Historic, Archive Document

Do not assume content reflects current
scientific knowledge, policies, or practices.

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FORESTRY

RESEARCH

WHATS NEW IN THE WEST

U.S. Department or Agriculture Forest Service

JULY 1977

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What's Inside

urce assessment

The standing dead

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■Determining forest
-nutrients,. _ _ _

New publications

a note to you

Forestry Research: What's New in the West, is a report on the
work of the USDA Forest Service’s four Forest and Range Experiment
Stations in the West. These research centers, and the States included
in their areas of study are: Rocky Mountain (North Dakota, South
Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and part
of Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Texas); Intermountain (Montana, Idaho,
Utah, Nevada, and part of Wyoming); Pacific Northwest (Alaska,
Oregon, and Washington); and Pacific Southwest (California, Hawaii,
and the Pacific Basin).

on the cover

Air to ground communication and a flagman are used to aid the flight crew in
locating small field plots in conjunction with photo interpretation studies of
range vegetation. See ‘"'Toward Better Resource Assessments" on facing page.

our addresses

Single copies of most of the publications mentioned in this issue
are available free of charge. When writing to research Stations, please
include your complete mailing address (with ZIP) and request
publications by author, title, and number (if one is given).

For INT publications write:

Intermountain Forest and
Range Experiment Station
507 25th Street
Ogden, Utah 84401

For PNW publications write:

Pacific Northwest Forest and
Range Experiment Station
Post Office Box 3141
Portland, Oregon 97208

For PSW publications write:

Pacific Southwest Forest and
Range Experiment Station
Post Office Box 245
Berkeley, California 94701

For RM publications write:

Rocky Mountain Forest and
Range Experiment Station
240 West Prospect Street
Fort Collins, Colorado 80521

If you are planning to move, please notify us as much in advance
as possible. Send your old address, your new address, and the address
label from the back cover to Forestry Research: What's New in the
West, 240 West Prospect Street, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521.

When reprinting articles, please credit USDA Forest Service.
Mention of commercial products in this issue is for information only —
no endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is implied.

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Toward

better

resource

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Wendell O. Schroll, Forest Service pilot, and Dick Myhre, scientific
photographer, with their Forest Service Aero Commander and
mapping camera system.

assessments

fl rowing demands for natural resources
^Jand environmental preservation pose
complex challenges to our Nation’s future. Wit¬
ness controversies over energy development,
timber harvesting, pollution control and wil¬
derness preservation to name a few.

The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Re¬
sources Planning Act of 1974 (RPA) and the
National Forest Management Act of 1976
(NFMA) direct the Forest Service to intensify
planning for future management of National
Forest lands, for forestry research, and for
State and Private forestry assistance, to help
meet these challenges. In fact the Forest Serv¬
ice is to submit plans, in the form of a recom¬
mended agency program, to the President and
the Congress every five years.

This kind of planning requires lots of facts
from many sources. So RPA directs the Forest
Service to assemble the facts and assess the

status of the Nation’s renewable natural re¬
sources every 10 years. These assessments,
also submitted to the President and Congress,
are combined with public opinions and pro¬
fessional judgement to form the basis for For¬
est Service program proposals.

In June of 1976, the Resources Evaluation
Techniques Research and Development Pro¬
gram was established at Rocky Mountain For¬
est and Range Experiment Station to take a
lead role for improving and speeding ways of
making national resource assessments.

Other agencies such as the Bureau of Land
Management, Soil Conservation Service,
Economic Research Service, Fish and Wildlife
Service, Geological Survey and National Aero¬
nautics and Space Administration were asked
to participate. Several of these agencies are as¬
signing their own representatives to the
Program staff.

1

Research goals

The Program objective is to mold the best
available resource inventory and analysis tech¬
niques into an efficient system for assessing
multiple resources on public and private lands
nationwide. With information from all lands,
the Forest Service can do a better job of identi¬
fying those actions for lands and activities
within its scope of responsibility that will make
the most significant contribution to national
welfare.

The Program staff will concentrate on
ways to answer such questions as: Where are
the resources? How much is there? What is
their condition? How available are they? What
are the demands for them? How will changing
prices affect future demands? How will various
land and resource uses interact to affect future
supplies? What are the opportunities to im¬
prove productivity? How will human and en¬
vironmental welfare be affected by various re¬
source and land uses?

Oxygen mask is necessary at 25,000 feet as Dick
Myhre readies camera equipment during photo
mission.

Bob Dana, physicist, uses a microdensitometer to
scan aerial photographs. Color characteristics from
these photos define ground vegetation types. This
data is then stored on a digital computer tape for
later analysis.

Where sound techniques already exist for
answering these questions, they’ll be incor¬
porated into the system. Where there are gaps,
new techniques will be developed. Emphasis
will be on broad, multiresource inventories
rather than conventional single resource ap¬
proaches.

Initial research is focusing on five
problems that pose immediate barriers to a
multiresource assessment process.

1. Techniques are needed for inventorying
several resources simultaneously, rather than
individually as in the past. Integrating timber
and range inventories into a single process will
be the first step in this direction. Test sites for
developing the technique are located in South
Carolina, Colorado, and Washington. These
sites were selected to represent a variety of
vegetation, terrain and land use patterns in dif¬
ferent physiographic regions of the country. At
each location, the major components of an in¬
ventory system will be worked out: (a) the re¬
source and land parameters to measure; (b) the
measurement methods; (c) the sampling design
or designs; and (d) data processing procedures.
Major emphasis will be on evaluating the
utility of various sampling designs and remote
sensing techniques for making integrated re¬
sources inventories.

