Treesearch

Cleft grafting ponderosa pine proved best of five methods of vegetative propagation tested for field use in the dry hot climate of eastern Oregon. Ponderosa pine has been successfully grafted under many conditions elsewhere, but first trials in this area during 1955 were a failure. This study was made in 1956 at the U.S. Forest Service nursery at Bend, Oreg., to find a field method suitable for propagation of plus-tree stock.

Well-stocked patches of vigorous advance reproduction are found in many deteriorating old-growth stands in southwestern Oregon. If carefully released from the over story, this reproduction can shorten the rotation length of the next crop by many years. Often sugar pine is the fastest-growing component of the reproduction, but it is frequently infected with blister rust. Should a sanitation pruning be made to save these trees within areas being managed for sugar pine? A 1952 survey on the South Umpqua Experimental Forest in 1952 indicated that the number of sugar pine crop trees could...

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.