Treesearch

While fire-weather severity remained low for the third successive year in western Washington, 1955 brought near normal fire weather to western Oregon for the first time since 1952. Temperatures were cooler than normal throughout the season in both half States, with record or near record lows for April, May, and July. April, July, and October were unusually rainy while August was the driest of record in both western Oregon and western Washington.

A better job of regeneration on cutover areas can be done if foresters know what areas are difficult to regenerate and what sort of practices are best for the difficult areas. A study recently completed at Cascade Head Experimental Forest has supplied that sort of information for a typical spruce-hemlock clearcut. Nearly a fifth of the area was still unstocked 6 years after logging, but this condition need not happen again. Most problem areas can be readily identified, and special treatments applied soon enough can insure better seedling establishment.

Production of white fir lumber in the western pine region amounted to a little more than a billion board feet in 1954, or about 13 percent of the output of pine-region sawmills. Moreover, production of the white fir lumber is expanding, and it is important to know what grades of lumber can be expected so that timber and log values can be more accurately appraised.

What lumber-grade and yield recovery is possible from thinnings in low Site III, 110-year-old, young-growth Douglas -fir stand? A lumber-grade recovery study of sawtimber cut in recent thinning experiments at the Wind River Experimental Forest, Skamania County, Washington, gives some idea of the answer. The thinning experiments were designed to determine increment and yield of young Douglas-fir stands in the older age classes, which are approaching final harvest. As part of the study to determine whether such cuttings are justified economically, the lumber yield of timber cut in the...

During January 1955, a study was made at the American Forest Products Corporation mill in Lakeview, Oregon, to determine the grades of lumber that can be expected from ponderosa pine timber grown in the Lakeview area of Oregon. All logs cut for a full week at this mill were scaled and graded and all the lumber produced was graded and tallied on the green chain by individual logs. The lumber was kiln dried, surfaced, and again graded. Lumber grades shown in this report are based on dry surfaced material.

Experiments in seedspotting sugar pine have been conducted for more than 3 years in the South Umpqua drainage of southwestern Oregon. Observations from studies in progress and results of completed studies have indicated some of the necessary requirements for success. Though not complete and fully tested, this information is summarized for use in field projects. Some of the points discussed are equally applicable to direct seedings of other species, particularly ponderosa pine.

Estimates of breast height diameter outside bark for trees as of some previous date are required in certain kinds of forest growth studies. These past diameters may be found by subtracting total diameter growth from known present diameters, where total diameter growth is the sum of wood growth and bark growth.

An understanding of the ways slash burning may affect seedling growth is important in evaluating present slash-disposal practices. Some observations of early seedling development after slash burning are now available from a recent exploratory study.

We still have much to learn about this common disease. Many of the following statements are based on scanty data, and some of them will undoubtedly have to be modified when more detailed and accurate knowledge becomes available. Until that time, however, even the little that is now known can be useful to forest managers in western Washington and Oregon.

Twenty years ago, portions of two young Douglas-fir stands on the Wind River Experimental Forest in Skamania County, Washington, were thinned by removing some of the trees in the suppressed and intermediate crown classes. At time of thinning, one stand, (A), was 23 years old and the second, (B), was 30 years old. In both cases site quality is IV. The trees taken out comprised about 20 percent of the total basal area in the stand.