2

A sizable knowledge base already exists
for research in this area. For example, imagery
from the Earth Resources Technology Satellite
(LANDSAT) can be used to detect and meas¬
ure major changes in land use patterns. Con¬
version of rangeland or forest land to agricul¬
tural crop production or urban development
can already be determined from satellite
imagery. Reasonable estimates of timber or
range forage production have been made using
a combination of satellite imagery and aerial
photography in several areas. Program
scientists are determining the extent to which

For example, there are few available guidelines
for defining the relevant parameters to be
measured and evaluated for national assess¬
ments of outdoor recreation and wilderness,
especially for dispersed recreation opportuni¬
ties. Decisions to provide different outdoor rec¬
reation and wilderness experiences are often
constrained politically, socially, or by other re¬
source and land uses. The jobs here are to
define the parameters that must be measured,
and to develop techniques for evaluating those
measurements in relation to other resource
values.

Dick Francis, range scientist and Wally Greentree, forestry technician, interpret aerial photographs for
compiling natural resource inventory data.

these results may be applied to other sections
of the United States. Multilevel sampling
using ground measurements, and measure¬
ments from different aerial photograph scales,
has been applied in certain locations to identify
plant species and density, and areas covered by
specific plant communities. The efficiency of
these techniques is being evaluated, and modi¬
fied for application in other parts of the coun¬
try.

2. Inventory and assessment of outdoor
recreation and wilderness opportunities, and
wildlife and fish habitat pose special problems.

Wildlife and fish populations are mobile
and the habitat requirements for some species
cover extensive, highly diverse environments.
The thrust of research in this area is to define
those parameters essential to an effective na¬
tional assessment of habitat, singly or together
with other resource values like timber, range,
and watershed.

3. Analytical techniques for projecting fu¬
ture regional and national timber supplies
under various resource and market conditions
are deficient. Several operational models are al¬
ready available for projecting physical timber

3

supplies but these need to be modified for re¬
gional and national assessment application.

A technique for estimating and projecting
timber supplies based on economic constraints
will be demonstrated on a study area in the
South. The technique will take into account
such variables as closeness to market, physical
barriers in the woods, and condition of the
timber. After a practical technique is devel¬
oped, it will be further tested in other regions.
Program scientists expect to use existing
methods for predicting physical timber sup¬
plies as an integral part of projecting economic
availability.

4. The national data base for tabulating
and analyzing present and future standing
timber inventories, and supplies of wood
products after milling residue losses, needs a
great deal of improvement. Emphasis is on
bringing the data base up to standard for the
1980 RPA Timber Assessment. Regional
timber statistics gathered by Resources Eval¬
uation Units at other Experiment Stations are
being integrated into this national data base.

5. Efficient and effective mechanisms are
needed for storing, retrieving, displaying and
updating data bases required for national
assessments of forest and rangeland renew¬
able resources. Most current data bases have

Norm Merritt, computer programmer, intensifies
satellite imagery on a Spatial Data System color
image enhancer.

Resource assessment methods of today are far
ahead of those used in earlier times.

been constructed for functional use; timber
data bases for timber, and range data bases for
range, being examples. The goal here is a data
base that will contain basic resource informa¬
tion that can be withdrawn and displayed to
make multiresource decisions. Existing
systems will be used as fully as possible.

Results from the Resources Evaluation
Techniques Research and Development Pro¬
gram should greatly improve multiresource in¬
ventory and analysis procedures for use at re¬
gional and national levels. Plans call for partial
implementation in the 1980 National Assess¬
ment, and full implementation by 1990. The
ultimate payoff will be more up-to-date, ac¬
curate facts for developing regional and na¬
tional programs under the provisions of RPA
and NFMA.

If you desire more information or have
questions concerning this program, contact
Program Manager Richard S. Driscoll at the
Rocky Mountain Station, Ft. Collins, Colorado
- (303) 482-7332, (FTS 323-1264). i

i —By Richard S. Driscoll and
Phil Johnson, Rocky Mountain Station

4

mm

This lodgepole pine stand contains a large number of
standing dead trees in a range of deterioration
classes.

tands of dead trees that stretch for
miles in some parts of the West, silver¬
ing with each passing year, are figuratively
filled with gold. Many of the ghostly trunks
contain wood that is still sound and can be
profitably sawn into lumber.

“With a few exceptions, it has been as¬
sumed in the past that standing dead timber
had no value for lumber and was suited only for
chips,” says Dick Woodfin, leader of research
on Timber Quality Yields and Grades at the
Pacific Northwest Station in Portland, Oregon.
“Everyone recognized deterioration, but no
one really knew how rates of deterioration and
the length of time since death affect what a
sawmill can recover in products.”

Now results from two studies give proof
that much valuable lumber can be produced
from trees that have been dead for several
years. These findings may provide the
economic incentive to remove more standing
dead timber in the future.

The two studies were begun at the Pacific
Northwest Station in 1974. In one study, re¬
search forester Tom Fahey worked in eastern
Oregon with grand fir that had died in 1972
and 1973 following defoliation by the Douglas-
fir tussock moth. He found less than 5 percent
difference between the volume recovered from
trees dead for 2 years and comparable live
trees. The volume of lumber recovered from
live trees was 32.2 percent of the total tree vol¬
ume from stump to a 6-inch diameter top; from
the dead trees it was 27.5 percent. But because
of deterioration, more lumber from the dead
trees was classified in lower grades. The loss of
grade was more severe in small diameter logs
than large ones and was caused mainly by dry¬
ing checks. Losses from sap rots and ambrosia
beetles were minor.

