Historic, archived document Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices. a - ——- | ee a 1 | Ag 84M No.ct7 a4 Rev.1939C.1 oP ee, DIN, Db. \ FORESTRY PERMANENT PROSPERITY U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION No. 247 MI UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE LIBRARY BOOK NUMBER Ac BU ore 4 YO D eck eee 8 767% UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION No. 247 Washington, D. C. Issued November, 1936 Revised December, 1939 FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY By R. F. Hammartt, assistant to the chief, Forest Service Contents Page | Page Horest-landimisuses=2< 2222 a 1 | Acquisition of forest lands by public agencies -_ 10 Forestry in the United States_________ ______- 2} A new type of forest community______________ 13 Forestry as an aid to economic recov ery ee te 2| Sustained-yield management and permanent Forestry helps to build permanent economic communities_______ Jini ee ikea Ae eek 13 DPROSDCE bye oe eee ee eS eee eee 4 aWill Gliteheeese ei net ieee ate Sie REI NE HS 14 The forest problem is a social one_______ a ak AGISRVG Crea 10 Meee eee eo ee ee a Se 16 aRhemationaleloreStSe= =] es eens ee 5 | Multiple-purpose management_______________ 17 Rarmnw ood land Sips wee ee eee SEIELOTCSteCSC ALC leet ene epee ena BORNINSE 18 Prairie States forestry project ase es ate ane SnleWUmiversalausevotaw.0o deus tee or aie 20 Integration of agriculture with forest resourses _ 7 | Forest problem is more than one of growing HOREStal an Geonag ea ae eee A) timbers sss seer ae eee ee ee ee ee 21 INational=foresti tances see ase eee eee A) FOREST-LAND MISUSE The American record of land misuse is almost unparalleled. Our forest lands, which constitute almost one-third the area of the conti- nental United States, offer a striking example. Today a little more than two-thirds of them—and three-fourths of the most valuable, or commercial forest lands—are in private ownership. On these lands in recent years fires have burned about 40,000,000 acres annually— an area greater than that of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hamp- shire, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia combined. Ax and fire together have devastated or left with crippled, inadequate growing stock an area three-fourths larger, even than this. For more than a century these forest lands were literally forced from public to private ownership. Deliberately undertaken, it may have been assumed that this course would, through individual self- interest, bring about economic prosperity; would somehow develop a wholesome and stable social and economic structure based upon individ- ual operation of privately owned forest lands. There was precedent for the assumption that this might be a sound economic policy here. For in Old World countries there were privately owned forest lands and forest industries managed on an ever-producing, sustained-yield basis, and they had for centuries helped maintain permanent communities. They had always ranked high as a source of stable employment. Integrated with agriculture, they had been the backlog of a sound, enduring rural economy. The attitude of their owners may have been a key to this situation. Certainly it seems so. For in Europe, the private owner of forest lands so managed considers himself a al 2 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE trustee. He harvests forest crops and regularly collects and enjoys the income from them. But he does not destroy the source of that income; he holds the land—and its power continuously t inviolate for future generations. Our own attitude toward forest-land ownership has been different. “This is ours,’’ we have said, ‘‘to do with as we please.”’ And burned acres and wasted empires have been a result. Unfortunately, they are only a part of the Nation’s record of forest-land misuse. Another, a more vital aspect, is the human one. For as the timber disappeared and sawmills shut down, hundreds of thousands of workers were thrown out of their jobs. Many, looking for work, found it in pros- perous times but were forced to migrate in dull times. Others, with- out the means to move, were more unfortunate, for no longer was there any market for their labor or for the products of local agriculture. In community after community, taxes became delinquent. ‘In one typical town, seven-room homes with steam heat and plumbing went on the auction block at $35. There were no buyers. In this way forest exploitation has laid its blight on individuals and communities. It has been responsible for ghost towns and rural slums throughout the Lake States, the South, and on the Pacific coast. Indeed, its effects have eaten more deeply into the national fabric. For with forests cleared from hillsides, rains have run off quickly and floods have increased; topsoil has eroded from fertile acres; streams, dams, and harbors have loaded up with silt; property has been damaged and destroyed. FORESTRY IN THE UNIRED STATES For more than a century this was the history of forest-land mis- management in the United States. It is true that almost from the earliest days of settlement on the eastern coast there were protests against the unlimited use of the forest and the lack of organized efforts to protect it from fire. But it was not until the close of the latter half of the nineteenth century that the movement for forestry really started. And in its modern phase, real progress has been made largely since 1900. FORESTRY AS AN AID TO). ECONOMIC RECOVERY The national-forest system—administered by the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture—has been a conspicuous effort in the development of American forestry. Over a period of years it has been a trial, on a large scale, of Federal administration of a great natural resource in the public interest: a radical departure from the traditional national policy of private ownership of natural resources and their exploitation for private profit. When the last depression struck, these huge Federal properties, offering an opportunity for emergency employment on a national scale, became a real factor in the fight for recovery. In that fight, building firmly on the founda- tions laid early in the present century, we have been putting our forests in order. The task is a huge one; it cannot be accomplished quickly. But already we have made a ood start. Beginning with the Civilian Conservation Corps, emergency forest work early expanded through public works, civil w orks, transient FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY The virgin forest and what has happened to it in many places as a result of bad lumbering practices and fire. By building lookout towers, putting in telephone lines, constructing roads.and by many other useful activities. the CCC is helping to protect, develop, and enhance the value of forest resources in the United States under a program planned by the Forest Service long before the depression struck the country. 