General
Silviculture and management
Fundamental science
Forest protection
Conversion
Economics and statistics
Policy, legislation, and administration
Personalities
Meetings
Reviews
The items appearing here are condensed selections of news thought to be of interest to readers of UNASYLVA. They are grouped alphabetically by countries under headings currently used by the Division of Forestry and Forest Products for reference purposes. The Editor will be glad to receive direct from readers authenticated items of interest and of news value for this part of the review.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· How to develop the commercial possibilities of the forests of the North Caucasus without endangering their protective character has been the object of a study by a special expedition of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. North Caucasus, also known as European Caucasus as distinct from Asian Trans-Caucasia, is the neck of land lying between the Black and Azov Seas on the West and the Caspian Sea on the East. The main Caucasian Mountain Range forms its southern boundary. Except for the timbered foothills and slopes of the mountains, North Caucasus for the most part is a flat prairie country containing some of the richest agricultural land. It is densely populated and requires large quantities of forest products. Yet the forests of the North Caucasus have been supplying timber far below their potential capacity. Aside from their commercial possibilities, the forests of North Caucasus have also a high watershed protective value. The wooded regions of North Caucasus, and these include Krasnodar and Stavropol districts, the Chechen autonomous area, and the autonomous republics of North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkarsk, have a total land area of 1,139,000 ha.; of these, 1,033,000 ha. are wooded. Overmature, mature, and nearly mature stands occupy 682,000 hectares comprising 203,000,000 m³®, exclusive of the forests designated as of local importance only. Although this represents less than one-half of one percent of the entire stand of timber of the U.S.S.R., its importance, because of its hydrographically strategic position as a regulator of stream flow and as a source of raw materials for rapidly growing industries in a surrounding treeless region, is out of proportion to its size.
The timber is distributed over the following areas:
|
|
Million m³ ® |
|
Krasnodar |
142.0 |
|
Chechen |
22.9 |
|
North Ossetia |
18.9 |
|
Kabardino |
14.6 |
|
Stavropol |
4.2 |
|
TOTAL |
202.6 |
Altitudinally there are three recognized forest zones: oak forests in the foothills at an elevation from 300 to 700 m., beech forests at elevations from 700 to 1,500 m., and fir forests at elevations from 1,200 to 2,200 m. Hornbeam, ash, maple, elm, birch, aspen, and alder occur as admixtures.
The North Caucasian forests are highly productive. Stands of the Caucasian fir (Abies nordmanniana), for, instance, attain 1,000 m³ and more per hectare, and individual fir and spruce (Picea orientalis) attain a height of 62 and 57 m., a diameter of 185 to 190 cm., and an age of 700 and 400 years respectively. Beech stands run 400 m³® and more per hectare. The annual cut in 1946, however, formed only 31 percent of the annual growth. And this is a general occurrence. In the Krasnodar district alone there remain unutilized each year more than 2 million m³ ® at a time when the need for timber products in the region is very great. The reason lies in the lack of rational management of the forests, combined with damage sustained during the German occupation, difficult terrain for logging, and lack of large-scale mechanization of all forest operations.
· Increased consideration is being given to the forest resources of the Par Eastern parts of the country (the Maritime Province and the Khabarovsk region). Because of their vastness, and especially because of the great variety of species, these forests will be one of the great future sources of hardwood raw materials. The exploitable broadleaf forests of these regions constitute 24 percent of all such forests in the U.S.S.R. The main trees of these hardwood forests are species of birch, maple, basswood, aspen, walnut, oak, elm, ash, and such valuable species as the Amur cork tree (Phellodendron amurense) used exclusively as a substitute for imported cork during the war, and dimorphant (Kalopanax pictum), supplying veneers of exquisite pattern.