Even with the volume losses, the value of
the dead trees was $43 per 100 cubic feet, com¬
pared with $59 per 100 cubic feet for live trees.
Expressed in dollars per thousand board feet of
lumber, the average value was $139 for green
trees and $125 for dead ones.

Study trees (133 live and 50 dead) were
logged and sawn into lumber by the same
methods used commercially every day. Fahey
worked directly with local timber and mill own¬
ers. The logging and sawmill crews received no
special training for the studies.

5

An additional study

At the same time the study on true fir was
being done, another study was producing strik¬
ingly similar results. Forest Products Tech¬
nologist Tom Snellgrove worked with standing
dead western white pine on the Clearwater Na¬
tional Forest in Idaho. This study was more
complex as it covered a greater range of time
since mortality. Some study trees had been
dead less than 2 years and some more than 7
years.

Snellgrove found that trees dead for up to
2 years had a value equal to 72 percent of the
value of live trees of comparable diameter and
quality. Trees dead for 3 to 6 years were worth
44 percent as much as live trees. The oldest
dead (7 years and more) were worth 29 percent
as much as live trees. Drying and subsequent
checking, combined with blue stain, were the
major causes of lower lumber grade in trees
dead 1 to 2 years. Checking caused less de¬
grade in the larger trees.

In both studies, the loss in volume and
value of dead trees showed up at three stages
of the logging and milling process: 1) fewer logs
were taken from the forest, due to breakage in
felling and handling; 2) because of defects, a
smaller amount of lumber was cut from logs at
the mill; and 3) more of the cut lumber was
classified in lower grades because of defects.

There are several reasons for the gradual
loss of lumber volume and grade in dead trees.
When a tree dies, microorganisms, molds,
fungi, and insects begin the long process of re¬
ducing the tree to its organic components,
which then become nutrients available to other
plants. During this process, the dead tree’s
needles turn brown and fall. The bark loosens
and slips away. As the tree loses moisture, the
outside dries faster than the interior, and
checks or cracks develop in the bole to relieve
the stress. Decay fungi, introduced by insects,
cause stains on the wood which reduce its value
as finishing lumber — although it may occa¬
sionally increase its value for some specialty
products. A tree that has no branches or crown
to cushion its fall is more likely to break when
felled. Because of breakage, the costs of
logging and processing are higher per unit of
product.

This 10-inch diameter white pine had been dead 3-6
years, and had no needles, twigs, or small branches.
Even with the deterioration indicated by the deep
checks, it contains a significant amount of usable
wood.

Volume estimates

Since several months or a year may elapse
before it is obvious that a tree is dead, there are
no precise counts of the number of standing
dead in the West. But there are estimates
based on forest surveys. Estimates in “Out¬
look for Timber in the United States” indicate
that in 1970, there were more than 11 billion
cubic feet of salvageable softwood sawtimber
killed by fire, insects, and other destructive
agents on commercial forest land in the west¬
ern United States. The amount of softwood
timber cut in the entire United States in 1970
was less than 9 billion cubic feet.

Estimates prepared in 1975 for a Forest
Service study team showed the following vol¬
umes, in billions of board feet, of accessible,

6

salvageable, dead, softwood timber on Na¬
tional Forest land in the West: lodgepole pine
2.48, Douglas-fir 1.07, ponderosa pine .36,
western white pine .45, and true firs and
spruces 1.20.

Excessive standing dead timber can pre¬
sent obstacles to good forest management — as
a fire hazard or a barrier to replanting. Some
dead trees are needed in every forest stand to
provide habitat for birds and other animals im¬
portant in forest ecosystems. Much dead
timber, however, is a resource that is going to
waste and is gradually losing value.

To help foster utilization of standing dead
timber, the Pacific Northwest Station’s Timber

Sample trees are selected to represent a range of dia¬
meters, stages of deterioration and timber quality.
After surface characteristics are recorded, the
sample tree is tagged with a number that is used to
identify all products it yields at the sawmill.

Quality research unit began product yield
studies in 1974. Before that time there had
been almost no work done that followed stand¬
ing dead timber through the sawmill to
finished lumber.

The results of Fahey’s and Snellgrove’s
studies were summarized in a paper Woodfin
presented at the Rocky Mountain Forest In¬
dustries Conference in Missoula, Montana, in
April 1976. Reprints of this paper, “Potentials
from Salvage Timber,’’ are available from the
Pacific Northwest Station.

Information on all studies is available
either in publications or by telephone from the
Timber Quality Unit. (Call 503/234-3361, Ext.
4966, or FTS 429-4966.)

The area covered by this research unit is
the geographical range of all western softwood
species. The unit’s research produces informa¬
tion of interest to industry in all states west of
the Rocky Mountains. A large portion of the
softwood timber from federal lands of the West
is valued for sale on the basis of information of
the type developed by this project. Close coop¬
erators are the Intermountain and Rocky
Mountain Stations, and the western regions of
the Forest Service. Extensive cooperation is re¬
ceived from the companies and associations of
the forest products industry. To assure uni¬
form standards, the lumber products are
graded under the supervision of a Western
Wood Products Association Quality Super¬
visor.

Looking to the future

During the next 3 years, Woodfin and his
staff will concentrate on studies of product re¬
covery from standing dead timber. Studies in¬
volving lodgepole pine and ponderosa pine are
currently underway. There will be additional
work on grand fir and western white pine.
Studies are planned also on Engelmann spruce,
western larch, ponderosa pine, and Sitka
spruce and western hemlock in Alaska.