3. 34 4 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE relief, and drought relief. And in all this, the Forest Service took the lead. . Its projects were started promptly after the funds were allo- cated and they have always employed a high percentage of direct labor. During the 12 months ended June 30, 1934, better than 70 percent of all work projects on Federal, State, and private lands—which engaged the Civilian Conservation Corps with an enrolled strength that exceeded 350,000 men—was planned and supervised by the Forest Service working in part through State conservation agencies. By the fall of 1935 the enrollment had reached the high mark of 500,000 men, employed in 2,400 camps in every State in the Union and Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Virgin Islands. Later the corps was reduced to a normal strength of 350,000 men. By the end of the year 1938 the volume of work accomplished by the C. C. C. was expressed in staggering figures: 2,500 fire towers constructed, 96,000 miles of truck trails built, 4,000,000 man-days of fire fighting, 10,000,000 acres of “bug control,” and 1% billion trees planted are a few of the more than 160 activities of the organization. FORESTRY HELPS LO BULD BE RViANE Nia CONONAEe PROSPERITY But forestry’s contribution, distinctly helpful though it has been in the emergency period, goes deeper than this. For the national-forest emergency-work program was part of a comprehensive plan made long before the depression struck. Forest projects are so planned and executed that the work is essentially an investment. Noncompetitive with industry, this work is constructive and worth while. Rebuilding men, it contributes to human welfare. Rebuilding forests, it does more than assist during the emergency period; it helps to lay founda- tions for permanent economic prosperity. Those foundations are broad. For in the continental United States there are some 630,000,000 acres of land which are more valua- ble for forest and allied uses than for any other purpose. They make up almost one-third of our total land surface. And since forests are products of the soil, they need not be mined. Like crops, they are susceptible of renewal’ and management in accordance with known sciences and practices. Treated thus, forest lands need not be dev- astated; need not create ghost towns or rural slums. They may, instead, be kept productive and be so managed that they will always contribute to the permanent support of their fair share of the country’s population. THE FORES® RROBEEN ISAs SOCEALTONE Our forest problem has to do, it is true, with trees and the soil from which they spring. But through forestry, trees are no longer an end in themselves. They are crops; their real function is to add continu- ously to the permanent welfare of individuals, families, and com- munities; the people of the Nation. This is the real purpose of public conservation policies. It is the objective toward which the Forest Service is directing ever-increasing efforts. So in normal times, as in emergency periods, forestry and the work of the Forest Service have definite meanings for all of us. For example: FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY 9) THE NATIONAL FORESTS The national-forest system, established in 1891, is now fairly familiar to our people. There are today 161 individual national forests and purchase units, located in 36 States, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. Their boundaries include over 227,000,000 acres, of which more than 175,000,000 acres are in Federal ownership (fig. 1). Their re- sources—wood, water, forage, wildlife, recreation, and many others— are administered under a multiple-use system which insures perpetu- ation of all resources through use; assures the greatest good to the greatest number of people in the long run. 3 FARM WCODLANDS Most people think of the Forest Service as guardian and admin- istrator of these national forests and their resources. This is true. But it also has other obligations, several of which are closely allied with agriculture. One of these concerns farm woodlands; tree lands which, owned by farmers, aggregate about one-third of all our commercial forest lands and occupy more acres than any other crop on farms in the United States. These farm woods annually furnish timber, fuel, fence posts, and supplemental cash incomes to more than 2,500,000 farmers. So, since effective woodland management is a vital part of national agri- culture, Federal cooperation in farm forestry is authorized. Under the Clarke-McNary law, its methods and technique are cooperatively developed, and its results are made available by the Extension Service of the Department of Agriculture and extension foresters of the vari- ous agricultural colleges. Cooperative forestry extension is now con- ducted in more than 2,000 counties. It includes assistance in forest management and in planting for timber production and windbreaks, advice, and assistance in estimating and marketing timber and wood products, and in protecting farm forests from fire, insects, and tree diseases. Fifty-one extension foresters are employed in 40 States and Puerto Rico. PARE SAEs: KORESPRY PROJECE The Prairie States forestry project also has a vital meaning to a rural population. In its immediate aspect, this project has helped provide relief for an agricultural region seriously distressed by drought. Its concept is, however, a very broad one. In it is envisioned a major physical and social contribution to planned agriculture in the Plains States. This contribution is to be made through the medium of pro- tective plantings of trees, but not just any trees planted in any place irrespective of soil, moisture, or other conditions. Back of the Prairie States forestry project is a great deal of careful, painstaking research by State agricultural colleges and many Federal bureaus. Factors affecting plant growth in the region have been studied and reviewed; conditions, records, and practices have been explored. Data have been assembled, analyzed, and correlated Major policies and practices have been worked out in cooperation with State and local authorities and standards of performance have been established. Guess-work has been eliminated. OF