There are at least twelve recognized species of birch, and some of them because of their wide distribution have great commercial possibilities. They are the flat-leaved birch (Betula phatyphilla), the Manchurian birch (B. mandshurica), the yellow birch (B. costata), and the black birch (B. dahurica). The flat-leaved birch accounts for 43.5 percent and the yellow birch 27.5 percent of the total amount of standing birch timber in Par Eastern U.S.S.R. (excluding Kamchatka and the coast of the Okhotsk Sea). There are seven species of maple, and two of them, Acer mono and Acer mandshuricum, attain large sizes. Two species of basswood (Tilia amurensis and Tilia mandshurica) are found and a number of species of aspen, the most important of which is the fragrant aspen (Populus suaveolens). The reserves of walnut (Juglans mandshurica) are not great.
The Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica) is the most widely distributed broadleaf tree. Some 80 percent of the oak stands are found in the valley of the Ussuri River and on the coast of the Japanese Sea and 20 percent along the middle course of the Amur river. There are several species of elm but only two, Ulmus propinqua and the U. laciniata, are of commercial importance; the technical qualities of their wood are similar to those of the European elms. One of the most valuable hardwood species is the Manchurian ash (Fraxinus mandshurica). Most of it is found along the Ussuri river and the coast of the Japanese Sea.
With this great conglomeration of hardwood species, the Far Eastern areas may become the center of many industries depending, on hardwoods, for example, the veneer industry, shipbuilding, furniture and vehicle construction industries, tannin extraction and the chemical industries based on hardwood distillation. All this, however, is still in the future. At present, only conifers are being cut for lumber; the hardwoods which account for 30 percent and more either remain uncut or are cut only for fuelwood. Although there are many streams suitable for floating loose logs, this is not feasible with loose hardwood logs, except birch. The sinkage is too great. They can be rafted, however, when made up together with pine logs.
CANADA
· An Advisory Committee on Forest Products Research has been formed to work closely with the Forest Products Laboratory, Ottawa, in the investigation of methods of wood utilization. Members of the Committee, representing various branches of the forest products industry will make their experience and advice available in regard to work being carried out at the Laboratory and they will suggest new lines of research in wood utilization. Small technical committees will be set up to co-operate with the Laboratory on research programs related to their specialized fields. The chairmen of these committees will be selected from industry, and the secretaries will be members of the Laboratory staff. The Wood Preservation Committee will be established first, and representatives of wood-using and wood preservation companies have been asked to name members to this group.
L. L. Brown, Vice-President and General Manager of the Canada Creosoting Company, was named chairman of the Advisory Committee at an Organization meeting held at the Laboratory and attended by representatives of the Canadian Lumbermen is Association, Maritime Lumber Bureau, Furniture Manufacturers' Association, Hardwood Veneer and Plywood Association, wood preserving companies, and the railroads.
FINLAND
· During the summer of 1948 a new method of disseminating knowledge and training in forestry was tried out in Northern Savo. The system proved very successful and will be applied this summer in the region operated by the Forestry Board of Central Finland. Its purpose is to teach silvicultural methods to young farmers and sons of forest owners, who are invited to attend special courses in forestry. During the courses, forest owners, both present and future, are taught to manage the farm forests in the most profitable way without being dependent in every respect on the assistance of professional foresters.
JAPAN
· This year, the traditional Arbor day which is celebrated in April was replaced for the first time by "Arbor Week" in order to intensify planting. The week starts with the "House tree" day when every family plants a young tree; the next day is the "Factory and Office tree" day; then there is the "Street tree" day when trees are planted by children in parks, yards, temples, and on roadsides; the "Forest tree" day; the "Railway Stations and Roads Tree" day; the "School Tree" day. The seventh day is dedicated to instruction in the care and protection of trees against diseases and insects. A number of propaganda meetings were scheduled for the same week. Japan hopes that this move will awaken the people's interest so as to assure the adequate reforestation of the 3 million hectares which were destroyed during the war.
MEXICO
· The 1949 Annual Arbor Day has been successfully celebrated throughout the country with the participation of government officials and thousands of school children and students. Trees were planted in parks and along streets of cities and communities.
NORWAY
· Norway is the first member government to launch FAO's great 1950 World Census of Agriculture. Census workers of that country began on Monday, 20 June, to gather a mass of information which will give an accurate picture of Norway's agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.
The information thus gained will be used by FAO as part of a statistical report on world agriculture more comprehensive than has ever been attempted before.
