126 LOGGING 
are less in extent than the runs for power logging and, therefore, 
the total damage is reduced. Forest policy, therefore, has an 
influence on the choice of secondary transportation on areas where 
a sustained yield is sought. ^ 
Primary Transportation. — This includes the movement of the 
products from some central point or points in the forest to mill 
or market and represents one of the major costs incident to logging. 
Primary transportation may be on land or water or both, since 
forest products often are hauled for considerable distances on 
land and then floated or rafted to destination or to some point 
where they are again taken out of the water and moved on land 
to the mill or to market. Among the factors governing the choice 
of primary transportation are the following: 
(1) The topography. Wheeled transport is not adapted to 
regions where the topography is very rough because steep adverse 
grades reduce to a minimum the size of loads which can be hauled 
and the cost of constructing a roadbed is high. In such cases 
flumes, aerial trams and slides may be used. On the other hand, 
a flat or rolling country with a solid bottom is well adapted to 
the use of some form of wheeled transport. A region with many 
streams and ample water storage reservoir sites is adapted to 
water transport while the reverse may be true of a flat or gently 
rolling country because of the sluggish character of the streams 
and the high cost of stream improvements necessary to confine 
logs to the channels at flood stage. Rough regions also are chiefly 
non-agricultural in character and a greater mileage of railroad 
usually must be constructed to tap outside existing transport 
systems than is necessary in flat or rolling regions which often 
are more densely populated and, therefore, have better existing 
transportation facilities. 
(2) Climate. Temperature and precipitation often have a 
marked bearing on the form of transportation chosen. Heavy 
snowfall and low temperatures during the winter months are found 
in some regions where conifers are the more common forest trees. 
Such areas usually are well watered with streams of a size suitable 
for floating logs. Also in such forest regions rail transportation 
is seldom well developed and it may be necessary to move forest 
1 The Forest Service of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture already has placed 
certain restrictions on power logging on some of the National Forests in the 
West. 