Meanwhile, other research at the Pacific
Northwest Station and elsewhere is directed
toward understanding and preventing

7

Lumber of several dimensions and grades, cut from study trees at a cooperating sawmill, is sorted for
drying.

problems related to dead timber. Since the pri¬
mary cause of timber mortality is catastrophic
outbreaks of insects such as the Douglas-fir
tussock moth, the mountain pine beetle, the
western pine beetle, and the spruce budworm,
emphasis is on entomological studies.

Still other studies are trying to find out
how much dead material is needed in the forest
to provide nutrients for the next generation of
trees, and provide perching and nesting sites
for wildlife.

But for the millions of dead trees that are
not needed in the forests for nutrients or wild¬
life, Woodfin says: “We will be able to say more
accurately which dead trees may pay their way
through the sawmill. So far, the product recov¬
ery has been better than anyone thought it
would be.’’

—By Dorothy Bergstrom,
Pacific Northwest Station

8

Meeting
a forest's
nutrient needs

Forest trees have specific and complex
nutrient needs. All trees require not
only 13 nutrients from the soil, but they need
them in fairly specific amounts at various
stages of growth.

At the Pacific Southwest Forest and
Range Experiment Station, research forester
Robert F. Powers is working on a series of in¬
terrelated studies to determine nutrient re¬
quirements of commercially important pines
and true firs in the West.

He hopes to present methods and guide¬
lines that land managers can use to determine:
nutrient deficiencies on specific forest sites;
how and when to apply fertilizer to remedy
these deficiencies; and how management prac¬
tices, such as prescribed burning, harvesting,
and slash piling, affect soil nutrients.

Powers is attempting to improve — and
sometimes combine — several of the tech¬
niques used to determine when nutrients are
below “critical levels” and to relate these tech¬
niques more specifically to forest lands.

Powers believes, for example, that soil bio¬
assay doesn’t simulate forest field conditions
accurately enough. In conventional bioassays,
fast-growing plants, such as lettuce and barley,
are grown in soil samples treated with various
fertilizers. The soils and plants are analyzed to
determine possible deficiencies and to pinpoint
fertilizer treatments that will give the best re¬
sults.

Intact soil cores from an old-growth red fir forest are
seeded with fir in the greenhouse. Seedling yields
are compared with yields from cores taken under
other forest conditions to help evaluate effects of sil¬
vicultural treatments on soil fertility.

One of the problems with this technique
— in addition to the use of fast-growing plants
instead of conifers — is the fact that the soil
samples are carefully screened, sifted, and pro¬
cessed. Powers says that this alters important
soil properties, such as bulk density, aeration
and drainage, and nutrient distribution pat¬
terns.

For his test plants, he uses trees of the
same species and the same genetic makeup as
trees in the stands being analyzed. He also

9

Research Forester Robert Powers has grown mixed
conifer species in solution cultures as a preliminary
step in determining their nutritional requirements.

uses “plugs” — intact, soil-profile cores taken
from depths near the current rooting zone
(about 30 cm deep). This technique “brings
some of the natural variability of the field plot
into the greenhouse.” His preliminary results
show that his core samples are more accurate
indicators of field response to fertilizers than
are the conventional sieved samples.

Counteracting problems

Powers also cites problems with conven¬
tional soil chemical analyses. One is that nu¬
trients shown in the analysis may be in
crystalline or organic forms that trees can’t ab¬
sorb. Another problem is that standard
methods usually were developed for agricul¬
tural crops and have not been evaluated prop¬
erly for wildland trees. To counteract this, he
has compared chemical extractants, such as
sodium bicarbonate, in simulating how trees
absorb phosphorus, a mineral that is often defi¬
cient in forest soils. So far, sodium bicarbonate
has proved the best of several extractants. He
has shown, for example, that the critical level
for phosphorus is 25 parts per million for
young seedlings of ponderosa pine and white
fir.

He recommends combining bioassay and
chemical analysis with foliar analysis of tree
needs. His experiments have shown that criti¬
cal levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in pon¬
derosa pine, Douglas-fir, and white fir range be¬
tween 0.9 and 1.1 percent of the dry weight of
recently matured needles for nitrogen, depend¬
ing on species, and 0.15 percent for phos¬
phorus.

Powers used the combination of foliar
analysis and soil chemical analysis to relate the
nitrogen-supplying power of soil to site index.
Using foliage and soil samples collected from
stands of ponderosa pine in northern Cali¬
fornia, he measured the amount of soil nitrogen
available to trees, and correlated it to site
index and to nitrogen levels in the needles. His
results showed that site index for ponderosa
pine increased linearly with available soil nitro¬
gen, up to about 20 parts per million. Above
that level, site index did not improve signifi¬
cantly.

10

Comparing foliage nutrients

Powers has found that foliage analysis is a
quick and reliable way to determine if nutrient
conditions of brushland sites are suitable for
planting conifers. At more than 80 locations in
California and southern Oregon, he is compar¬
ing the foliage nutrients in conifers to those in
manzanita, a shrub that grows in association
with ponderosa pine and other tree species. As
far as he knows, the study is the first of its
kind in the Western U.S. He has established a
correlation between the levels of nitrogen,
phosphorus, magnesium, and iron in manza¬
nita foliage and the nutrient levels needed for
ponderosa pine. He concludes that site index
for ponderosa pine can be predicted from ni¬
trogen levels in manzanita foliage.