The world census of agriculture is not confined to FAO's 58 member countries. It is hoped that all countries will participate. In that connection, the Bizone of Germany was actually the first area to take the census. On 22 May, 80,000 census workers set out to interview all farmers cultivating more than half a hectare of land.
Denmark, the French Zone in Germany, and Austria also plan to conduct the census in the present calendar year.
AUSTRIA
· Austrian specialists have perfected a new tapping instrument, the Mazek plane, named for its inventor. It is a great improvement on the tool of German design which is used in America, Germany, and in other countries. The chief advantages consist in the conservation of the wood, which is scarcely affected by the tapping operation; a 30% to 50% increase of efficiency in the work; a prolongation in the duration of tapping by at least 25% due to the fact that it can be, done yearly and give the same amount of sap; and a 30% reduction in the loss of turpentine. These planes are easily operated with one hand and can be used either on a smooth surface, according to the French and Portuguese method, or on a grooved surface according to the American method. The instrument can be automatically adjusted to make incisions at desired regular intervals and the depth can also be automatically regulated. The instrument is also coming into use in countries other than Austria.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
· The Institute of Forest Cultivation at the Agricultural Faculty in Prague has initiated a campaign for poplar planting which is important in several respects: (1) poplars will be planted to increase the volume of available timber within the shortest time; (2) planting poplars will be a means of utilizing unused land along rivers and streams covered with alluvial soil where the quickest growth can be obtained; (3) clumps of poplars will serve as windbreaks and protective forest strips, especially in lowlands; (4) the campaign will possess an important educational value: it constitutes a part of the scheme of planting all barren lands with forests. Because poplar grows fastest of all Czechoslovak tree varieties, young people will be able to see the results of their efforts; and find that fast-growing poplars can produce serviceable timber within a period of twenty to twenty-five years. Good results obtained in planting poplars will, within a few years, serve as an argument for planting other kinds of timber on barren land.
The greatest emphasis is being laid on planting poplars in lowlands; there it will be possible to grow these trees on larger stretches of land. Poplars will also be planted on hills up to an elevation of almost 610 meters (2,000 feet) above sea level. A special Act imposes and regulates the duty of registering all places suitable for planting poplars. A list of acclimatized mature poplars furnishing good breeding material will be made. On non-Government lands the campaign will be in the hands of the Forestry Bureaus of the District National Committees.
The year 1949 will see the preparation of the plans for the campaign. It is expected that 500,000 trees will be planted by 1951, after which one million trees would be planted annually. At the end of the Five-year Plan the majority of places suitable for growing poplars will have been planted with these trees.
HUNGARY
· One of the Forestry Departments of Hungary has set up a pine-seed separator plant with an investment of 10,000 forints, to provide pine seed for new plantations. The seed is selected from the cones, cleaned, and disinfected. The capacity of the plant is 15 quintals of pine seed, which is the requirement for the reforestation of 750 ha. (1,850 acres) of loose-sand soil. The cost of one kilogram of pine seed will be 20 forints, instead of the 50 forints per kilogram paid by foresters before.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· One of the most disturbing problems facing Texan ranchers is that the vast rangelands of this region are being overrun by brush and cactus. Department of Agriculture economists believe that if mesquite could be eliminated from existing pastureland, production of beef would increase from 625.5 million pounds (283.7 million kilograms) per year to 993 million pounds (450 million kilograms). The growth of this brush is encouraged by climatic factors such as drought and severe winters, also by the burning of grasslands at the time when this region was first settled, and finally by the increase in the numbers of birds and small rodents which followed the settlement of the first ranges. Much more important, however, has been the effect of continuous overgrazing. On a thinned-out grass cover with soil packed down by the trampling of cattle, the seeds of the invading shrubs easily take root; a more favorable environment is provided for the growth of their roots as compared with the root system of graminaceous and herbaceous plants; the leaves and branches no longer have to overcome the competition of the thickly matted grass cover. Finally, the mesquite seeds a Ile consumed by the cattle and their germination is stimulated by the action of their digestive juices.
