Treesearch

In February 1952 the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station described ( Research Note 13) a new log-grading scale stick developed by the Station for use as a visual aid in grading hardwood factory logs. It was based on the U. S. Forest Products Laboratory's log-grade specifications.

Measurements of growth in a white pine stand in the Massabesic Experimental Forest over a 15-year period show that some trees contribute more than three times as much volume as other trees of the same size and species.

During the last 50 years Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana Miller) has emerged as a tree of commercial importance. Once regarded as a weed species, Virginia pine is short-lived and limby, but it makes rapid early growth. It is used chiefly for pulpwood. Some sawlogs are cut from older stands, but they yield only common-grade lumber. Occasionally an older, well-formed stand will produce some piling.

Up until the last decade, practically no forest-management work had been done in stands of Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana Miller). It is still common practice to clear-cut the stand - with no consideration for a future crop. In some places this has resulted in satisfactory establishment of another pine stand. But usually hardwoods take over the site after two such cuttings.

Since the prescribed use of fire is a fairly new silvicultural technique for preparing seedbeds for pine in the New Jersey pine region, it has been used rather cautiously. Burning treatments have been made in the winter, when periodic light fires can be easily controlled. The treatments have been used almost exclusively on upland sites.

Many wood-using plants in the Northeast store large quantities of hardwood logs for rather long periods. Sometimes a large volume of the wood is spoiled by decay during the storage period. A number of people have asked: "How can we prevent this loss?"

The successful forest manager has a number of well-stocked stands containing trees that are sound, useful, and fast-growing. Each stand and each tree is increasing in value fast enough that its rate of earning equals or exceeds the earnings from comparable investments.

In the northern hardwood region, second-growth stands occupy thousands of acres. These stands are of all ages, in all conditions. They were brought about by fire, charcoal and fuelwood cuttings, land abandonment, or a combination of these causes.

The Forest Survey is a Nation-wide activity of the Forest Service. The fivefold purpose of the Forest Survey is: (1) to make a field inventory of the present supply of standing timber; (2) to find out how fast this supply is being increased through growth; (3) to find out how fast it is being diminished through industrial and domestic uses, windfall, fire, disease, and other causes; (4) to determine the present consumption and the probable future trend in requirements for forest products, and ( 5) to interpret and correlate these findings with existing and anticipated economic conditions...