AGRICULTURE DEPT. M MISC. PUBLICATIO 6 y limited = the project (started in 1935) was sharpl x tock that could be made immediately Y I aS ea love} fet ) ey tt es O + N + ae ord O na = a= 2) 4 Od ely eas + lol a hm) ‘svory osuyoaNnd pue sysoco] [BUOTFEN > WU Crreren ) . _ eee SueWAN ONY SUVONNOU IWNOIDI svauv asvnound EES] Sisauoy iwNollvn [777] ONAD 41 ) i . JS 7 4 pe Ee ee AA \ — NB erNOD, ea Or Gis Avtar! K.N 7 fy 8 ipa ans ae z V4 ; fy cy ms And a y oe MA, \ ae } \ M oy} Ne ke Poe NOR \ na % y, 7 g 5 [ iy (NININ MEd WRN / \, Ae 59 t [Pres \ Q here 6 eg A . lo eho eh} Reread 4) YL S acd (or \ WVdN ‘NOW °° Ms mY \v \\ ° } oi ee hy. \ oy e - Ws ok qi am ——— = \ ) Cai a [ 1 “A x 8 fa) 1 oluana ‘ \ A ality planting in the Now, Government nurseries supply high-qu S spring of Including the plantin Y ov as a) 4 ~ fol {oo (aw) == (= o of i fe] Pa cee | fab) a =| Seen ~& iid oH o fa] real) a) Nn os > ave been planted. For of field shelterbelts h 1939, some 11,300 miles — FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY ( this work some 20 carefully chosen species of trees have been used. Approximately 131,450, 000 trees have been planted. Protective tree planting—even though well planned—will not, of course, stop drought, but it will lessen its local adverse effects. It may not increase local rainfall, but 1t will help conserve what does fall. It will not prevent the bitter winds of winter or the hot, drying ones of summer, but locally it will reduce their surface velocities and the damage they do. In all this, it will aid in preserving soil moisture and in surface water conservation. It will also provide recreational areas, form havens and refuges for upland game and other wildlife, and add variety and beauty to the landscape. More than this, it will break the force of the prevailing winds and give protection to farm cropland, strongly reducing the erosive effect of the winds. Protective tree planting will, in short, make a Plains area of some 70,000,000 acres, including more than 185, 000 established farm units, a better place in which to live. Public sentiment in the Plains area is solidly behind the tree- planting program of the Prairie States forestry project. Trees planted in 1935 have reached heights of more than 30 feet, and cotton- wood fence posts of 7 inches diameter have been cut from a shelterbelt planted in Oklahoma in 1935 by the Forest Service. The percentage of survival has been high and many individual farmers have reported beneficial results from their shelterbelts. INTEGRATION OF AGRICULTURE WITH FOREST RESOURCES Of the 630,000,000 ae of forest lands in the continental United States, approximately 4 2,000,000 acres are classed as capable of producing timber fit for Be ect use. This vast forest acreage also directly affects the economic security of individuals, communities, and the Nation. Insome regions, for example, successful agriculture can continue only if forest management and utilization create and maintain nearby markets for farm crops. In other regions farm population depends on forest work to produce cash incomes, while farm work produces the bulk of the family food. Then, too, per- manent agriculture depends, in many places, on irrigation. This, in turn, depends on maintenance of plant cover on adjacent mountains from which water supplies come; in turn, this depends on forest and range conservation. In still other parts of the country, the Nation now faces the huge task of replacing agricultural production on worn-out or abandoned farm lands with forest production. Forms and amounts of land use must also be changed so that human effort devoted to agriculture may not destroy the land and waste itself. A more specific illustration of the close relationship that exists between forest resources, agriculture, and human welfare may be found in the longleaf-slash pine region of South Carolina, Georgia, and north Florida. This is an area of approximately 30, 000,000 acres, 70 percent of which is devoted to the growth of forest stands. In it, agriculture is declining, and neither mining, manufactures, oil, nor gas fields have developed to offset this decline. The growing, 162100°—40-—2 8 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE The obligations of the Forest vervice have to do with farm forestry, other related agricultural activities, and with the coordination of agricul- ture with forest resources Through cooperation with the Forest Service, farmers may have assistance in the management of their woodlands. Cottonwoods growing on the edge of the shelterbelt zone in South Dakota. About 7000,000 cattle and sheep used western forest ranges in S37 In some parts of the longleaf pine region the agricultural popu- The interests of the forest and the _lation is absolutely dependent farm are interdependent. upon part-time work in the forest. FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY 8) harvesting, manufacturing, and marketing of forest crops are the outstanding industries; the main occupations; the only assurances of a decent livelihood. In this area, every county and nearly every town and hamlet has its turpentine orchards and stills, for the area contains three- fourths of that naval stores industry which produces all of the rosin and tur- pentine used in this country, and approximately 65 percent of the world’s production. Close on the heels of the turpentine operators follow the sawmills. These, large and small, are found everywhere. Other wood-using industries produce poles, piling, railroad ties, and material for vegetable and fruit containers. The present and future successful operation of public utilities such as railroads, steamship and barge lines, power companies, and truck lines depends upon forest products. And many little settlements have one or more wood-manufacturing plants. Most of the agricultural land is tilled by small farmers, but the farm economy is such that part-time work for 3 or 4 months each year must be found for owners, field hands, and animals. Otherwise they cannot exist. In this area as a whole, there is sufficient growing stock of timber on hand to afford work and an opportunity for a comfortable living not only to the population now within its borders, but to hard- pressed people from less fortunate sections as well. But this holds true only if the forests are properly used and cared for. It has not been done in the past. If in the future the South is to prosper, it must be done. Now is the time to start. FOREST-LAND FORAGE Within the continental United States as a whole, some 342 million acres—more than 50 percent of all commercial and noncommercial forest