Numerous investigations have been made to find the most effective means of combating this invading brush without bringing about soil deterioration or causing erosion damage. Although fire is sometimes used, this agent is more harmful than beneficial unless carefully controlled by experts. Mechanical eradication by means of bulldozers, brush cutters or brush eradication machines especially designed for this difficult type of work has produced good results. However, such machinery is very expensive. For machines of the bulldozer type, the cost amounts to from $4 to $15 per acre, depending on the density of the infestation. Specialists on rangeland problems base their greatest hopes upon the use of chemicals and are experimenting with kerosene and fuel oils, ammonium sulfamate sodium chlorate and zinc chloride, certain arsenic compounds, and, above all, compounds of hormone type 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. The latter are highly selective in their action, are not damaging to grass and seem to be the most suitable eradication agents for use in the near future.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· Afforestation or revegetation of desert moving sands is always a difficult task. For this reason, it is of interest to learn more of a plant, new to agriculture, which is to play an important role in stabilizing, within the next three years, some 100 000 hectares of shifting sands in the Soviet Union. The plant is the so-called Sorghum-Johnson Grass hybrid. It is a perennial plant developed by Professor Derzhavin by crossing cultivated Sorghum with a perennial wild cereal known as Johnson Grass. In natural state, the Johnson grass is a most obnoxious weed, exceptionally tenacious of the soil and resistant to extreme drought, heat, and cold. The hybrid thus obtained possesses the tenacity and resistance of the Johnson grass and almost the same fodder and nutritive qualities as the cultivated Sorghum. It was first planted ten years ago on 2 ha. of bare shifting sand. Two years late, the barren sands supported a thick green cover from two to three meters high. The Sorghum-Johnson Grass hybrid has now been cultivated successfully for several years on the arid sands of the North Caucasus. It withstood prolonged droughts and high temperatures and yielded 2.5 tons of hay per hectare at a time when the surrounding land lay bare and parched. In the course of the summer, the fields growing the Sorghum-Johnson Grass hybrid can be mowed three or four times. This is the plant with which the U.S.S.R. hopes to convert many of the areas of shifting sands in the Volga region into productive hay fields and pastures.
CANADA
· The Petawawa Forest Experiment Station is particularly valuable to Canada because of the varied long-term research being conducted on over 500 plots scattered throughout the forest, which covers a tract of 92.6 square miles (240 km²). Consequently, every effort has been made to insure as intensive a fire protection as possible in this forest. The objectives of the control plan include: the limitation to an average area of 10 acres (4 hectares) per year of any fire occurring in the forest; and the protection of the sample plots, experimental plantations, nurseries, and other areas specifically reserved for research purposes, so that no fire can endanger the continuity of this research work.
A booklet published by the Department of Mines and Resources of Canada gives details of the plan with regard to the fire control organization and the allotment of fire-fighting staff in proportion to the fire risk; methods of fire prevention, detection, and suppression; the organization of communications, transportation facilities, and the training of a fire-fighting force. Although the aim is to achieve a degree of protection which can only rarely be expected in forests subject to the usual fire hazards, this plan is a valuable model for study by technicians dealing with problems of this nature.
CYPRUS
· Some further elucidation is necessary in connection with the news item on Cyprus which appeared in UNASYLVA, Vol. II, No. 6, page 340. The Acting Conservator of Forests of the Cyprus Forest Department pointed out that the reports reviewed in that news item give the normal forest increment as 14.15 thousand cubic feet, true measure under bark, converted to 7 cubic feet per donum (1/3 acre) per annum, or 21 cubic feet per acre, 1.47 m³® per ha. FAO gave the normal forest increment as 1.4 m³ per hectare or 20 cubic feet per acre.
