Treesearch

In southwestern Oregon, the first pilot-scale direct seeding of sugar pine produced a well-stocked stand of seedlings on a 45-acre tract. Control of seed-eating rodents was accomplished by spot-baiting with 1080-treated wheat before seeding, by spot-baiting with thallium sulfate-treated wheat in late December, and by broadcast-baiting with 1080-treated wheat in early May. In November, seed was placed in the ground less than an inch deep in spots spaced 4 x 8 feet apart. Seeding and poisoning combined required approximately one man-day per seeded acre.

There is a close relation between occurrences of severe easterly winds and large forest fires in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington. With the east winds comes the dreaded combination of low humidity and high wind that in the past has whipped small fires into conflagrations such as the Tillamook fire of 1933 and the fire that burned Bandon in 1936. These easterly winds are of the foehn type, typically dry because they are downslope winds.

Many persons question the wisdom of harvesting timber in forested drainages that supply municipal water. In the Douglas-fir region of the Pacific Northwest there are examples of logging that support this viewpoint but others as well that tend to refute it. Some municipal water supplies have been damaged and yet in other cases relatively little harm has been done.

Very productive forest land, capable of producing 1,000 to 1,500 board-feet of softwood per acre per year, is common in the "fog belt" along the Oregon Coast. Good forest management requires that this valuable land be kept in constant production with minimum time lost during the regeneration period. Also, if the land is to be managed for conifer production, prompt regeneration is essential to keep seedlings ahead of fast-growing native hardwoods and brush. One way to meet these objectives is to plant seedlings for the next rotation as soon as possible after harvesting mature timber. There...

Relative accuracy of several wind-speed forecasting methods was tested during the forest fire seasons of 1950 and 1951. For the study, three fire-weather forecast centers of the U. S. Weather Bureau prepared individual station forecasts for 11 peak stations within the national. forests of Oregon and Washington. These spot forecasts were considered the best forecasts available. They were compared with routine area forecasts, with forecasting aids suggested for use by forest-protection agencies, and with some routine statistical forecasts often used in comparing accuracy of forecasting...

A European insect, commonly called the balsam woolly aphid or chermes, is damaging and killing true fir (Abies) in western Oregon and Washington. Some 350,000 acres are known to be infested. Tree killing has reached the point where concerted action is needed. Major salvage plans are being developed by private, state, and federal forest managers to utilize as much of the dead and dying timber as possible. Studies of the insect and means of controlling it are underway and are being expanded.

Port-Orford-cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana (A. Murr.) Parl.) has been the most widely used introduced species in reforestation projects in western Washington and Oregon. However, as a result of two recent and unrelated occurrences, a severe early cold wave and a destructive root disease, the advisability of continued planting of Port-Orford-cedar outside its natural range is questioned.

Selective herbicides are being used on an increasing scale to kill undesirable plants in the Pacific Northwest. On forest lands, chemical control affords one of the most promising means for prey paring for reforestation, areas now occupied by brush or weeds.

Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon occupy important water-producing lands. These forests generally occur at middle to high elevations on north slopes, where a substantial portion of the precipitation is snow. To learn more about the influence of lodgepole pine forests on accumulation of mow and rate of snowmelt, a series of measurements was made of the snow pack during the winter and spring of 1957 in an area typical of the lodgepole pine type.

Severity of 1957 fire weather west of the Cascade Range summit in Oregon and Washington was near the average of the previous 10 years. The season (April 1 through October 31) was slightly more severe than 1956 in western Oregon and about the same as 1956 in western Washington. Spring fire weather was near average severity in both western Washington and western Oregon. Summer was below normal severity in western Washington and above normal in western Oregon. Fall was more severe than average in both states.