Two other factors affect the management of the 

 farmer and other private ownerships for timber pro- 

 duction. One is the risk and uncertainty due to the 

 inherent susceptibiHty of timber to fire, disease, and 

 insects, and the long periods for which timber must 

 be held until it is merchantable. The other is the 

 widespread lack of knowledge by farmer and other 

 private owners regarding timber management 

 practices. 



These problems have long been recognized as a 

 major impediment to increasing timber supplies on 

 the farmer and other private ownerships. But what 

 has not been adequately recognized is that many of 

 the benefits of the investments in increasing timber 

 supplies accrue to the society in general in the form of 

 lower prices for stumpage and timber products. 

 Lower prices reduce the cost to consumers of goods 

 such as houses and furniture; the environmental pol- 

 lution associated with use of substitute materials, 

 such as steel and plastics; dependence on foreign 

 sources of supply; and the rate of use of nonrenew- 

 able resources. 



These broad economic, social, and environmental 

 benefits, and the likelihood that even direct benefits, 

 such as income from timber sales, will not accrue to 

 current owners because of short tenure or life expec- 

 tancy, suggest two things. First, there is a strong justi- 

 fication for publicly supported cost sharing and tech- 

 nical assistance programs. Second, existing economic 

 opportunities for management intensification on the 

 farmer and other private ownerships are not likely to 

 be realized in any substantive way without such 

 programs. 



There are also important constraints on public 

 ownerships. In recent decades, the commercial tim- 

 berlands in these ownerships have been increasingly 

 managed for multiple purposes; i.e., for wildlife, out- 

 door recreation, watershed protection, and forage 

 production, along with timber. More recently, wide- 

 spread pubhc concern about the natural environment 

 has led to management practices that, while protect- 

 ing the environment, reduce timber production and 

 increase production costs. 



In the future, there undoubtedly will be increasing 

 emphasis on multiple-use management and protec- 

 tion of the environment on the public lands, and to a 

 lesser but significant degree on private lands, particu- 

 larly those in large ownerships. Various modifications 

 of forestry practices may be necessary, especially on 

 public lands, to insure that intensification of timber 

 management does not seriously impair the environ- 

 ment or damage nontimber uses. Such modifications 

 will be a recognition of the environmental and 

 multiple-use impacts of timber management. 



Environmental and Multiple-Use 

 Impacts of Intensified Management 



Timber growing and harvesting practices (such as 

 thinning, timber stand improvement, reforestation, 

 prescribed burning, and fertilization and associated 

 timber cutting, road construction, slash burning, or 

 other disturbances) do have important impacts on 

 other uses and the forest environment. It is difficult to 

 generalize about the net impacts. Conditions often 

 vary widely, knowledge of specific impacts is gener- 

 ally lacking, and changes may be offsetting. 



Clearly, however, management practices and espe- 

 cially timber harvesting change the vegetative cover. 

 The change can vary depending on the amount of 

 vegetation removed, the length of time required to 

 establish the succeeding vegetation, and the kind of 

 vegetation established. 



Soils are affected by vegetation removal, and the 

 associated physical disturbances can cause soil ero- 

 sion, mass soil movement, and soil compaction. Prac- 

 tices such as slash burning and the removal of 

 branches and leaves can significantly reduce nutrients 

 and damage micro-organisms. 



Habitats for some kinds of wildlife are improved 

 with thinnings and other measures that open the 

 forest canopy and increase supplies of food plants. 

 Conversion of brush fields, or stands of inferior qual- 

 ity, by site preparation and planting may damage 

 habitat for some species, particularly in plantations 

 where complete forest canopies develop. Fish can be 

 adversely affected by practices that increase water 

 temperatures and sedimentation and reduce dissolved 

 oxygen. 



Access for hunting and fishing and some other 

 recreation travel is usually improved with road con- 

 struction for logging and other forestry operations. 

 However, adverse recreational impacts also are 

 common as in cases where esthetic qualities of forest 

 areas for recreational viewing, hiking, or camping are 

 reduced by various management practices, especially 

 clearcutting. In addition, man-caused fires are likely 

 to increase with greater access to the forest. Such 

 fires, along with controlled burning, can significantly 

 add to air pollution. 



Management practices such as cutting and thinning 

 which create openings in the forest will result in 

 increases in the amount of forage for domestic live- 

 stock and grazing wildlife species. As the forest 

 regenerates and seedhngs grow into sapHngs and then 

 into trees, the amount of forage gradually declines. 

 As a result, in closed forests, which are characteristic 

 of much of the commercial timberland area, forage is 

 largely limited to borders and openings. Practices 

 that favor open stands will result in forage produc- 

 tion throughout the life of the stand. 



265 



