cutting was considered as operating 

 area. Operating area within each type or 

 size class of ownership was distributed over 

 the five cutting practice levels in summariz- 

 ing the results. 



3. In 1947 the Forest Service and the Mississippi 

 Agricultural Experiment Station jointly stud- 

 ied the ownership and management of private 

 forest lands in central Mississippi. Tech- 

 nical Bulletin 23 of the Mississippi Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station contains the results. 

 Forest management was rated on the basis of 

 cutting practice and fire protection by sLx 

 classes ranging from "excellent" to "destruc- 

 tive." Emphasis in the cutting practice phase 

 was placed on the changes which cutting made 

 in stocking and species composition. The 

 level of management was related to size class 

 and type of ownership both on the basis of 

 acreage owned and number of owners. 



4. The Northeast Pulpwood Research Center 

 under auspices of the pulp industry studied 

 cutting practices on private lands in New 

 England, New York, and Pennsylvania in 

 1950-51 and published the Forest Practice 

 Survey Reports in 1952. The five forest 

 practice classifications used by the Forest 

 Service a few years earlier were adapted with 

 local modification in this study, but the 

 method of relating the ratings to locality and 

 type of ownership was based upon the volume 

 removed under each practice level rather than 

 area. This was the first of such studies to 

 report the distribution of practice levels by 

 forest types in addition to locality and 

 ownership classification. Another innova- 

 tion was the separation of results under in- 

 tent of owners to practice forestry and results 

 secured by accident. 



5. Current cutting practices on both public and 

 private forest lands in Michigan were studied 

 in 1952 by Michigan State College and re- 

 sults published as Technical Bulletin 238 of 

 that institution. Cuttings were classified 

 into three grades and these were related to 

 ownership group in proportion to the acreage 

 held by each gi'oup. This study dealt with 

 condition of forest stands before and after 

 cutting and emphasized the effect of cutting 

 on tree size and quality. 



6. In 1953 the Tennessee Valley Authority 

 conducted a study on the management of 

 private lands in the Tennessee Valley. Man- 