There are also several references in the reports to the Goats Law but no definition it or general description is given. Briefly, the Goats Law is a law under the statute laws of Cyprus not included under the Forest Law. Under this Law a village may request the administration to hold a ballot to decide whether Free, Range Goats shall be excluded from the village lands. If a majority favors the exclusion, then the village lands become prescribed lands under the Goats Law. Then straight penalties can be applied to prevent goat grazing which becomes an offense regardless of whether or not damage is proved. The direct importance and intention of the law is to enable wine, olive, and carob growers (to mention the three commonest tree crops concerned) to be protected from the crippling and almost prohibitive losses caused by goats. Indirectly, -the Law provides a means of sealing off forest areas, from which grazing has been eliminated by the methods described in the reports under review; since, if all the villages adjoining the forest ballot and apply this law, these becoming prescribed villages, no goats can pass through these lands to enter the forest. The general principles of the Law in question might be applied anywhere, and it might be of value in any territory where grazing was traditionally unrestricted, as in Cyprus, either by law, custom, or enclosures, to the detriment of progress in either agriculture or forestry.
Most of the pasture rights are individual, few rights are communal or vested in corporate bodies, e.g., monasteries; and the question of moving villages isolated within the forest applies only to the forests of the Southern Range, as the Northern Range forests consist of a narrow belt containing no permanent settlements.
UNITED KINGDOM
· The results of 16 years of tests on the preservation of mine timbers are described in a report "Experiments on the Preservation of Mine Timber" published by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Forest Products Research Records No. 3. A considerable increase in the life of timber can be obtained by a simple preservative treatment. The tests described were started in 1930 on untreated and preserved pitprops to demonstrate the practical value and economy of preserving mine timbers. For this reason the treatments were carried out at two collieries using a simple open tank method for impregnating the props with coal tar creosote and a few water soluble type preservatives. Where conditions are favorable to decay such treatment can make for an increase in safety, a reduction in maintenance costs, and a substantial saving in the volume of timber used for props, bars, and other supporting members in permanent or semi-permanent roadways, ventilation doors, rail sleepers, shaft timbers and linings, and for tubs or trams where these are made of wood.
ARGENTINA
· Construction of a new plywood plant will begin shortly at Neuquen, near Lake Moquehue, not far from the Chilean border. Compania Argentina de Industrias Forestales, S.A., acquired 3,000 hectares of "pehuén" (Araucaria araucana) at public auction from the Government at 36 Argentine pesos per cubic meter of standing timber. The new plant will have a minimum annual capacity of 3,500 m³ and will employ approximately 500 workers.
FINLAND
· Government restrictions on exports of roundwood have been abrogated. Permits by the State License Board are no longer required.
· In recent years Finland has been a major exporter of prefabricated wooden houses; about 90 to 95 percent of the output was shipped abroad. Lately, however, Canadian and Swedish competition in foreign markets has become considerable, and certain other European countries are also trying to stimulate the export of prefabricated houses.
The Finnish industries have therefore been looking for new outlets. Negotiations to increase purchases of Finnish wooden houses have been carried on with a number of non-European countries where the demand is comparatively keen, Simultaneously, output is to be expanded to meet domestic requirements to a greater extent than hitherto. It is expected that, because of new housing plans and price reductions, some 1,000 to 2,000 prefabricated wooden houses will be absorbed by the home market during the current year.
PORTUGAL
· It is understood that exports to the United Kingdom of timber and cork have been secured in the discussions which have taken place in Lisbon between United Kingdom and Portuguese delegations on the course of trade and payments between the Portuguese monetary area and the sterling area during 1949.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· In a report for 1948, the Ministry of the Timber and Paper Industries presents statistics, in percentages only, showing progress achieved in timber operations and in the output of forest products during the past year as compared to 1947. Specifically, 43.9 percent more wood was brought out of the forest in 1948 than in 1947, whereas the total amount of timber cut was 37.3 percent greater. The manufacture of paper increased 18.5 percent and that of cellulose 35.4 percent. Sawn lumber production increased by 55.1 percent, veneers-by 34.8 percent; matches by 59.9 percent; hydrolyzed spirits by 65.4 percent; and the chemical wood industry expanded by 37.8 percent. The export of timber in 1948 was 7 percent greater than in 1940. Due to more rational timber utilization, 66.5 percent of the cut appeared as saw log material against 55.5 percent in 1940, and in 1948 there was 47 percent more saw log material available to the country than in 1947.
