Introduction 



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but that there still remained some 41 billion board feet, 

 ot which 15 billion board teet was in pine. At the most 

 conservative valuation, the stumpage sold and standing 

 has brought or will bring to the State from 30 to 50 times 

 the price originally paid France tor the whole territory of 

 the Louisiana Purchase. 



Survey Methods 



The first work ot the Forest 

 Survey in Louisiana began in 

 1934 and 1935, when trained 

 toresters and timber estimators 

 were brought in to cruise sys- 

 tematically the whole forest 

 area. They used what is known 

 as the line-plot method. They 

 ran parallel compass lines 10 

 miles apart across the State and 

 along these lines examined in. 

 tensively about 35,(KH) sample 

 plots spaced at intervals of 66(> 

 teet. These plots represented 

 a satistactory statistical sample 

 ot the entire torest-land area 

 first estimated by the United Figure 1. — Forest Survey units in Louisiana. Throughout this puUica- of the State.' On each plot 

 States Census of 1880 (Sar- Hon the data for the southeast pin, „»ii are combined with those Jor the i^^aring a forest Stand, tree 



southwest unit. " , , 



measurements were made and 



recorded. i-Vom these field records, timber volume by 

 species, the rate ot timber growth, and the rate at which 

 timber is lost throiieli natural nu'rtalitv were later calcu- 



AN IW'ENTORY of the timber resources of the 

 United States is especially needed at present on 

 account of the increasing volume of forest products 

 required for war purposes. This demand places an extra 

 burden on the forests. To meet it, reasonably complete 

 forest information is needed as a guide to meeting war 

 requirements promptly and so 

 handling the cutting as not to 

 injure the forest permanently. 

 Fortunately, Louisiana has 

 been covered by a torest inven- 

 tory and the publication of the 

 results should aid its people 

 materially in producing timber 

 during and atter the war. 



What is now the State ot 

 Louisiana came into possession 

 of the United States in 1803 as 

 part of the Louisiana Purchase. 

 It was then and is today a vast 

 treasury ot natural resources — 

 soil, torage, oil, water, ami 

 forest. The wealth ot pine tim- 

 ber in Louisiana's torests was 



gent's Report on the horests of 



North America) at 48 billion boanl feet. .Apparcntlv no 

 estimate ot the haniwood was made at this time. In 

 1913 the Bureau ot Corporations estimated the volume 

 of pines and hardwoods as of 1909 at 119.8 billion board 

 feet. Other estimates followed, but in the absence of 

 field cruises they were mostly statements of opinion. Some 

 measure of the inadequacy of these estimates and of the 

 vastness of the total timber resource is at^'i>rded by avail- 

 able statistical records ot 120 billion board feet of lumber 

 produced in the State between 1880 and 193". The onlv 

 relia'ole inventory ot what remains, made as a part of the 

 Nation-wide Forest Survey, indicates that in 1938 Louisi- 

 ana's magnificent stands of old-growth timber hail been 

 reduceii to less than one-(ourth ot their original volume. 



' I'hc Hiircau ot the V. cnsus in l'>41 is.'sucii approximate I«nd-«IT* 

 figures for the State ot Louisiana anil each ot its purisSes hasnl on a 

 complete remeasurement since similar figures were published in ll-Vii. 

 The remeasurement resulted in increases or decreases in the arras reporte^t 

 tor indivulual parishes, even though there was no actual change in puiih 

 boundaries. Calculations of' the area represented by each sample pint 

 were based on the figures publishevl in 19><. If the l'*41 figures had been 

 available, the estimate of forest area for I.ouisiana would have been Q,^l>3 

 acres less than that publishevl in this report. The dlferetK«« for mo»t 

 of rhe survey units are prtijvirtionately larger than •' ■ >; »« a 



whole; they are not 'arge enough, however, to atiei ■ on- 



sideration of the forest situation presented here. 