Soils in forest nurseries present special
problems because they are continually tilled,
planted, fertilized, and irrigated. Nutrients are
lost, either through uptake by seedlings or
through leaching. Through combinations of
foliar and soil analysis, Powers hopes to de¬
velop fertilizer prescriptions for nursery beds
that will counteract the expected nutrient loss¬
es.

Powers is also working on nutrient prob¬
lems in red fir stands at high elevations. On one
site he found that red fir and greenleaf manza¬
nita seedlings, growing in an area of scalped
topsoil, had low foliar nitrogen content, while
snowbrush, a nitrogen-fixing species, had rela¬
tively high levels. To see whether a fertilization
schedule can counteract the problems of imma¬
ture soils and the slow rate at which nutrients
are taken up, he is monitoring the effect of ap¬
plications of nitrogen — alone or in combina¬
tion with other nutrients.

At high elevations, the low temperatures
slow down the rate at which litter and other or¬
ganic matter on the forest floor decompose,
which results in needed nutrients being bound
up in the litter. So, at another red fir site, he is
trying various combinations of thinning and
fertilization with nitrogen, to see whether the
decomposition rate can be increased to release
nutrients for tree use. The University of Cali¬
fornia, Berkeley, is cooperating in this study.

In a study of mineral cycling and fertilization in a
mixed-conifer plantation, soil temperatures are
monitored through probes.

Powers is also trying to learn more about
the long-range effect of various forest manage¬
ment practices. At a site on the Swain Moun¬
tain Experimental Forest in the Cascades
where slash had been burned in an extremely
hot fire, he found trees with foliar concentra¬
tions of nitrogen about 20 percent less than
concentrations in trees on nearby unburned or
lightly burned areas. Soil bioassays showed
serious nitrogen and phosphorus deficiencies,
and available nitrogen was almost 40 percent
less than that on undisturbed stands. Powers
says these results suggest that it may take
more than a decade to rebuild nitrogen concen¬
trations after a hot slash fire.

11

Fertilization plan

Powers’ ideas for improving nutrient
analysis techniques have been incorporated in
a cooperative forest fertilization plan now
being tried by the Pacific Southwest Station
and the National Forests of California. The
program was started in 1975 and will continue
through 1985, with the objective of producing
mathematical models foresters can use to pre¬
dict forest response to nitrogen fertilizer. The
study will eventually encompass 50 sites that
are representative of commercial, sapling-to-
sawtimber stands in California. Stands will be
weeded, thinned, and treated with 0, 224 and
448 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare. For 5
years following fertilizer treatments, changes
in the chemistry of soil and foliage will be moni¬
tored, and tree and stand growth will be meas¬
ured.

Powers has based his forest nutrition
studies on two principles. “The first,” he says,
“is that soil fertility is one of our fundamental
resources, and is the primary factor controlling
forest productivity that we can influence di¬
rectly. To maintain soil fertility, we need to
evaluate it scientifically to see how it changes
under differing forest practices.”

In discussing his second principle, he says:
“Fertilization remains one of the few ways we
have of improving site quality. If fertilization
is to become a beneficial, reliable, and economic
technique in forestry, we need to know — be¬
fore we apply fertilizer — exactly what biologi¬
cal, ecological, and economic returns we can
expect.”

Forestry Research readers who need fur¬
ther information on the studies described here
are welcome to write: Robert F. Powers, Pacific
Southwest Station, 1615 Continental Street,
Redding, CA 96001, or to phone him at (916)
246-5455 (on ^TS phone: 461-8455).

— By Marcia Wood, Pacific Southwest Station

To chart the movement of nitrogen through the soil profile of a red fir forest, soil solutions are extracted and
taken to the laboratory for chemical analysis.

12

References are recorded on magnetic tape to be fed into the computer.

FIREBASE:

transferring fire information

fcJuppose you are a fire management
kJ7officer in an area where the accumula¬
tion and treatment of forest residues is a com¬
plex problem. You know that solving the
problem requires sound decisions based on the
latest and best fuels management knowledge
available. You know that fuel management
problems are being studied, and that the infor¬
mation you need probably is available in re¬
ports and published articles. Unfortunately,
you don’t have time to make the comprehen¬

sive literature search required to locate them.
And if you did find the necessary research
documents, they might be so filled with metho¬
dology and scientific jargon that you could not
clearly understand the author’s results in the
reading time you have. You need a quick, de¬
pendable source of fuels information that is
useful, to the point, and easily understood.

If this scenario sounds like a situation you
have faced, take heart. The type of information
you need is now available — from FIREBASE.

13

FIREBASE supplies, upon request, biblio¬
graphic citations and informative digests of
published and unpublished items pertinent to
every facet of forest and range fires.

What is FIREBASE

FIREBASE, the fire information segment
of the computer assisted Renewable Resources

Technical Information System (RRTIS), was
developed by the Intermountain Station’s Fire
in Multiple-Use Management Research, Devel¬
opment, and Apphcation Program located at
the Northern Forest Fire Laboratory,
Missoula, Montana. Alan Taylor, research for¬
ester, spearheaded the effort to provide techni¬
cal information from Wildland fire hterature
quickly and in the most usable form, to anyone
in the international fire community.

FIREBASE can respond to your information request by supplying bibliographic citations and digests.

m 169 ####

<ID >FB-7 5-4455 B

<AUTH0R >

<C0RP AU >U.S, Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific
Northwest Region, Division of Fire Management.

