226 



TIMBER RESOURCES FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE 



How Concepts Were Developed 



The first step in developing plans for the survey 

 of recently cut lands was a conference with a 

 working committee of the national advisory group 

 to consider the scope of this survey. Following 

 this, a preliminary plan was developed by a 

 Forest Service task group and released for review 

 purposes in July of 1952. Comments and sug- 

 gestions for revision of this preliminary plan were 

 obtained as follows: 



1. The plan was reviewed at local public meet- 

 ings called by Regional Foresters of the 

 Forest Service. Representatives were in- 

 vited from industrial groups, the forest 

 schools, labor, conservation associations, and 

 from Federal and State conservation agen- 

 cies. 



2. Later these local meetings culminated in a 

 series of four larger conferences held at 

 Atlanta, Ga., Philadelphia, Pa., Milwaukee, 

 Wis., and San Francisco, Calif. Here were 

 summarized the results of the local meetings. 



3. In addition, a number of more limited local 

 meetings and numerous conferences were 

 held to obtain advice and suggestions on the 

 preliminary rating standards or criteria for 

 each forest type. Foresters from public 

 agencies and from industry participated in 

 this phase. 



4. The minutes of meetings, resolutions, and 

 briefs filed by organized groups and other 

 sources of comment were carefully analyzed 

 as a basis for revision of preliminary plans 

 and criteria. 



The analysis of comments revealed many con- 

 structive suggestions and also showed that com- 

 mentators were not in agreement on many im- 

 portant phases. Revision of the plan, including 

 trial runs in the field, required nearly a year and 

 a greatly revised plan was again released for 

 review in July 1953. 



After additional revisions, the Forest Service 

 felt that a reasonable balance had been reached 

 in meeting constructive suggestions and that 

 further review would be of little value. It also 

 felt that the concepts, standards, and procedures 

 developed were reasonable and represented a step 

 forward in dealing with the subject of recently 

 cut lands which will continue to be of recurring 

 concern. 



CONCEPTS AND PROCEDURES 

 Summary 



Four major elements present in varying degree 

 on all recently cut areas were chosen as the basis 

 for classification of productivity on recently cut 

 lands. These four elements were those judged to 

 exercise the greatest combined influence on cur- 

 rent and prospective growth of timber in both 

 quantity and quality. They are (a) existing stock- 



ing, (b) prospective stocking, (c) species composi- 

 tion, and (d) effect of felling age or premature 

 cutting. 



Quantitative standards were developed for each 

 element based upon technical forestry information, 

 but tempered by judgment as to practical attain- 

 ability under current operating conditions and 

 status of knowledge. Adaptability to the widely 

 varying nature of our forests was provided by 

 setting up separate standards for the important 

 sites or localities within each forest type of every 

 region. 



The concept of practical attainability is highly 

 important to interpretation of results and was 

 chosen from a number of possible concepts. The 

 other alternatives considered but discarded con- 

 sist of standards aimed at (a) developing the 

 maximum level of growth found in nature and 

 expressed in normal yield tables, or other appro- 

 priate sources of technical information, (b) deter- 

 mining conformity to a classification of forest 

 management practices, (c) meeting projected 

 future demands for timber products. 



The concept of maximum growth was con- 

 sidered impractical because limited knowledge or 

 excessive costs prohibit consistent attainment of 

 such levels in many forest types. Appraisal of 

 recently cut areas by classification of forest man- 

 agement practices was discarded because the 

 method requires adoption of questionable assimip- 

 tions on the relation between future growth and 

 various cutting practices, sustained yield, stand 

 improvement, and other management measures. 

 Standards geared to meeting projected demands 

 for timber products would have required delaying 

 the survey of recently cut lands until estimates of 

 such demands had been made, thus nearty 

 doubling the time required to complete the 

 Timber Resource Review. In addition, the allo- 

 cation to recently cut lands of an appropriate 

 share of future needed growth could not have 

 been accomplished without costly special studies 

 to obtain details on growth not yet available in 

 this country. 



Judgment in developing standards was applied 

 by comparing the condition of recently cut lands 

 on ownerships following the better forest prac- 

 tices with conditions for growth expressed in 

 normal yield tables or other technical sources. 

 Ratios resulting from these comparisons were 

 then used to develop standards. For example, 

 if the stocking of recently cut areas on the better 

 managed ownerships of a given forest type was 

 50 percent of the stocking associated with upper 

 growth levels as shown in technical references, 

 this ratio was used to determine the numbers of 

 trees per acre of various sizes representing 100 

 percent stocking in the standards. The stocking 

 standards adopted for trees of sa^\^imber size 

 generally range from 50 percent to 70 percent of 

 yield table values, depending upon forest type 