UNITED STATES or AMERICA
· In 1898 when all railroad ties wore untreated, 304 ties for each of the 264,684 miles (489 ties for each of the 425,969 km.) of railroad track then existing in the United States and Canada had to be replaced annually. In 1947, owing to preservation treatment, only 117 ties for each of the 379,066 miles (188 ties for each of the 610,049 km.) of track in operation had to be replaced. Assuming an average cost in place of $2.90 for an untreated tie and $4.00 for a treated tie, this represents an annual saving of over $156,000,000.
COLOMBIA
· By a recent legislative decree the Instituto de Parcelaciones, Colonizacion y Defensa Forestal (Institute of Land Division, Colonization, and Forest Defense), has been created. This should be an important step towards the protection and development of the forest resources of the country. The Institute is a self-governing body, and, with capital of nearly $5,000,000 (U.S.) at its disposal, it is expected to carry out an extensive program. Among its objectives are: forest inventory and mapping; modern exploitation of timber and other forest products, such as rubber, resins, cinchona bark, fibers, etc.; government aid in reforestation work through technical assistance and credit facilities to planters; establishment of tree nurseries and tree farms; reforestation of watersheds and eroded soils. The Institute will also undertake to regulate distribution of forest products from the producing regions to shipping centers for local consumption and export.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· The success of the so-called "extension forestry services" among small woodlot owners is well-known. Such services are differently organized in the various states, but it would be of interest to take as an example the New Hampshire State Organization, which has functioned since 1945.
New Hampshire has eight county foresters, each of whom has one, or sometimes two, counties within his district; the county foresters are under the direction of the "extension" forester. The extension service program is financed jointly by federal, state, and county funds.
Each county forester prepares a work plan for the coming year, to be submitted to a County Forestry Committee composed of representative woodland owners of the county. After consideration has been given to suggestions in the revision of the plan, it is submitted for approval by the extension forester. The County Forestry Committees and the State Forestry Committee, on which the latter are represented, are kept informed as to the implementation of the work plans and participate actively therein.
Essentially, the work programs are focused on the education of forest owners. The furnishing of material services, such as the marking of trees for cutting and selling, is done primarily with a view to the educational value of the demonstration given. Moreover, every effort is made to attract to such demonstrations the greatest possible number of woodland owners in the vicinity, who become as many potential future co-operators. It is in this spirit that 600 demonstration lots have been set aside in privately owned woodlands during the past three years. These lots are distributed throughout the state and cover more than 10,000 acres (4,000 ha.), making it possible to attract the attention of all woodland owners and stimulate their interest in proper management practices.
Aside from the direct, on-the-spot demonstration method, the county foresters attempt to reach forest owners by publishing articles in the local press, sponsoring radio talks or lectures, displaying posters, holding expositions and organizing contests for which prizes are distributed. In so doing, stress is laid on the financial benefits derived by the winners of the contest from the rational exploitation of their forest lands.
Close co-operation with the Soil Conservation Service and the Production and Marketing Administration is maintained. On the other hand, should a forest owner desire the regular services of a qualified forestry technician, either for specific forestry services or for management operations, the county foresters provide names of private consulting foresters or forestry companies offering this type of service.
· In 1948, through the agency of the "soil conservation districts," soil conservation methods were applied to 344,827 farms averaging in size 290 acres (117 ha.) each. According to statistics of the Department of Agriculture, each farm paid an average of $103 additional income tax during the same year, making a taxation increase of $35,517,181 which can be attributed directly to the application of soil conservation measures. Furthermore, the increased production of these farms led to an increased volume of trade by wholesalers and retailers, which in turn caused them to pay additional taxes, estimated at $33,575,000. Since the total expenditures for the Soil Conservation Service amounted to $39,189,654, it appears that not only were these expenditures recovered in their entirety in the form of taxes, but in addition the Federal Government made a profit of 76 percent on funds used for this purpose.
Raphael Zen, Fellow, Society of American Foresters, and former Director of the Lake States Forest Experiment Station, Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, has been appointed Honorary President of the Seventh International Botanical Congress which is to be held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1950.