lands—are grazed by domestic livestock. In the pine forests of the South, forage is a resource of forest areas often not owned by the stockmen, but of value to the rural population. In the humid Kast, grazing is usually so detrimental to hardwood forests that wood- lot and other forest owners are often faced with the necessity for making a choice as between pasturage and forest values, or of attempt- ing a dual use which generally results in poor pasturage and forests, both. In contrast, controlled grazing in coniferous forests (such as those so prevalent in the West) results in comparatively little damage to tree growth. In some parts of the country, economic and social welfare is fre- quently dependent upon forest-land forage. This is particularly true in the West, where it largely involves public lands in the national forests, which are administered by the Forest Service of the Depart- ment of Agriculture, and public domain, part of which is under ad- ministration by the Department of the Interior through the Taylor Grazing Act. NATIONAL-FOREST RANGES In recent years western national-forest ranges have been used annually by approximately 1,300,000 cattle and 5,500,000 sheep plus their natural increase; the forage produced on these ranges is vital, yearly, to some 25,000 individuals who own or control more than 10 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 4,500,000 acres of improved farm land and 22,000,000 acres of pri- vately owned grazing land. These national-forest ranges in the West have been under administration for more than 30 years. On them, drift fences, corrals, and bridges have been built; water supplies developed; roads, trails, and stock driveways constructed; and poisonous plants eradicated. Always the effort has been to allow only the number of stock that the amount and condition of the avail- able forage justified. As a consequence, and relatively speaking, western national-forest ranges came through the drought years, even, in good shape. This is indicated by the fact that the Drought Relief Committee found it necessary to purchase but few of the livestock which grazed upon those ranges. But subnormal moisture had its effect upon them, nevertheless. And the term-permit system initiated in 1925 as a means of helping to stabilize the livestock industry, was a contributing factor. For under these first 10-year grazing permits, numbers of stock could not, in some cases, be reduced sufficiently—or quickly enough—successfully to meet changes in range conditions induced by the widespread, subnormal precipitation that culminated in 1934. As a result some national-forest ranges, built up prior to 1925 through use under the more flexible annual permits, needed rebuilding. To accomplish this meant, temporarily, fewer stock; a partial rest for the ranges. Term grazing permits—all of which expired with the 1934 season—were not, therefore, renewed in 1935; instead, srazing permits were issued on an annual basis. This made possible many Important protective reductions, by means of which the num- bers of stock were readjusted to the carrying capacities of certain ranges. And by means of cuts appled to permits covering stock ereater in numbers than the protective limits, range was provided for more small owners who, though really dependent on national-forest forage, were unable to obtain it while the previous 10-year permits were in effect. Ten-year grazing permits were authorized again in 1936. They are, however, subject to adjustments for further dis- tribution of grazing privileges and for range protection. A distribution survey begun in 1935 was completed in 1938. Stock- men and other interested groups have participated in the discussions of the findings and conclusions and have made helpful suggestions. The policy evolved emphasizes range management that will contribute most to the restoration and perpetuation of forage values on national- forest ranges and related lands. Stability is provided for. The size of future permits will be governed by certain limitations, to be de- termined locally. Term contracts now in effect will run to the close of the period, and the new policy will not be harmful to present holders of such contracts. ACQUISITION OF FOREST LANDS BY PUBLIC-AGENCIES Important as is the relation between our forest and our agricultural patterns, the impact of forestry on the country’s social and economic structure is much wider than upon agriculture alone. The everyday work of the Forest Service has a real and definite meaning which extends beyond the farmer. Acquisition by public agencies of part of the forest lands now in private ownership is an illustration of this. FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY Pt Where selective logging is being A Forest Service timber sale in practiced by a Lake State California on which a fine stand of trees. lumbering company. has been left for a second crop. In one of our purchased eastern national forests. where tree growth furnishes watershed protection and helps to prevent erosion of the soil from mountain sides and stream banks. since 1911 about 1Z000,000 acres of forest land have been approved for purchase for national- forest purposes. 12 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE Three-fourths of the approximately 462,000,000 acres of commercial timberland in the United States, or 341,000,000 acres, are now in private ownership. These are the most valuable and productive of all forest lands. From them has come more than 95 percent of all the lumber and timber produced. And since they have been ‘‘mined,”’ they are the lands which have suffered most. Ownership of these lands is not stable. In fact, available data indicate a national, long- time tax delinquency of at least 50,000,000 acres. This threatens the economic stability of farming, manufacturing, and local govern- ment. And until denuded lands again produce forest crops, they can neither adequately protect important watersheds nor help the stranded communities which once depended upon them for a livelihood. Recognizing this situation, Congress in 1911 passed what is popu- larly known as the Weeks law. It provides for Federal acquisition of forest lands for the protection of the headwaters of navigable streams, subject to approval by the National Forest Reservation Commission. In 1924, by the terms of the Clarke-McNary law, the original authority was broadened to include purchase of land for timber production as well as for stream-flow protection. Acquisition of land for national-forest purposes was first financed by regular appropriations, but in 1933 emergency funds were made