WHY THE LUMBERMAN SHOULD PRACTICE FORESTRY
The lumber industry of this country can aid reforestation by
practicing better methods. It can harvest its annual crop of
timber without injuring the future production of the forests. It
can limit forest fires by leaving the woods in a safe condition
after it has removed the timber. Some private timber owners who
make a living out of cutting lumber, have even reached the stage
where they are planting trees. They are coming to appreciate the
need for replacing trees that they cut down, in order that new
growth may develop to furnish future timber crops.
The trouble in this country has been that the lumbermen have
harvested the crop of the forests in the shortest possible time
instead of spreading out the work over a long period. Most of our
privately owned forests have been temporarily ruined by practices
of this sort. The aim of the ordinary lumberman is to fell the
trees and reduce them to lumber with the least labor possible.
He does not exercise special care as to how the tree is cut down.
He pays little attention to the protection of young trees and new
growth. He cuts the tree to fall in the direction that best
serves his purpose, no matter whether this means that the forest
giant will crush and seriously cripple many young trees. He
wastes large parts of the trunk in cutting. He leaves the tops
and chips and branches scattered over the ground to dry out. They
develop into a fire trap.
As generally followed, the ordinary method of lumbering is
destructive of the forests. It ravages the future production of
the timberlands. It pays no heed to the young growth of the
forest. It does not provide for the proper growth and development
of the future forest. Our vast stretches of desolate and deserted
cut-over lands are silent witnesses to the ruin which has been
worked by the practice of destructive lumbering. Fortunately, a
change for the better is now developing. With the last of our
timberland riches in sight on the Pacific Coast, the lumbering
industry is coming to see that it must prepare for the future.
Consequently, operators are handling the woods better than ever
before. They now are trying to increase both the production and
permanent value of the remaining forests. They aim to harvest
the tree yield more thoroughly and to extend their cuttings over
many years. They appreciate that it is necessary to protect and
preserve the forest at the same time that profitable tree crops
are being removed. They see the need for saving and increasing
young growth and for protecting the woodlands against fire. If
only these methods of forestry had been observed from the time
the early settlers felled the first trees, not only would our
forests be producing at present all the lumber we could use, but
also the United States would be the greatest lumber-exporting
country in the world.
[Illustration: WHAT SOME KINDS OF TIMBER CUTTING DO TO A FOREST]
It will never be possible to stop timber cutting entirely in this
country, nor would it be desirable to do so. The demands for
building material, fuel, wood pulp and the like are too great to
permit of such a condition. The Nation would suffer if all forest
cutting was suspended. There is a vital need, however, of
perpetuating our remaining forests. Wasteful lumbering practices
should be stopped. Only trees that are ready for harvest should
be felled. They should be cut under conditions which will protect
the best interests and production of the timberlands. As a
class, our lumbermen are no more selfish or greedy than men in
many other branches of business. They have worked under peculiar
conditions in the United States. Our population was small as
compared with our vast forest resources. Conditions imposed in
France and Germany, where the population is so dense that more
conservative systems of lumbering are generally practiced, were
not always applicable in this country. Furthermore, our lumbermen
have known little about scientific forestry. This science is
comparatively new in America. All our forestry schools are still
in the early stages of their development. As lumbermen learn more
about the value of modern forestry they gradually are coming to
practice its principles.
The early lumbermen often made mistakes in estimating the timber
yields of the forests. They also neglected to provide for the
future production of the woodlands after the virgin timber was
removed. Those who followed in their steps have learned by these
errors what mistakes to avoid. Our lumbermen lead the world in
skill and ingenuity. They have worked out most efficient methods
of felling and logging the trees. Many foreign countries have
long practiced forestry and lumbering, yet their lumbermen
cannot compete with the Americans when it comes to a matter of
ingenuity in the woods. American woods and methods of logging are
peculiar. They would no more fit under European forest conditions
than would foreign systems be suitable in this country. American
lumbermen are slowly coming to devise and follow a combination
method which includes all the good points of foreign forestry
revised to apply to our conditions.
