Projects of Many Uses

A typical scene in an arboretum is shown above.

OTHER FEDERAL FORESTS

F. W. GROVER.

BESIDES THE NATIONAL forests, which are the most extensive of the federally owned timber and watershed lands, eight other categories of Federal lands bear large forests. Some of them are held primarily for timber production. Others, as wildlife refuges, are owned and administered for primary purposes other than the production of timber or water, but are susceptible of forestry management in correlation with the specialized uses.

THE O & C REVESTED LANDS are administered by the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior. They comprise somewhat more than 2 million acres, originally selected pursuant to grants of public lands made by Congress in 1866 and 1869 to aid in building a railroad from Portland, Oreg., to the California line and a wagon road from Coos Bay, Oreg., to Roseburg, Oreg. Violations of conditions of the grants by the grantees or their successors led in 1916 and 1919 to repossession by the Government of the unsold parts of the granted lands; these now constitute the "reverted" lands. The lands are in 18 counties in western Oregon. Because only odd-numbered sections were originally granted, the predominant pattern is that of a checkerboard in squares of 640 acres, the intermingled lands being mostly private or national forest. Many of the tracts are less than a full section, however, because of disposals in the past.

Nearly all of the lands are forested; many have fine stands of old-growth conifers. The major species is Douglas-fir, and types in which it predominates cover 70 percent of the area of the timberlands. White fir, grand fir, noble fir, Pacific silver fir, western hemlock, western redcedar, Port-Orford-cedar, ponderosa pine, and sugar pine are also well represented, usually in mixtures but occasionally as dominant types. Western species of hardwoods, such as Oregon oak, bigleaf maple, red alder, madrone, and the golden chinquapin occur in limited quantities.

All but a small proportion of the revested lands are classed as commercial timberland. More than half of these lands still support stands of virgin timber, and most of the remainder is restocking to forest; the young trees vary from nearly merchantable second growth to seedlings and saplings in recently logged areas and burns. Some 50,000 acres, however, are in the Tillamook "burn" and are largely denuded.

By the act of August 28, 1937 (50 Stat. 874), Congress provided for the permanent management of the re-vested lands valuable for timber production. The act specifies that such lands shall be managed for permanent forest production and that the timber thereon shall be sold and removed in conformity with the principles of sustained yield for the purpose of producing a permanent source of timber supply, protecting watersheds, regulating stream flow, and contributing to the economic stability of local communities and industries.

The act also (1) provides that the annual productive capacity of these timberlands shall be determined and declared as promptly as possible and that until such determination be made the average annual cut of the lands shall not exceed one-half billion board feet; (2) specifies that the annual sustained capacity of the lands shall be sold each year or so much thereof as can be sold in a normal market at reasonable prices; (3) authorizes the subdivision of the lands into sustained-yield units to provide, as far as practicable, a permanent source of raw materials for support of the dependent communities and local industries of the region; (4) stipulates that timber sales from a forest unit so established shall be limited to the productive capacity of the lands in such units; (5) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to enter into cooperative agreements with other Federal agencies, State agencies, or private forest-land owners or operators for coordinated administration of the resources of the revested lands and the other Federal, State, or private lands within the forest unit,with the objective of promoting sustained production.

To carry out the policies for the administration and use of these lands as specified by Congress, a forestry organization to make timber sales, inaugurate studies of sustained yield, make timber-management plans, and perform the numerous other tasks necessary to manage this valuable public property was established with headquarters in Portland, Oreg. Since formation of the Bureau of Land Management in 1946, by the combination of the General Land Office and the Grazing Service, forestry work on these lands, as well as on the unreserved public domain, has been under the general direction of the Division of Forestry in the office of the Director, Bureau of Land Management. A regional forester in the office of the regional administrator, Bureau of Land Management, in Portland, exercises general supervision and furnishes technical direction; on-the-ground forestry activities are performed by the staffs of five district foresters, each of whom is responsible for a prescribed area. Fire protection is performed by the Forest Service or by State or local fire-protection agencies on the basis of cooperative agreements.

The Bureau of Land Management is actively selling timber from these lands, as directed by Congress. The policies that govern timber sales call for silvicultural practices adapted to the particular site and designed to assure reforestation of the lands by the desired tree species, the protection and perpetuation of highway screen strips and lands valuable for recreation, and the safeguarding of local watersheds. Progress has been made on the longterm task of determining the sustained timber-producing capacity of the lands and in devising management plans for the utilization of the timber resources on a permanent production basis. Because of the checkerboard pattern of the revested lands, an important aspect of long-term management is the development of coordinated management of the Federal, State, and private lands within the boundaries of the re-vested lands. One cooperative unit has been proposed, and public hearings have been held.

During the fiscal year 1947, some 469.3 million board feet of timber, valued at about $2,197,018, was cut from the lands in commercial sales under the administration of the Bureau of Land Management. In addition, about 394,000 board feet, consisting largely of posts, cordwood, and similar products, was cut without charge by local residents. The 239 grazing leases that were issued covered 276,000 acres, receipts from which totaled $18,128.

THE UNRESERVED PUBLIC DOMAIN of the United States still includes more than 169 million acres of unappropriated and unreserved public lands, including 132 million acres in grazing districts established under the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. There is more than 265 million acres of unreserved public lands in Alaska. Forestry activities on that land are under direction of the Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior.

Much of this land in continental United States is range and watershed land that bears only grass or brush or is semidesert or desert, but about 28 million acres is classed as timber or woodland, of which, according to the Bureau of Land Management, approximately 3 million acres bears commercial timber estimated at 9.5 billion board feet. These forest and woodland areas are remnants left from large grants, the establishment of national forests, parks, and other Federal reservations, and as a result of the operation of the public-land laws under which the public lands were patented to private ownership. Because they are widely dispersed throughout 20 States, a large number of the major forest types are represented, from the Douglas-fir in the Northwest, the white pine in Idaho, the lodgepole pine in Montana and Wyoming, the spruce and aspen of the Lake States, the pinyon-juniper of the Southwest, to the pine and oak-pine types of the Southeast.

Until recently, only dead, down, or damaged timber or timber threatened with damage from fire could be sold from the unreserved public domain, although timber could be taken without charge for noncommercial purposes. By the act of July 31, 1947 (61 Stat. 681), Congress authorized the sale of, among other resources, timber and timber products from these public lands, in accordance with rules and regulations of the Secretary of the Interior. Authorization is also given for free permits for use other than for industrial or commercial purposes or for sale.

Policies of the Bureau of Land Management provide for developing the timber resources of the public lands, protecting them from fire, insects, and disease, and managing them in accordance with good forestry practices with the objective of insuring continuing crops of timber and improving watershed, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities.

Disposal requirements are designed to provide for protection and improvement of the residual stand and for restocking of the land to desirable timber species. The forestry work is under general direction of the Division of Forestry in the office of the Director, Bureau of Land Management, and is handled locally as far as possible by the forestry personnel in the offices of the regional administrators of the Bureau. The rather wide dispersion of these lands renders supervision and management difficult.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1947, about 15.4 million board feet of timber, valued at $58,024, was cut from these public lands in the United States, of which about 8.9 million board feet was utilized through free permits to local residents. In Alaska an estimated 45 million board feet was sold, yielding $57,535, and additional timber products such as posts, poles, lagging, and house logs, with an estimated value of $2,158, was granted for local use without charge. Other uses of these public lands included grazing, mineral production, wildlife production, and recreation.