available for this purpose and purchases were greatly speeded up. Prior to 1933 Federal acquisition of forest lands had totaled less than 550,000 acres in any 1 year. Within a 12-month period in 1933-34, more than 4,000,000 acres were acquired or placed under contract of sale to the Federal Government, and the accelerated program continued through 1936. In the period since the Weeks law was passed, the Forest Service, acting as the executive agency, has recommended, and the National Forest Reservation Commission has approved, proposals to purchase about 17,000,000 acres. As optioned, these lands have been added to the national-forest system, then put under protection and administration. Through fire control, improvement work, and planting made possible by regular and emergency appropriations, areas once largely denuded are being brought back to productivity. Full- or part-time jobs are thus avail- able to local people who might otherwise be on relief rolls. On areas thus purchased,! Forest Service nurseries, where trees for field plant- ing are raised, are now capable of producing at least 150,000,000 trees annually. Up to a few years ago, almost all forest-land acquisition by pur- chase was confined to the territory east of the Rocky Mountains, where the proportion of privately owned forest land is high, and that of national-forest land low, as compared to Western States. It largely had been confined, also, to lands that did not bear merchant- able timber at the time of purchase. Recent conditions have indi- cated the wisdom of applying a portion of such funds as may be available to the purchase of forest lands—in the West as well as the East—on which there is now merchantable timber. Such a course will make it possible to practice immediate sustained yield on demon- stration areas and acquisition of key tracts will in some cases help stabilize forest industries and communities by early application of sustained-yield management to economic units which might other- wise be privately operated on a cut-out-and-get-out basis. It will 1 In the eastern, southern, and north-central regions of the Forest Service. FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY ile probably still be desirable, however, to concentrate the bulk of forest- land purchases in the eastern part of the country. The program of forest-land purchases under the Weeks law was the first project of such a character handled by the Department of Agriculture. In recent years other land-purchase programs for pur- poses such as wildlife refuges, control of soil erosion, and curtailment of submarginal farming have become necessary and advisable in the public interest. To meet the need for coordination and correlation and to provide for unity of action, there has been set up in the Depart- ment an Office of Land Use Coordination. This office acts as a clearing house for land purchases of all depart- mental bureaus. It receives and records all detailed project reports, determines relationships of separate land-purchase and management projects to each other and to the whole, provides for adjustment of geographical conflicts and interbureau cooperation. Through it, all land-purchase work of the Department is now unified, correlated, and coordinated. ANEW TYPE OF FOREST COMMUNITY As a whole, the lumber industry, though is has endorsed sustained yield as an objective, is still financed and operated on a basis of quick liquidation. Consequently, woods labor is largely transient and with- out permanent community ties. This makes for an unsatisfactory, unsound social structure. It is a definitely inadequate policy for successful sustained-yield operation of forest lands, to which per- manent communities of skilled workers are essential. With funds and authority from the Farm Security Administration, the Forest Service has developed two subsistence homestead com- munities—one of them in the southern Appalachians, the other in the Lake States. In their establishment the Forest Service is experi- menting in community development of subsistence farms based on forest economy. The idea is to furnish a cash income to the settlers through employment in forest work, and to aid them in finding addi- tional employment in private commercial forest operations. Home- steaders are charged a moderate rental for lands and houses. Aid is given in the development of modern farm programs and assistance in finding markets for surplus crops. SUSTAINED-YIELD MANAGEMENT AND PERMANENT COMMUNITIES If our forests are to do their part In maintaining permanent, pros- perous communities, they must be so handled that a continuous supply of timber is assured for each community dependent upon forest in- dustries. This means sustained-yield forest management. To the layman ‘‘sustained yield’? may sound mysterious. If so, one might consider, by way of example, an individual who has fort- unately accumulated a capital of $200,000 and then invests it so that he secures a safe return in the form of annual interest. If he keeps his expenditures within this interest, he has a sustained-yield opera- tion. If not, sooner or later his capital is dissipated, his income gone. This situation has a direct parallel in forest management. A man who owns 200,000 acres of productive timberland may establish saw- 14 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE mills and cut all the timber quickly. He may, in other words, liquidate by way of the cut-out-and-get-out policy under which there is feverish activity—for a time. A sawmill town is built, everything booms. But in a few years the operation is ended, “the goose plucked.’ Unless some other activity intervenes, women and children are forced by economic necessity to follow their menfolk along tortuous job- hunting trails. Homes, schools, and churches are left empty and forlorn. Obviously, this way of doing things does not constitute a sustained-yield operation. But if this timberland owner first determines the yearly interest— in the form of annual growth which his 200,000-acre forest will yleld, then builds sawmills to handle, each year, not more than the amount of timber which this orowth represents, both property and town are on an all-time basis. For then annual erowth replaces annual harvest; the forest capital is not depleted. Jobs, homes, schools, churches, are permanent. This is a sustained-yield operation. It is the type of management which is standard for all resources on the national forests; it has as a major objective community mainte- nance through production adjusted to growth. Sustained-yield forest management can be practiced in every forest region of