Treesearch

Oregon maintained its high level of timber harvest in 1965 with an output of 9.4 billion board feet. This was the first time since 1926 that production remained unchanged in 2 consecutive years. The harvest from private lands remained stable at 4 billion feet, or 43 percent of the total. Forest industry's cut declined 2 percent (83 million board feet) from 1964, whereas other private landowners increased their cut by 17 percent (103 million feet). Forest industry's share of private production was 83 percent in 1965 compared with 85 percent in 1964.

A sawmill, built in 1872, marked the beginning of the forest industry in eastern Washington -- almost half a century after the emergence of the lumber industry in western Washington. Since then, this industry has increased in importance to eastern Washington's economy, now furnishing about one-fifth of the total manufacturing employment and wages paid—in some counties and many communities, it is the major source of employment and wages. In 1962, various forest products firms paid about $43 million in wages to more than 8,000 employees (Washington Employment Security Department 1963).

Washington's timber harvest increased for the fourth consecutive year in 1965 to 6.5 billion board feet. This 4-percent increase was not as great as the 15 percent experienced in 1964. The total timber harvest reached the highest level since 1929, with most of the increased production occurring in western Washington.

Whole plant lethal points of foliage moisture content (FMC) for ponderosa pine, sugar pine, Douglas-fir, grand fir, and incense-cedar were established from foliage tissue of various ages. Exact lethal level depended upon the age of the tissue, but there was a general plateau between the ages 6 and 13 months for sugar pine and Douglas-fir and 3 and 13 months for incense-cedar. Whole plant relative turgidity (RT) lethal points were set for the pines and firs using 13-month-old needles. Dry-weight loss upon soaking the needles was found to increase with the severity of the drought, especially...

Recent emphasis on the measurement of upper stem tree diameters with optical dendrometers has directed attention to procedures for converting these outside-bark diameters to inside-bark diameters. One procedure that has been used requires an assumption that the ratio of diameter inside bark to diameter outside bark (henceforth called bark factor) remains the same up the stem. If this is true, bark factor measured at some reachable point on the lower stem (e.g., 4.5 feet) could be applied to diameter outside bark at any point on the upper stem to estimate diameter inside bark at that point.

The statistics on hardwood timber volume and type area presented here are being made available in response to the increasing interest in this resource in western Oregon and western Washington. These estimates are based on data obtained by the U.S. Forest Service in the course of timber inventories carried out by National Forest Administration on National Forest lands and by the nationwide Forest Survey on the remaining public and private lands.

This publication summarizes the results of the latest reinventory of four counties centrally located in western Oregon: Benton, Lane, Lincoln, and Linn. This block of four counties is one of 10 such blocks set up in the States of Oregon and Washington by the Forest Survey to facilitate orderly reinventories of the timber resources. Each block will be reinventoried at 10-year intervals and the results published in a single report for the block, The five blocks in Oregon are northwest Oregon, west-central Oregon, southwest Oregon, central Oregon, and eastern Oregon.

Listing of the numbered series lists and anonymous miscellaneous publications published by the Pacific Northwest Research Station through 1964.

The 1964 timber harvest was 6.2 billion board feet—an increase of 15 percent over 1963 (table 1). Total timber harvest for both western Washington and the State reached the highest level since 1929. A new all-time high in production was also recorded for eastern Washington—1 billion board feet.

The production of logs in Oregon in 1964 was 9.4 billion board feet, or nearly 9 percent above 1963. This year, 1964, had the third highest level of log production in history, exceeded only in 1955 and in 1952. The proportion of total cut from private lands fell to 43 percent, even though the total private cut increased 6 percent over that in 1963. Forest industry, accounting for 85 percent of the private production, had the greatest absolute increase, 291 million board feet.