<DATE >17 Jan 1975

<TITLE >Timber Shaded Fuel Breaks in Region Six.

< PUB DESOR-6 Fuel Management Notes. 6 p. 2 ref. 1 tab. U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region,
Division of Fire Management, Portland, OR, USA.

LANGUAGE >In En

<N0TES >Volume 3 Number 1.

<SUBJECT >

<T0PIC >Fuel Management; Fire Management

<KEYSUG >Fire Presuppression; Fuel Breaks; Economics

<GE0 >North America, USA, Great Basin and Pacific Slope States,

Pacific Northwest (USA), Washington; Oregon

ABSTRACT >

<P >Almost 300 miles of shaded fuel -breaks have been constructed

in the Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service. Unlike
stands which are thinned to remove brush, heavy ground fuels, snags,
and dead trees. Ladder fuels are removed from the remaining trees in
the stand. Frequently, both the quality and quantity of timber
produced in a stand increases after construction of a shaded
fuel-break.

<S >The average cost of constructing a mile of shaded fuel-break

in the Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service was about
$4,000 in 1974. A table shows: the location of shaded fuel-breaks
constructed on each of the national forests in the Pacific Northwest,
the miles of fuel-break constructed, the miles under construction,
average width, cost per mile, location on the slope, and the method of
fundi ng .

14

FI RE BASE digests usually have two
parts; the <P>, or “Principal Message”
section, and the <S>, or “Specifics” section.
For items dealing with scientific studies, a
typical <P> section is a plain language, re-
sults-oriented paragraph that states the
problem, the research and the results. A typi¬
cal <S> section provides details on metho¬
dology, parameters measured, mathematical
equations, and other specifics. It does not,
however, contain numerical data or tabular in¬
formation collected in the research process.
Some digests do describe the kinds, sources,
and amounts of data contained in the original
documents.

A small but important part of FIREBASE
is fire-related training information. Seventeen
types of training items, including training
schedules, motion pictures, and video tapes are
described in specialized digests. This material

Alan Taylor screens documents for FIREBASE.

should help in the design and implementation
of training programs.

If copyright and other regulations permit,
original documents selected for FIREBASE
are recorded on microfilm (microfiche). Micro¬
fiche copies are available to users who, after
reading a FIREBASE digest, feel they need
additional information.

Current status

FIREBASE is a small-but-growing data¬
base, with about 3,500 items on file. If you are
a land manager, scientist, administrator, edu¬
cator, or anyone else having a fire information
need, anywhere in the world, you may find that
FIREBASE is useful — today. Five major
access centers across the United States are
awaiting your telephone call or written request.

15

If it is necessary to charge for microfiche or
photocopies, you will be notified of the costs
before they are incurred. At present, there is no
charge for other FIREBASE services. Ulti¬
mately, FIREBASE and other databases of
RRTIS will be operated on a cost recovery
basis, with individuals or their organizations
paying nominal fees.

To put FIREBASE into action: 1) think
carefully about the kind of fire information you
need; 2) call or write the nearest FIREBASE
Access Center; and 3) express your need as
specifically as possible. The Access Center
operator will search the computer file and send
the resulting printout of citations and digests
to you, usually within 3 days.

The Access Centers are:

FIREBASE Access Center

Science Information Services

PSW Forest & Range Experiment Station

P.O. Box 245

Berkeley, CA 94701

Telephone: (415) 486-3688

FTS: 449-3688

FIREBASE Access Center
USDA Forest Service, S&PF
1720 Peachtree Road, NW
Atlanta, GA 30309
Telephone: (404) 881-3734
FTS: 257-3734

FIREBASE Operations Center
Boise Interagency Fire Center
3905 Vista Avenue
Boise, ID 83705
Telephone: (208) 384-9458
FTS: 554-9458

FIREBASE Access Center
U.S. Dept, of the Interior
Natural Resources Library
Research Services Branch
Washington, D.C. 20240
Telephone: (202) 343-3896
FTS: 343-3896

FIREBASE Access Center
USDA Forest Service
Forest Fire & Atmospheric
Sciences Research
P.O. Box 2417
Washington, D.C. 20013
Telephone: (703) 235-8195
FTS: 235-8195

Like other Forest Service computerized
systems with potential national and interna¬
tional application, FIREBASE will be tested
and evaluated for the next two years. During
this period, FIREBASE is under the admin¬
istration of the Deputy Chief for State and Pri¬
vate Forestry, Forest Service USDA, and is
headquartered at the FIREBASE Operations
Center, Boise Interagency Fire Center, Boise,
Idaho. Douglas H. Baker, S&PF coordinator at
the Center, has been assigned program man¬
agement responsibilities. Questions and com¬
ments about FIREBASE should be directed to
him.

Major cooperators in the development of
FIREBASE are fire-related divisions of the
Forest Service, the Forest Service Technical
Information Office, the Bureau of Land Man¬
agement, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories
of the Energy Research and Development Ad¬
ministration. International cooperation with
the Agricultural Research Information System
(AGRIS-Forestry) under development by FAO
of the United Nations, is coordinated by the
Forest Service Technical Information Office.

You can help

To serve you better, the FIREBASE file
must grow. You can play an important role in
the expansion. If you have fire-related informa¬
tion that you feel should be shared with the fire
community, you are urged to send it to Ms.
Karen L. Eckels, Assistant Manager of the
FIREBASE program, FIREBASE Operations
Center, Boise, Idaho 83705. If the items are al¬
ready in the system, they will be returned im¬
mediately. Digesting and microfiching new ma¬
terials may take as long as 5 months.