the United States. It may not be achieved everywhere by exactly the same methods, but the basic idea is the same. It means providing a constant, and a constantly renewed, supply of raw ma- terial. It means stabilization of forest industries; perpetuation of our forests by cutting only as much timber as can be replaced by current erowth. It requires adequate protection from fire, insects, and diseases, of course. It uses such methods of cutting as will damage young growth as little as possible. It insures future crops either by leaving seed trees and young trees or by planting where it is necessary to do so. Under sustained yield the timber requirements of the Nation, a particular region, or a local community are figured over a period of years; on a specific area or areas there is set up an annual harvest that will yield raw material without diminishing the future supply; mighty industries that in normal times employed some 1,300,000 people may in large measure substitute stability and security for instability and insecurity, both for themselves and their workers. Unfortunately, there are as yet comparatively few lumber com- panies which have been successful in prolonging their lives and those of their dependent communities by practicing sustained-yield forest management on forest lands in private ownership. WILDLIFE A large part of the wildlife in the United States, valuable for food, fur, and hunting, or for aesthetic purposes, is found in our forests. Its management in connection with other resources is an important part of forestry. Wildlife directly interests more than 13,000,000 people who hunt and fish. It helps support many more, and adds to the happiness of millions who are eager to catch glimpses of wildlife in its home enviornments. Ever since the mythical days of Robin Hood, the welfare of wildlife and forests have been closely linked. The relationship is as close as ever in our own country today. On our forest lands where exploita- FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY it Game animals increased 150 percent between 192% and 1938 on the national forests where they have been under protective management. In 1938 more than 30,000,000 people either visited or passed through the national forests. More than 13,000,000 people in the The forests of the United States support United States who like to hunt and fish a large part of the Nation’s wildlife are interested in the wildlife which is valuable for food,fur, and hunting, found largely in the forest. 16 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE tion and repeated fires have run rampant, the number of game animals has decreased markedly. But on the national forests, where game as well as timber and other resources have been used, but managed and kept productive for 30 years, the number of game animals increased 150 percent within the period 1924-38. In fact, as exploitation has continued in the West, ranges used by big game have been so restricted that now almost 75 percent of the total western big-game range is within the federally owned forests. On most of these national forests the numbers—and in many cases the species—of wild game may be increased still further by adequate game management. Just to remove the causes which have lead to destruction or decimation of wildlife species will not be sufficient. More constructive action than merely enforcing most present game laws is necessary. Modern game management must also devise ways and means to make more favorable environments and thus produce more, and more varied, wildlife. It must, for example, build dams—as has been done on the Coconino Plateau in Arizona— to impound water and provide nesting and resting places for migra- tory birds and make possible the introduction of fish in areas where there were neither birds nor fish before. Modern game management also envisions the introduction of species of game animals in localities from which they have previously been exterminated. With careful selection of environment and such modi- fications of current land uses as may be necessary and practicable, this is often feasible. Witness, for example, the introduction and successful building up of some 125 new elk herds on certain western national forests. There are, as has been said, many areas on which the number and species of wildlife can be increased. But there are also some areas which are already too heavily populated with big game, where the herd has increased far beyond the carrying capacity of the winter range to support it. Damage to forage crops, heavy winter losses through starvation, and accelerated erosion have resulted. On these areas, modern game management calls for such adjustments as will protect both the big game and the forage upon which it lives. RECREATION Recreation contributes largely to the health, happimess, and welfare of our people. Once considered by some people a luxury, it has now become a necessity in which forests play an important role. They provide rest and relaxation, return rich dividends in physical health and spiritual and mental well-being; so recreate the body and mind that man may tackle with renewed vigor his everyday, bread-and-butter tasks. Through recreation, forests also make an important economic contribution. Farmers and businessmen in many forest regions have their markets greatly expanded through purchases made by national!- forest visitors, and local people add to their incomes by furnishing quarters for vacationists. Summer homes and resorts in many towns and counties are a chief source of taxes. It is estimated that at least $250,000,000 is spent annually in communities on or adjacent to na- tional forests in connection with recreation. The national forests afford an example of the enormous growth forest recreation has made in the last two decades. In 1917 the - , | FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY 17 number of people who visited or passed through them was 3,000,000. In 1938 more than 30,000,000 visits were made to the national forests by people seeking recreation. Many of these people made little or no stop, many came back again and again. Excluding sightseers and those simply passing through, however, approximately 14,500,000 of these visits were made by people who came to the national forests because they enjoyed just the kind of recreation available there. They occupied summer homes, hotels, dude ranches, or resorts; they hunted, fished, hiked, and rode horseback; they climbed mountains and took part in winter sports. Some of them stayed at municipally owned camps or those managed by the Boy Scouts or service organizations or