Rising prices of lumber, plywood and other timber products will have serious adverse impacts on consumers. For example, it will raise housing 

 construction costs and reduce the number of units built. 



regeneration often will require such measures as 

 clearing; piling, chipping, disking, or burning logging 

 debris; bedding prior to planting; controlling vege- 

 tation; or combinations of such measures. 



Genetically improved planting stock. — Regenera- 

 tion by planting offers an opportunity to use geneti- 

 cally improved planting stock. The possible increase 

 in timber production per unit area may be as much as 

 15 to 20 percent. Breeding programs now underway 

 could substantially expand these potential gains. For 

 some sites, even larger increases can be attained with 

 a joint use of genetically superior trees, fertilizers, and 

 water controls. 



The current trend toward tree selection and propa- 

 gation of individuals with superior traits is designed 

 to maximize yield, but tends to narrow the genetic 

 base of the crop trees. This could lead to future dis- 

 ease and insect losses unless substantial effort is made 

 to select for resistant lines and to monitor the wild 

 population of pathogens to be aware of any new viru- 

 lent biotypes that appear. 



Stand and site conversion. — Many areas in the 

 East and on the West Coast support poorly stocked 

 stands, or stands stocked with less desirable species of 



poor quality trees that will produce little volume or 

 value growth. Clearing of such stands and replanting 

 can increase supplies of softwoods and certain pre- 

 ferred hardwood species. Also, in the case of some 

 stagnated stands of species such as lodgepole pine in 

 the Rocky Mountains, removal of the present trees 

 and replacement by new stands of the same or differ- 

 ent species is the only way to achieve full use of the 

 site potential. Such conversion in some areas may be 

 limited by low sites or because of wildlife or other 

 nontimber considerations. 



Some land areas such as the shrub bogs in the east- 

 ern United States, and some of the brushlands in the 

 Pacific Northwest, can be changed to productive 

 sites. Drainage, the addition of selected kinds of fer- 

 tilizers, and an increase in physical accessibility for 

 management actions are required to accomplish such 

 changes. 



Intermediate stand treatments. — In many forest 

 types, stand density has increased to the point where 

 long rotations are required to produce merchantable 

 wood. At its worst, this crowding results in stagna- 

 tion, especially on poor sites, with resulting stands of 

 small, spindly trees that may never become merchant- 

 able — at least by present standards. 



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