· Edwin C. Jahn, international authority on cellulose, has been named the first Director of Research at the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University. The new position was established by the College because of the rapid growth in research at the college during recent years. Successful pulping of hardwood is one of the major research projects which now come under Dr. Jahn's direction. Other projects include improved manufacture of plywood by electronic heating, decay resistance and prevention in wood, regeneration of abandoned land through intensive forest management, and wildlife pathology and propagation.
· At the end of March 1949 the President of Mexico appointed Eulogio de la Garza as Director General Forestal y de Caza (Director-General of Forests and Game). Mr. de la Garza graduated from the Forest School of Coyoacan and the School of Agriculture of Chapingo. During his long career in government service he has acted in many public positions as professor, technician, and adviser.
The First Convention of the Pine Lumber Producers of Mexico was held at Durango, Mexico, from 9 to 11 December 1948. Papers and discussions were presented on the following subjects: forest conservation and protection; modernization of the lumber industry; organization of a producers' association; standardization of grades, marketing, and distribution; and co-operation with government authorities for the adoption of a forest policy. The Convention adopted many resolutions and recommendations which undoubtedly will bring benefits for the industry and closer cooperation with the government in its plans for forest protection and conservation.
Our Conservation job. Stephen Raushenbush. Pp. 64. The Public Affairs Institute, Washington, D. C. March 1949. 50 cents.
A remarkable analysis of the factors prevalent in the United States which impede the application of a sufficiently vigorous policy of soil, forest, and rangeland conservation, as well as of an economic policy to protect irreplaceable natural resources, appears in a booklet by Stephen Raushenbush published under the auspices of the Public Affairs Institute. The book also suggests a solution for this problem which will be proposed to Congress for study in the near future.
The ideas discussed deserve the attention not only of conservation specialists in the United States and throughout the world, but also of any persons who have any degree of responsibility whatsoever in this connection, as well as of the general public, which is directly concerned.
Mr. Raushenbush indicates three reasons for the comparative failure of our present conservation programs.
First, the sense of public responsibility among owners, and particularly among farmers, is inadequately developed. Second, the private means available to a landowner for financing a soil conservation and rehabilitation program or a forest restoration program are absolutely in adequate in comparison with the purposes to be achieved. Capital invested in such a program requires the payment of an annual interest rate of from 4 to 6 per cent, plus an annual amortization rarely distributed over a period of more than 20 years. But in this field many years may elapse before the landowner derives any benefit from his work, such as, for example, an increase in harvest yield; furthermore, the slightest fluctuation in agricultural prices may place the farmer in a position where he is absolutely unable to make regular payments on the large sums which he owes.
Finally, the normal system of bank credits is ineffectual for long-term conservation projects, and efforts to remedy this situation have been totally insufficient so far. Annual appropriations by Congress likewise are not well adapted to long-term projects. No private individual would think of building a house or even of carrying out major home repairs by deducting the necessary capital from his annual income; yet this is what has been done up to now in the field of conservation.
The capital investment costs involved for the entire United States are roughly estimated as follows:
$11,100 million for soil protection and increased production programs covering 405 million acres (164 million hectares);$3,775 million for afforestation, reforestation, forest management, and the construction of access roads on 251 million acres (102 million hectares) of land;
$215 million for the integration of wood industries and the acquisition of new national forestlands covering 19.71 million acres (7.7 million hectares), particularly in the Redwoods region; and
$250 million for the improvement of rangelands covering 60 million acres (24 million hectares).
It is proposed that, after these projects have been individually examined and certified by the various federal services concerned, they should be financed by a government credit organization called the National Resources Corporation (NRC).
Such an agency would issue bonds at interest rates varying from 3 percent to a maximum of 5.5 percent (the minimum interest being guaranteed by the Federal Treasury) up to the amount of $13 billion, at the rate of $1-2 billion a year in times of normal business activity and with am amortization term varying between 20 and 60 years. A loan of $900 million, to be repaid later, would be advanced by the Treasury to the National Resources Corporation to cover the first interest payments.