clubs; others chose their own eamping spots or stopped at one of the more than 3,500 campgrounds which the Forest Service has equipped for their entertainment. Many visitors just lazed around, studied plants, animals, geological features, or traveled roads and trails over timbered slopes to snowclad peaks, rushing streams, or quiet mountain lakes. Altogether, millions of different people benefited from national- forest recreation, and millions just traveling for pleasure enjoyed the cool freshness of mountain air and the beauty of the scenery. As a type, national-forest recreation is simple, democratic. Public camp and picnic grounds—and most resorts and other facilities—are on an unostentatious, Inexpensive level. Annual rentals for individual summer-home sites (for which permits are issued) are low and the number, size, and location of summer homes are restricted. Happi- ness for the many takes precedence, always, over consideration for the few. Incidental uses—by people who ‘‘drop in” to picnic, camp for a night or two, fish, hike, or hunt with camera or gun—are encouraged. Policing is kept to that minimum necessary to assure safety to public health and public property. ‘-MULTIPLE-PURPOSE MANAGEMENT Planning is necessary if every national-forest resource—recreation as well as wood, water, forage, and wildlife—is to be perpetuated through such use as will assure the greatest good to the greatest number of people in the long run. All resource plans must be inte- erated and correlated one with another; management over broad areas must be on a system under which the land as a whole can support its fair share of the country’s population. This mean multiple-purpose management. For living within and adjacent to existing national forests—and dependent for all or a material part of their competence upon them—are already nearly 1,000,000 people. With national-forest areas now being acquired in the East, South, and Lake States, this number may soon exceed 1,500,000. It is obviously against the public interest to lock up, under the guise of single- purpose management, the resources from which all these people make their living. Nor is this necessary. For over broad areas, integration of uses of various and varied resources has been accomplished for more than 30 years on national-forest lands which in the aggregate now exceed the combined areas of Illinois, Indiana, Obio, Iowa, and Missouri, with half of Kansas thrown in. And under multiple-use management on these broad areas, the million people just mentioned earn all or a 18 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE part of their subsistence by regularly harvesting resources such as timber and forage, the while recreational use has increased enor- mously in 30 years. This multiple-use principle of land management requires special treatment in its application to restricted areas, of course. There are, for example, many spots of rare scenic beauty in the national forests; places which afford visitors all they desire in the way of beauty, interest, and inspiration. These places are not as a rule susceptible of being combined one with another. They are instead, scattered but integral and inseparable parts of much larger areas. Recreational uses of these larger areas are affected by managed uses of such resources as timber, water (for municipal and other purposes), forage, or minerals. But on certain smaller areas—on shores of limpid, tree-fringed lakes, beside beautifully clear mountain streams, in fragrant meadows from which lofty, snow-clad peaks are visible—recreational values are often so outstanding that special treatment—which approaches single-purpose management—is applied to them. FOREST RESEARCH In all phases of forestry, research is fundamental and vital, par- ticularly in these days when changes in methods of handling forest lands and in manufacturing, distributing, and utilizing forest products seem inevitable. The major part of the effort in this field in the United States is now concentrated in the Forest Service. Provision is made for basic silvicultural, range, watershed, economics, and products investigations. Congress has provided for a series of 12 regional forest, or forest and range, experiment stations and a Forest Products Laboratory. Here studies and research are conducted on forest problems of the entire United States. The diversity of the research problems undertaken and their wide direct application to everyday life may be illustrated by three examples of work accomplished by the Forest Service. One concerns the con- dition and weight of cattle as affected by use of range forage; another, inexpensive, modern homes; the third, the forest-credit situation. The first instance is one of an investigation made by the Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station of the Forest Service, in cooperation with the Bureau of Animal Industry. This showed that overgrazing short-grass range during a series of years near Miles City, Mont., was costly to the stockmen. During the drought of 1934, so little forage was produced that hay was required as a supplement in all pastures. On controlled experimental areas over a ton of hay to each cow was required on overgrazed range, as compared to an average of approximately a half ton per cow on range not normally overgrazed. It was also found that over a 2-year period, calves from cows on the latter range averaged 72 pounds heavier at weaning time than calves from cows on the overgrazed range. The cost of range and supplemental feed per pound of calf produced in 1934 was about 8% cents for the overgrazed lot, as against about 3% cents for the more conservatively grazed lot. In other words, this greater cost of feed per pound of beef is a penalty—of about 240 percent—paid during drought periods for overgrazing. The second illustration has to do with the acute need in the United States today for small, inexpensive homes of such simple but sound FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY 19 The way to provide for a perma- nent supply of forest products 1s to adopt the best-known methods of utilization to protect the forest from fire and disease, to replant it where it is necessary to do so,and to harvest the timber <-> crop in such a way as to insure A tie operation on a national forest, where Getting out wood for pulp. its continuous renewal. young trees have been left to make future crop. o. Se A Forest Service cut-over area 25 years afier lodging. Note seed trees left for réproduction. zee Preparing a wall frriidiy:t —— Forest Products Laboratory, Madison Wis. Longleaf pine on t “3 = Se a RE OMe Sei he