PRODUCTIVITY OF RECENTLY CUT LANDS 



257 



for effects of felling age. All degrees of this effect, 

 both large and small, are included. 



Growth is being adversely affected to some 

 degree by premature cutting on 29 percent of the 

 recently cut lands in all regions combined. Over 

 half of the recently cut area in small private 

 ownerships is thus affected, compared to 30 

 percent foi medium and large private holdings and 

 9 percent for public lands. This concentration 

 of premature cutting on small private ownerships, 

 nationally, also occurs in the West and South, but 

 in the North it is also important on private 

 ownerships of medium and large size. Premature 

 cutting on public ownerships is also more prev- 

 alent in the North than in other sections. 



Premature Cutting Most Prevalent 

 in the East 



Among the various regions, those of the West 

 show relatively limited prevalence, although in the 

 Douglas-fir subregion of the Pacific Northwest this 

 factor has reached substantial proportions as the 

 second growth there comes into operable size. In 

 all regions of the West except California, the pro- 

 portion of recently cut lands affected by premature 

 cutting is much greater on small private owner- 

 ships than on other ownership classes. In Cali- 

 fornia, very little premature cutting was found 

 and equal proportions occur in both size classes of 

 private ownership. 



The amount of premature cutting occurring in 

 the western regions is small, due partly to the large 

 proportion of commercial forest area in national- 

 forest and other public ownerships and a sub- 

 stantial portion in the larger private ownerships. 

 The forest management policies of many of these 

 ownerships aim to capture as much of the growth 

 potential as possible. However, another factor 

 responsible is the concentration of current cutting 

 on mature or overmature stands which have 

 reached or passed the age of peak annual gi-owth. 

 Here little opportunity exists for premature cut- 

 ting. Because of the commitments to forest man- 

 agement policies on public and some private lands 

 and the large proportions of commercial forest area 

 in such ownerships, premature cutting will prob- 

 ably not become as prevalent in the West as else- 

 where. Whether it will increase on other lands, 

 after all old-growth timber is cut, to the extent 

 now found in the North and South will depend 

 upon the degree to which forest management 

 policies are adopted on these other lands. 



Among the regions of the North and South, pre- 

 mature cutting is most prevalent in New England 

 (78 percent) and the Middle Atlantic States (60 

 percent), least prevalent in the Lake States (19 

 percent). A third or more of recently cut lands 

 are affected to some degree by premature cutting 

 in all other regions of the North and South. 



Premature Gutting Limits Productivity 

 Mainly on Small Private Ownerships 



The discussion immediately preceding has 

 shown the prevalence of premature cutting within 

 the various sections, regions, and ownership 

 classes of the country without regard to the effect 

 on productivity. The last columns of table 147 

 show the degree to which premature cutting is 

 reducing the proportion of recently cut lands in 

 the upper productivity class. 



As previously noted, the proportion of recently 

 cut land meeting upper standards for stocking 

 and composition was 70 percent for the country 

 as a whole. WTien standards for rating the effect 

 of felling age are also included, this percentage 

 drops to 65. Thus, premature cutting is res- 

 ponsible for a loss of 5 percent in the area of all 

 recently cut lands on which productivity was 

 rated in the upper class. 



The percentages of recently cut area lost from 

 the upper productivity class because of prematm'e 

 cutting are summarized for each section and own- 

 ership class in the following tabulation: 



All 



North South West sections 



Ownership class: (^percent) (percent) (percent) (percent) 



Small private 11 11 fi 11 



Medium and large pri- 

 vate 12 2 4 



Public 12 1 



All ownerships 8 7 15 



This shows that in the North where greatest 

 productivity losses from premature cutting occur 

 (8 percent in all ownerships) all classes of private 

 lands contribute to the problem. In the South 

 and West, losses are confined principally to small 

 private ownerships. Nationally, the proportion 

 of recently cut lands lost from the upper pro- 

 ductivity class because of premature cutting was 

 11 percent for small private ownerships. This is 

 nearly 3 times the loss for the larger private 

 ownerships and 11 times that for the public lands. 



A basic consideration in avoiding premature 

 cutting is careful discrimination among second- 

 growth stands of timber which have developed 

 operable volumes of merchantable products. 

 Within a given species or type, there are stands, 

 usually the younger, with still increasing volumes 

 of annual growth. Often these can be harvested 

 profitably. In contrast are similar second-growth 

 stands, usually older, which have reached or nearly 

 reached the age of greatest growth when little, if 

 any, subsequent increase in growth can be ex- 

 pected. These can be operated profitably with 

 greater recovery of volume than if cut at any 

 earlier age. Premature cutting consists of clear 

 cutting the first type of stand mentioned above 

 before the peak of mean annual growth has been 

 reached. Discrimination between these two broad 

 types of second-growth stands and substitution of 



