Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1920 — Pacific Coast Forests Last Big Supply [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Pacific Coast Forests Last Big Supply

HE forests of the Pall cific coast states com- ■ R prise our last great S' —II body of coniferous tim/7 b er and contain practically half of the remaining saw timber in £ ' Jy/ZSz th® nlte d States, according to a report on timber depletion made, to the United States senate by the forest service of the United States department of agriculture. The development of the lumber Industry of the region, however, has already progressed far. Within the last year shipments to eastern markets have largely increased, and points formerly supplied by yellow pine have been invaded up to the very boundaries of the yellow-pine-produc-ing territory. Approximately three and one-half times as much timber is , being taken from the Pacific coast for-

ests as is produced by growth, while for timber ot saw timber size the depletion Is nine times the growth. Large Virgin Stands. The Commercial forest area of the Pacific coast states, the report says, has beep reduced to 'approximately 57,586,000 acres. “A large percentage of this, about *39,370,000 acres, Is in virgin stands.” Not all of this, however, is accessible high-grade timber, for there is a large percentage of relatively inferior and Inaccessible areas. “This Is an Important factor which is usually overlooked In the consideration of the western timber supply.” Second growth of saw timber size covers about 5,292,000 acres, and smaller second growth of 6,425,000 acres, while non-restocking forests coyer 6,500,000 'acres. %■ / The present stand of timber is esti-

mated to contain, about 1,141,000,000 board feet Of this amount, Oregon has a total stand of nearly 494,000,000,000 feet Washington has 334,000,000,000 feet, and California over 313,000,000,000 feet More than one-half of the total, or about 686,000,000,000 board feet, occurs in the Douglas fir belt of western Oregon and Washington. Douglas fir comprises approximately 558,000,000,000 feet, and of this 505,000,000,000 feet, or nearly onefourth of the remaining saw timber In the United States, is In Washington aud Oregon.

Cut-Over Area Large. Already there Is a cut-over area of approximately 6,125,000 acres, the report states. Of this amount about two-thirds is In Washington and Oregon, and a very large percentage is west of the Cascades in the Douglas fir bey:. The area burned over annually in the three Pacific coast states is found by the forest service to amount to 450,000 acres, and the loss ih timber to about 600,000,000 board feet. The annual drain, on the forests of the Pacific coast states is estlmatedto be about 11,330,000,000 feet, according to the report. The total annual

growth of the forests Is equivalent to about 2,100,000,000 board feet Depletion of the forests, therefore, approximates three and one-half times the growth, while depletion of saw timber Is approximately nine times the growth of the same class of material. One reason 'for the comparatively small amount of gfbwth is, of course, the fact that very much of . the territory Is occupied by virgin stands. In spite of the tremendous supplies of timber, in certain localities-a large proportion of local timber has" been cut and logging operations are being pushed back to the less accessible timber in the rougher mountain regions, the report joints out “The exhaustion of local supplies is a vital matter to local prosperity and' development It means the cessation of a locgl?hidustry, the abandonment of im-

provements, rapid depredation of investments, and other losses which the Industry, the community, and the consumer must shoulder." Being Cut Rapidly.

The timber stand in California is being cut at the rate of about 1,500,000,000 feet annually. “Practically all-of the cut, up to the present time, has been in the most accessible stands, whereas a considerable part of the reInaining timber is comparatively Inaccessible,” the report says. “Logging operations are removing annually a little less than 2 per cent of western Washington’s and less than 1 per cent of western Oregon’s timber. Yet the reasonably accessible timber and that in private ownership is going very much faster; and, with decreasing southern pine production, enormous 'pressure to Increase the cut may be .expected.”

As an example, the situation In Gray’s Harbor county Is cited: “About 20 years ago there were In this county 750,000 timber and only about 75,000 acres of cuttings. Now there are 355,000 acres of stumps. One-sixteenth-of the county’s private timber land is being cut over annually. In 25 years the supply of privately owned virgin timber will be gone.” If has been found that Jn western Washington about 85,000 acres annually, and In eastern Washington 39,000 acres annually were cut over from 1909 to 1919. All things considered, .it is expected by an authority on the lumber supplies of Washington that the privately-owned virgin timber supply of the state will be virtually gone in 20 years unless forest policies are changed. Local Consumption a Factor.

Forest depletion In Washington has proceeded much farther than in Oregon, the report says; and while an expansion of. the industry In Washington under the increased demands from eastern markets may reasonably be expected, "by far the greater part of the expansion may be looked for in Oregon. “The reason for the slower development in-Oregon lies in the inaccessibility of lbs Douglas fir stands. Many operations now considered for Oregon will require transportation and other Investments running into the millions of dollars before any timber can be taken.” Local consumption must be taken ihto account in considering the de*

hand upon the forests, the report points out. The situation in California is cited as an example. That state has been an important source of export material from the earliest days. Large quantities of lumber are still exported from It to the east and to foreign countries, but the state’s population and agricultural and industrial, development have more than kept pace with the output of lumber, so that It is doubtful whether production has exceeded consumption since about 1875. “The per lumber cut of the state has been approximately equal or slightly in excess of the average per capita consumption of the United States between 1889 and 1879, while the average consumption of the state ,1s probably somewhat greater than for the country as a whole,” the renort says. “In 1919, southern California alone used the equivalent of about one-half the total, cut of the state, a per capita consumption of at least twice that of the whole United States.” Big Increase In Cut.

‘ It can be expected, according to the report, that the lumber cut for the Pacific coast states as a whole will Increase very materially during the next ten years. It says: “A gradual rise in logging costs is inevitable as the more accessible stands are cut, and'lt becomes necessary to extend operations to the more mountainous logging chances. The timber resources of the Pacific coast states are very Iqrge, but if* would be very unwise to overestimate them, for much less than the total stand is readily available. Existing transportation facilities to the east are already overburdened with present traffic, and they will have to be very materially Increased to meet the probable reduction In eastern and southern lumber cut during the next ten ’years.”

Although the Pacific coast states have large amounts of timber, the report points out that they will be called on to supply increasing amounts of lumber for the whole country. The danger Is that like other forested regions, they will be considered “inexuntil it is too lets’ ' While the government has established a number of national forests ft these states which are devoted to growing timber, other measures are necessary to prevent depletion of the. Pacific coast forests. '