way market. Ce ae % es Grubbing out gooseberry - ete “4 bushes as.a means of controlling Fighting a forest fire in heavy timber ina western forest. white-pine blister rust. eS 20 MISC. PUBLICATION 247, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE design and construction that upkeep, obsolescense, and first costs may be slashed liberally. To meet these requirements successfully, prefabrication is essential; the more difficult and time-consuming part of construction and assembly must be done inside the factory. A prefabrication system of marked promise, with wood as a building material, is now under development at the Forest Products Labora- tory. The basic unit is a panel consisting of two plywood faces glued to either side of an inner structural framework. This forms what is virtually a box girder with all the strength essential for high-class construction. Under tests, floor panels were found capable of sustain- ing maximum loads of 300 or more pounds per square foot over a 13- foot 6-inch span, and wall panels, under a 60-mile-per-hour gale, developed a fiber stress less than one-third the allowable safe stress for the material. To test the practicability of this new method in prohpmcation: a five-room demonstration house was constructed. As a further test, this house included combinations of such panels as might be needed in larger houses. The scheme of assembly is so well adapted to the requirement of speed in construction that the demonstration five- room house was erected complete in 21 hours by seven men. The third example cited is one concerning the economic side of forest research. Investigations by the Forest Service have brought out wide- spread need for a sounder credit basis for forest industries. Credits in the past have been derived from private sources. Lately these credits have in large measure dried up. This has raised the question of public or publicly sponsored credits like those available through the Farm Credit and Federal Housing Administrations and the Re- construction Finance Corporation. In general, the studies have indicated that private credits to forest industries have tended to force quick liquidation of the basic forest resources. This has not made for the public welfare. They have shown the need for public or publicly sponsored credits definitely adapted to forest industries, embodying relatively long periods of time and low interest rates. It has been suggested that such credits might logically be extended to owners who operate in accordance with national policies designed to protect the forest resource. Modeled along farm- credit lines, and with provision for administration by an accredited Federal credit agency, the plan evolved should form an integral part of a progressive program of public cooperation. UNIVERSAL USE OF WOOD It is literally true that wood in some form enters into most daily lives, from the cradle to the grave. Births and deaths are published in newspapers that, in the United States, require close to 4,500,000 cords of pulpwood annually for their manufacture. Our system of rail transportation calls for 110,000,000 wooden railroad ties yearly; annual requirements for telephone and telegraph total close to 4,000,000 wooden poles; cellulose is transformed into clothing and fiber containers; forests furnish, each vear, 65,000,000 cords of firewood and 1,500,000,000 barrel staves; wine is stored in wooden vats and casks; wood is preferred for handles on many tools and utensils; few, indeed, are the homes into the construction of which wood does not enter. And these are but samples of the countless purposes to which wood is put. FORESTRY AND PERMANENT PROSPERITY 21 FOREST PROBLEM IS MORE THAN ONE OF GROWING TIMBER Despite such universal uses, our per-capita consumption of wood fell sharply, even in predepression vears. So, in face of increased population, did total consumption. The need for research, and for development of new uses and markets for wood, is therefore evident. But total forest drain still exceeds total forest growth. In the impor- tant saw-timber sizes, current annual growth is 32.0 billion feet board measure but drain was 47.8 billion feet in 1936, by way of example. So there is also real need to conserve our forest resources, to use them wisely, to add to them by growing forests on lands most valuable for forest purposes. To do otherwise would be to continue forest devastation and its consequences. It would create more ghost tewns and perpetuate the system of an ever-shifting, migratory labor; would augment agricultural depression and increase an already unstable and transitory social and economic structure. This latter course is manifestly contrary to the public interest. It considers all forests as raw material only; thinks of them only in terms of timber; assumes that immediate manufacture and marketability are the chief issues. It fails to take into consideration the fact that destruction of forest cover leads to erosion and that the presence of forest cover is a most effective means of erosion control. It passes up such close, vital relationships as those between forests and agriculture, wildlife and recreation, and it ignores the fact that these forest values. expressed in dollars and cents and in terms of physical and social well-being, are infinitely greater than the values of forests expressed in terms of wood alone. The viewpoint that only such forests are needed as will supply current demand for wood products is too circumscribed. Our forest problem is broader, by far, than this. It includes the production of timber for human use, of course. But is also embraces utilization through multiple-use management of all resources of all forest lands as a Means to assure social advantages and stable livelihood for the greatest possible number of people. To do this, it must take definite cognizance of existing social obligations and opportunities; must, through such self-liquidating projects as improvement of timber stands, reforestation and control of insects and tree diseases, help rehabilitate ghost towns and rural slums and place forest properties in such shape that through them and all their resources people may become, and remain, self-sustaining. It is in helping to solve this broad forest problem that the normal activities of the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture directly affect millions of people in all walks of life and play a vital part in permanent, economic prosperity. U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1940 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents. Washington, D. C. - - - - Price 5 cents