Treesearch

Beginning in the early 1920's, some fast-growing hybrid poplars were developed by the Oxford Paper Company in New England. In 1938 cuttings of the 25 best hybrids developed were sent to the Northwest for trial. These were planted on Lady Island near Camas, Washington, on lands of the Crown Zellerbach Corporation. During 1946 the eighth-year measurement was made of this plantation and in addition a number of native northern black cottonwoods were measured for a comparison of growth.

A ponderosa pine stand growing at a net rate of 618 board feet per acre per year may be rather amazing to foresters accustomed to the proverbial slow growth of this species in the virgin forest. Yet that is the average increment for the last 6 years of a 102-year-old even-aged stand on Lookout Mountain in the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest in central Oregon. During the same period an adjacent stand from which 25 percent of the merchantable volume was thinned in 1938 grew at the rate of 566 board feet per acre per year. At this rate, by 1949 the thinned stand will have regained the...

A study of the influence of pruning various proportions of the crowns of young ponderosa pine trees upon growth, vigor, and mortality was started on the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest in 1941. After 5 years of tree growth, the study throws some light on how severely young pines should be pruned.

The first forest soil survey on national forest lands in the Pacific Northwest was completed last year on the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest when a detailed soil map covering four square miles was made by W.J. Leighty, Assistant Inspector, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils and Agricultural Engineering. Arrangements for the survey were made by Region 6 of the Forest Service. The purpose of the work was to establish soil, site, and type relationships to aid the reforestation program in the pine region, This is a summary of the findings.

Ponderosa pine occurs over a wide range--from the Great Plains to the Pacific and from British Columbia to Mexico. Within this range there is great variation in the form and life habits of this tree. It has been long recognized that "regional races" or strains are present. Some of these regional races have been recognized by some botanists as varieties, such as var. scopulorum or var. benthamiana.

A recent study of fire reports gives some information helpful in planning for discovery and suppression of lightning fires. Reports from national forests during the period 1940-44 show that 46 percent of such fires are discovered in the first hour on Washington forests, but only about 22 percent are discovered in the first hour on southern and eastern Oregon forests.

With the recent use of airplane patrol to discover fires it has become important to review what is known about the visibility of smoke and to study any new theories or applications of present knowledge that are suggested, Airplane patrol is expensive on an hourly basis, The time available for the observer to see a smoke before he has passed too far beyond it is short. For these two reasons he and the pilot should know how to fly so that any smoke in a certain place will be in the most favorable position to be seen by them.

The stocked quadrat concept of classifying land according to its degree of reforesting has largely replaced the method of classifying land according to the number of seedlings or saplings per acre. However, questions are asked frequently concerning the technique of employing this method and concerning the relationship, between the stocked quadrat classes and the number of trees per acre. It is the purpose of this note to answer these questions, to define the stocked quadrat method, and to review the techniques for applying it.

Every forester who works in the ponderosa pine woods is impressed by the tremendous range in size, quality, age, and thrift of the trees found in the virgin forest. So great is this variation from tree to tree that stand averages mean little to the timber marker trying to select trees of high value and insect risk for cutting, and at the same time reserve for future harvest the trees of low carrying charge and rapid growth rate.

Fire fighting is still largely a hand-work job in the heavy cover and fuel conditions and rugged topography of the Douglas fir region, in spite of recent advances that have been made in %he use of machinery. Controlling a fire in this region requires immense amounts of work per unit of fire perimeter, so that large numbers of men are required to attack all but the smallest fires. Therefore the per-man efficiency of the crews used in fire fighting is a vital concern. Under these conditions it becomes extremely important to determine how to use men most effectively, and therein lies the...