PRIIMCIPAL ISSUES THE LAND MANAGER 



MUST CONSIDER 



After the public land manager has systematically excluded those areas that he be- 

 lieves will not be operable under any circumstances, he continues to face the issue of economic 

 feasibility. In the North Slope the central issue is simple. Are the benefits to be realized 

 from an intensive timber growing effort on 252,000 acres great enough to justify spend- 

 ing $21.1 million? 



In this case there can be no refuge in the financial calculations. There are about 2 

 billion board feet of sawtimber on the North Slope today. Assuming that this volume 

 could be logged from present stands during the first rotation (a generous assumption in 

 view of recent losses) and assuming the average value of this stumpage would be $7 per 

 thousand board feet (the average sale price in 1963 was $3.04 in the Intermountain Reg- 

 ion), these timber yields are worth about $14.4 million (fig. 13). In other words, from a 

 strictly financial point of view, the venture has all the earmarks of a losing proposition. 

 Thus, the desirability of timber growing on the North Slope must be determined by weigh- 

 ing the excess of costs over stumpage values against other considerations, which can be 

 grouped under four headings: 



1. Future national need for wood 



2. Local need for income 



3. Relation of timber growing to the total land management operation 



4. Relation to national development 



ESTIMATED COSTS AND REVENUES 

 FROM AN AGGRESSIVE 

 TIMBER PROGRAM 

 DURING THE NEXT ROTATION 





COSTS ^ 



\i 











REVENUES 





$21.1. 

 Million 



$14.4 

 Million 



16 