—By Alan R. Taylor, Intermountain
Station; and Karen L. Eckels,
FIREBASE Operations Center.

16

Publications

Seeking answers from
the past

Researchers at the Intermountain
Station are obtaining historical fire infor¬
mation from objects that have been re¬
cording data for over 300 years — fire-
scarred trees.

Ecologist Stephen F. Arno of the Sta¬
tion’s Forest Ecosystems research work
unit, Missoula, developed a study to deter¬
mine historical frequency, intensity, and
influence of fire on stand structure and
composition in various forest types of the
Bitterroot National Forest in west-central
Montana. He and other researchers dated
nearly 900 individual fire scars on living
trees, and analyzed age classes of shade-
intolerant trees attributable to fire.

Results of the study show that fire
was historically a major force in stand de¬
velopment in all forest types, but its sig¬
nificance has decreased markedly during
the past 50 years, possibly because of or¬
ganized fire suppression.

Arno’s findings are detailed in “The
Historical Role of Fire on The Bitterroot
National Forest,” INT-RP-187-FR-11,
available from the Intermountain Station.

Applying the multiple use
principle

The multiple use doctrine is part of
the guiding philosophy of the Forest Serv¬
ice, but its effective implementation is a
difficult task. A recently published paper
titled “Alternatives Analysis for Multiple
Use Management: A Case Study,” by
Thomac C. Brown, Economist with the
Rocky Mountain Station, presents an ap¬
plication of the multiple use principle us¬
ing economic analysis to evaluate manage¬
ment alternatives on a mixed conifer
watershed. Physical yields of sawtimber,
pulpwood, water, and forage, and effects
on wildlife habitat and esthetics are esti¬
mated for six alternatives reflecting a
variety of management emphases. Where
possible, yields and costs of the alterna¬
tives are valued in dollars. The analysis is
presented in a form that facilitates explicit
identification of tradeoffs, in dollars where
possible, and provides an easy way of iso¬
lating, and in most cases quantifying, the
most relevant tradeoffs.

Copies of Research Paper RM-176-FR-
11 are available upon request from the
Rocky Mountain Station.

17

Regeneration and cutting
methods

One of the forester’s most difficult
jobs is to match regeneration cutting
methods to a given landscape and to speci¬
fic silvicultural objectives.

Two publications by Philip M. Mc¬
Donald, research forester at the Pacific
Southwest Station, suggest that each
cutting method has unique merits and
that, through planning, the forest man¬
ager can capitalize on these merits.

In the first paper, McDonald eval¬
uates the regeneration of five species of
conifers, three of hardwoods, and two
shrubs after use of five different cutting
methods — clearcutting, seed tree, shelter-
wood, group selection, and single-tree se¬
lection. His evaluation was made in terms
of seedling stocking, density, and height
growth.

In the second paper, McDonald de¬
scribes an evaluation of a two-stage shel-
terwood cut to determine changes in
species composition and stand structure,
seedfall, regeneration, and growth of the
residual stand.

The results showed increased
amounts of seed and seedlings, plus ac¬
celerated growth in residual stands. They
indicated that shelterwood cutting should
be attractive to a wide range of landown¬
ers, including those having small acreage
and limited capital.

Copies of both papers are available
from the Pacific Southwest Station.
Request: “Forest Regeneration and Seed¬
ling Growth from Five Major Cutting
Methods in North Central California,”
PSW-115-FR-11; and “Shelterwood
Cutting in a Young-Growth Mixed-Conifer
Stand in North Central California,” PSW-
117-FR-ll.

The cubics are coming

The Forest Service plans to be ready
to sell stumpage by the cubic foot rather
than the board foot by 1980. This means
that people who buy and process timber
will have to be ready to use the new meas¬
ure to describe logs and product potential.
A recent publication from the Pacific
Northwest Station points out that infor¬
mation currently or potentially available
on product yields and log volume can be
used in making the transition from board
feet to cubic measurements.

The authors show how to calculate
both lumber and veneer recovery from log
volume and figure the product recovery
ratio in cubic measure. They also point out

18

that conversion from cubic measure to
metric is a simple mathematical process.

Researchers have already concluded
that cubic measure is the only satisfactory
way to express product recovery from
standing dead timber (see “The Legacy of
the Standing Dead” in this issue). Because
of scaling defect in dead timber, dollars
per thousand board feet, net Scribner
scale — the traditional expression of
timber value — may be meaningless. The
value is best described in such terms as
dollars per 100 cubic feet of tree or log
volume.

Reprints of the article “The Cubics
are Coming: Predicting Product Recovery
from Cubic Volume,” by Thomas D.
Fahey and Richard O. Woodfin, Jr.,
Journal of Forestry, November 1976, are
available from the Pacific Northwest Sta¬
tion.

Should cubic be metric?

Should we leap from the board foot di¬
rectly to the cubic metre for forestry
measurements, bypassing the cubic foot?
Dave Bruce, project leader for mensura¬
tion at the Pacific Northwest Station,
thinks it is worth consideration. Bruce is
chairman of the Metrication Committee of
the Society of American Foresters, one of
the many committees now at work to plan
orderly conversion to metric measurement
in the United States.