We can keep our remaining forests alive and piece out their
production over a long period if we practice conservation methods
generally throughout the country. Our remaining forests can be
lumbered according to the rules of practical forestry without
great expense to the owners. In the long run, they will realize
much larger returns from handling the woods in this way. This
work of saving the forests should begin at once. It should be
practiced in every state. Our cut-over and idle lands should be
put to work. Our forest lands should be handled just like fertile
farming lands that produce big crops. The farmer does not attempt
to take all the fertility out of the land in the harvest of one
bumper crop. He handles the field so that it will produce
profitable crops every season. He fertilizes the soil and tills
it so as to add to its productive power. Similarly, our forests
should be worked so that they will yield successive crops of
lumber year after year.
Lumbermen who own forests from which they desire to harvest a
timber crop should first of all survey the woods, or have some
experienced forester do this work, to decide on what trees should
be cut and the best methods of logging to follow. The trees to be
cut should be selected carefully and marked. The owner should
determine how best to protect the young and standing timber
during lumbering. He should decide on what plantings he will make
to replace the trees that are cut. He should survey and estimate
the future yield of the forest. He should study the young trees
and decide about when they will be ripe to cut and what they will
yield. From this information, he can determine his future income
from the forest and the best ways of handling the woodlands.
Under present conditions in this country, only those trees should
be cut from our forests which are mature and ready for the ax.
This means that the harvest must be made under conditions where
there are enough young trees to take the place of the full-grown
trees that are removed. Cutting is best done during the winter
when the trees are dormant. If the cutting is performed during
the spring or summer, the bark, twigs and leaves of the
surrounding young growth may be seriously damaged by the falling
trees. The trees should be cut as low to the ground as is
practicable, as high stumps waste valuable timber. Care should be
taken so that they will not break or split in falling. Trees
should be dropped so that they will not crush young seedlings and
sapling growth as they fall. It is no more difficult or costly to
throw a tree so that it will not injure young trees than it is to
drop it anywhere without regard for the future of the forest.
Directly after cutting, the fallen timber should be trimmed so as
to remove branches that are crushing down any young growth or
seedling. In some forests the young growth is so thick that it is
impossible to throw trees without falling them on some of these
baby trees which will spring back into place again if the heavy
branches are removed at once. The top of the tree should be
trimmed so that it will lie close to the ground. Under such
conditions it will rot rapidly and be less of a fire menace. The
dry tops of trees which lodge above the ground are most dangerous
sources of fire as they burn easily and rapidly.
The lumbermen can also aid the future development of the forests
by using care in skidding and hauling the logs to the yard or
mill. Care should be exercised in the logging operations not to
tear or damage the bark of trunks of standing timber. If
possible, only the trees of unimportant timber species should be
cut for making corduroy roads in the forests. This will be a
saving of valuable material.
In lumbering operations as practiced in this country, the logs
are usually moved to the sawmills on sleds or by means of logging
railroads. If streams are near by, the logs are run into the
water and floated to the mill. If the current is not swift
enough, special dams are built. Then when enough logs are
gathered for the drive, the dam is opened and the captive waters
flood away rapidly and carry the logs to the mill. On larger
streams and rivers, the logs are often fastened together in
rafts. Expert log drivers who ride on the tipping, rolling logs
in the raging river, guide the logs on these drives.
On arrival at the sawmill, the logs are reduced to lumber. Many
different kinds of saws are used in this work. One of the most
efficient is the circular saw which performs rapid work. It is so
wide in bite, however, that it wastes much wood in sawdust. For
example, in cutting four boards of one-inch lumber, an ordinary
circular saw wastes enough material to make a fifth board,
because it cuts an opening that is one-quarter of an inch in
width. Band saws, although they do not work at such high speed,
are replacing circular saws in many mills because they are less
wasteful of lumber. Although sawmills try to prevent waste of
wood by converting slabs and short pieces into laths and
shingles, large amounts of refuse, such as sawdust, slabs and
edgings, are burned each season. As a rule, only about one-third
of the tree is finally used for construction purposes, the
balance being wasted in one way or another.