Treesearch

As early as 1906 the need for a systematic study of cut-over areas on the National Forests was keenly felt. It was impossible to predict to any degree of accuracy the net increment of the trees left after cutting, the height and diameter growth of individual trees, the death rate of some of the older trees nor was it possible to foretell the actual effect on reproduction and on the remaining stand of the different methods of marking, brush disposal, or grazing. Preliminary instructions were drawn up by the writer in co-operation with Mr. G. A. Pearson in 1909. These early instructions have...

Western yellow pine is to the Southwest what white pine is to the Northeast, or longleaf pine to the Southeast. The commercial forests of Arizona and New Mexico are three-fourths western yellow pine, which furnishes by far the greater part of the lumber used locally as well as that shipped to outside markets. To describe the characteristics of the species and to explain the methods of management applied to it on the National Forests of the Southwest, in the hope that they may be applied as well, wherever possible, by private owners, is the chief purpose of this bulletin. It should serve...

The largest pine forest on the North American Continent extends from north-central Arizona in a southeasterly direction into southwestern New Mexico, a distance of approximately 250 miles The forest occupies an extensive plateau, known as the Colorado Plateau, which has a general elevation of from 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level, with numerous peaks the highest of which reaches an altitude of about 13,000 feet. Western yellow pine occupies the level mesas and lower slopes of the plateau from approximately 6,500 to 8,500 feet elevation, forming a belt 10 to 30 miles in width.

The large treeless openings or "parks" in the western yellow pine forests of the southwest, which form a well known characteristic, afford an excellent opportunity for a comparative study of the effect of a forest canopy upon local snow conditions. During the late winter and spring of 1909, the writer had an exceptionally favorable opportunity for observing the progress of snowfall and subsequent melting in a virgin stand of western yellow pine near the base of the San Francisco peaks on the Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona.

On April 12, 1902, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation "for the purpose of consolidating into one reserve the lands heretofore embraced in the San Francisco Mountains Forest Reserves and of including therein the other adjacent lands within the description herein after given." The consolidated area is now known as the San Francisco Mountains Forest Reserve.