In an article appearing in the Novem¬
ber 1976 issue of the Society’s journal,
Bruce invited discussion on the selection
of metric units for use in forestry when the
voluntary conversion is made. He sug¬
gests that U.S. foresters agree now on

what metric units are suitable, conven¬
ient, and necessary for use in forestry. In
doing this, he says, they might consider
adopting the proposals already worked
out in Canada and scheduled for use in
that country in 1979. The Canadian pro¬
posals call for measuring trees and logs by
the cubic metre, in place of the board foot,
as now defined by six different log rules.
Bruce suggests that in the United States,
where more than six board foot log rules
are in use, the logical move would be from
the board foot directly to the cubic metre.

Reprints of “Metrication: What’s
Next?” by David Bruce, Journal of For¬
estry, November 1976, are available from
the Pacific Northwest Station.

19

Provenance studies
results

Results of provenance studies in east¬
ern Nebraska in growth, survival and
other traits of three conifer species have
been published.

“Douglas-fir in Eastern Nebraska: A
Provenance Study” (Research Paper RM-
178-FR-ll) describes an 11-year field test
of rangewide provenances of Douglas-fir
in that area. It reveals that height and
growth rates are inversely correlated with
latitude of origin. Progeny of seed origins
from Arizona and New Mexico grew two
to three times faster than those from
northern Colorado, western Montana, and
northern Idaho. Arizona and New Mexico
origins are recommended for Christmas
trees. Slower growing but winter-hardy
northern Colorado origins are recom¬
mended for other types of planting.

The second study is detailed in ‘‘East¬
ern White Pine in Eastern Nebraska: A
Provenance Study of Southern Appala¬
chian Origins” (Research Paper RM-179-
FR-11). It states that eastern white pines
from 36 origins in the southern Appala¬
chians have grown rapidly during 7 years
in an eastern Nebraska plantation.
Neither survival nor height growth were

correlated with latitude of origin. South¬
ern origins in general had the longest
needles, while northern origins flowered
first. Most origins are recommended for
ornamentals and Christmas trees only in
eastern Nebraska; none are recommended
for windbreaks.

Results of the third study are pub¬
lished in ‘‘Austrian (European Black) Pine
in Eastern Nebraska: A Provenance
Study” (Research Paper RM-180-FR-11).
This study found that heights, growth
rates, flowering, cone production, needle
dimensions, and resistance to Dothi-
stroma needle blight differed significantly
among 25 rangewide origins in a 12-year
test. The fastest growing origin, also of
highest resistance to Dothistroma needle
blight, was from Yugoslavia; this origin is
recommended for eastern Nebraska, and is
now being widely planted in a state action
program.

Ralph A. Read, research forester and
John A. Sprackling, forestry technician,
Rocky Mountain Station, coauthored the
first two reports, and Read the third.

Copies of these papers, along with pre¬
viously reported provenance studies of
Scots pine, Research Paper RM-78; jack
pine, Research Paper RM-143; and red
pine, Research paper RM-144 for the East¬
ern Plains can be obtained by writing the
Rocky Mountain Station.

Planning for range
resource management

About 58 million acres of rangeland
under Forest Service management are
suitable for grazing. It is estimated that
improved planning for direct management
and range rehabilitation could produce an
increase of more than 80 percent in Ani¬
mal Unit Months per year.

Range RAM (Resource Allocation
Method) is a computerized planning

20

6 U.S. Government Printing Office: 1 9 7 7-7 79 -6 93/ 21 6 Region 8

method for lands used mainly for grazing
by either livestock or big game. As a
planning tool, it will help managers on
decisions and calculations on cost of range
maintenance, improvement and utiliza¬
tion, harvested forage, animal months of
grazing, rental fee income, and net
revenue.

Three computer programs form the
basic components of Range RAM to pro¬
vide the planner help with: analysis of a
wide spectrum of management activities;
formulation of alternative combinations of
activities; and formulation of problem
solutions that are optimum in an economic
sense and feasible in terms of social, politi¬
cal, and environmental criteria.

The program is described, and proc¬
esses for its use are outlined in Research
Paper PSW-120-FR-11, “RANGE
RAM ... a long-term planning method for
managing grazing lands,” by Henricus C.
Jansen.

The brief Research Paper serves as an
introduction only. Detailed instructions
are available in a three-part Range RAM
User’s Manual, which is available on re¬
quest from the Pacific Southwest Station.

Aspen symposium
proceedings

A symposium on utilization and mar¬
keting of Rocky Mountain aspen was held
September 8 and 9, 1976 in Fort Collins,
Colorado. The gathering was organized to
explore aspen product potentials as they
relate to more intensive management of
this species in the West.

The 33 papers presented at the meet¬
ing cover 5 areas: perspectives on Rocky
Mountain aspen resource; aspen ecology
and harvesting responses; market oppor¬
tunities and limitations; research ad¬
vances in aspen utilization; and applying

research information to aspen manage¬
ment decisions.

You may obtain a copy of the proceed¬
ings, “Utilization and Marketing as Tools
for Aspen Management in the Rocky
Mountains,” by writing the Rocky Moun¬
tain Station. Request General Technical
Report RM-29-FR-11.

Keep a close watch for our next issue.
Feature articles will include information
on: forest habitat types of Montana;
avalanche and blowing snow research;
habitat requirements of woodpeckers; and
more.

If you know of someone who would be
interested in this publication, he or she
can be added to the mailing list by filling
out the coupon below and mailing it to us.

i -

Please add my name to the mail¬
ing list for Forestry Research:
What's New in the West:

ZIP

Mail to: Forestry Research:

What's New in the
West

U.S. Dep. of Agriculture
Forest Service

240 W. Prospect St.
Fort Collins, CO 80521

21

national agricultural library

1022856737

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