Treesearch

A thorough canvass of the producers of minor timber products in Oregon and Washington has brought together or the first time authoritative statistics as to quantities of each currently produced. This information is valuable in gauging the importance of those industries, the trend in production and consumption, their relation to the major timber industries, and their effect on forest supplies and forest welfare. This issue of FOREST RESEARCH NOTES, therefore, presents a digest of the comprehensive report resulting from the study. Those who are interested in further details than presented...

An investigation of the growth and yield of western yellow pine has been under way at the Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station for the past three years. Some of the results of the study are now available and are presented herewith. The attached alinement charts showing the growth of selectively cut forests are based upon the detailed measurements of 179 plots, involving increment measurements of over 5600 trees in stands which were partially cut 10 to 62 years ago.

In connection with the forest survey of the Douglas fir region, a number of generalized type maps for several counties in Oregon and Washington have been prepared recently for use by the Agricultural Experiment Stations, who will assist in estimating the acreages likely to be withdrawn from forest meals for agricultural use within the next three decades. In the following table the broad type meas of six selected counties are given, showing same interesting conditions and variations.

A recently completed study of the sawmill "waste" in the Douglas fir region of Oregon and Washington shows that in the production of 1929 cute of rough green, rough-sawn lumber (10,286,554,000 board feet), 1,552,865,251 cubic feet (solid measure) of sound wood in sawlog form were used. Of this 66.61 per cent (910,010,322 cu.ft.) was converted into rough-green lumber, 19.31 per cent (261,443,660 cu.ft.) was broken down into slabs, edgings, and trimmings, and 14.08 per cent (130,611,284 cu.ft.) was reduced to sawdust. Aside from this, 167,010,205 cubic feet of bark went through the mill.

Two publications, resulting from years of study by the Forest Experiment Station of the growth and yield of Douglas fir forests, have just been distributed. Both are of signal value to foresters and timberland owners of western Oregon and Washington who are interested in knowing what wood volume forest lands of various qualities are capable of producing under both ideal and average conditions.

Some definite figures on the survival and seed production of seed trees left on national forest timber sales in the Douglas fir region are now available for six representative areas where approximately two trees were left per acre. The studies mere made by men in charge of timber sales on the national forests under the direction of the Experiment Station, and have now been under way from two to five years.

One of the greatest obstacles to the control of fire in the Douglas fir region is the snags on the logged-off lands and old burns, To make such land safe for reforestation", it is a prime requisite to get down the snags.

To obtain definite information which can be used in formulating slash disposal policies, the Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station has begun a study of the slash problem in the Douglas fir region. Although there are numerous related but widely different aspects to this study, only one phase is treated in this brief summary, namely, the effect of fire on the volume of slash.

The several research projects upon which the Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station is working are continually yielding results of interest and value to those engaged in forest enterprises. To make these results immediately available to those most likely to use them is the purpose of these "Forest Research Notes". They will be issued at irregular intervals three or four times a year and distributed gratis, to those who wish them, up to the limit of the edition.