NRC loans would be made upon condition that the borrower would promise to execute a previously formulated conservation plan not only upon those lands for which the loan was made, but also upon adjoining properties belonging to him. Such a program would have to be pursued continuously for the entire period during which such loans were outstanding. The loans would carry a 2.5 percent rate of interest for forestlands and a 3.5 percent interest for soil conservation projects and the increasing of production. Furthermore, variable payment provisions would be allowed for interest or mortgage payments, including a moratorium at the start covering a maximum 5-year period for the conservation and improvement of existing soils or forests and a 15-year period for afforestation work.
Furthermore, the borrower would undertake to share with the lender any additional profits obtained from a rise in agricultural prices during the time the loans are outstanding at the rate of 60 percent for himself and 40 percent for the bondholders.
Finally, special provisions would eliminate competition with private banks, guarantee tenant farmers against loss of capital invested in conservation projects for the period during which they hold leases, and make possible the inclusion of public forestlands and rangelands under the benefits of loans granted by the National Resources Corporation.
Such are the main points of the solution proposed by Mr. Raushenbush, a solution which appears perfectly reasonable and practicable. It is to be hoped that this proposal will be followed by the application of such a program: the stakes involved are very high, both for the United States and for the rest of the world.
The Economic Problems of Forestry of the Appalachian Region. William A. Duerr. Pp. x + 317. Harvard University Press. 1949. $5.00.
The Appalachian Region includes five states - Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, with a total area of nearly 125 million acres of land, of which 51 percent is classed as forest and 23 percent as cropland. There are several provinces - Coastal Plain, Piedmont, Highlands, Great Valley and Interior-each with its own physiography, cultural pattern, forests, agriculture, etc. About 69 percent of the population of nearly 14 millions is rural.
Most of the region has been long settled. "Contrasts and diversity characterize nearly every phase of the region's life. Its culture varies from the decadent rural feudalism of some of the old agricultural areas to the brash, adolescent industrialism of the Carolina piedmont or the Kanawha valley - both of them in contrast to the frontier culture of the highlands. Racially, also, great differences are to be found: the high proportion of Negroes in tidewater and in the Mississippi valley; the Anglo-Saxon stack of eastern Kentucky; the southern and southeastern European element of the mining areas; the mixed groups of the urban centers. Essentially rural and agricultural, the region nevertheless contains some of the most important bituminous coal-mining areas in the nation and is a leader in several types of urban industry. Great industrial centers like the northern panhandle of West Virginia contrast with areas of highly decentralized industry like the piedmont. In agriculture, there are the subsidized latifundia and the prosperous commercial farms of central Kentucky and Tennessee on the one hand; the tiny, impoverished subsistence units of the highlands on the other. In forestry, there are wide areas of nearly continuous timber in industrial and public ownership; other areas nearly devoid of trees; and still other areas, as in the west, where the forest consists largely of farm woodlands. In the east is a great pine belt; the center and west are predominantly hardwood areas. The subtropical longleaf pine grows in southeastern North Carolina; the subalpine spruce and fir on the summits of the Blue Ridge and Alleghenies."
The author sets up a schematic outline of the subject matter of the economics of forestry, as applied to forest land, forest production, forest industry, distribution and prices of forest products and consumption of forest products. Most of the book then identifies and describes the economic problems of land and people, of forest land management, of timber management, of marketing generally and with respect to various forest products, and of consumption of forest products in the provinces and the region.
Problems are many and severe; they concern maladjusted agriculture, forest economy, coal mining areas, instability in use of land, a multitude of small holdings of forest land, tax delinquency and many others. Better use of forest land is clearly a major element in working out a more satisfactory economy in the region and its role in the whole rural economy is emphasized. Many earlier specialized publications dealing with aspects of the region are drawn on in the economic analysis.
But the prime aim is to define the field of the economics of forestry and to outline the economic problems of forestry as background for further research in this complex region, with the hope that the method and approach may be useful elsewhere. The book, with its deliberately limited objectives is useful in emphasizing the vast amount of work still needed, both in research and in action, to restore forest resources to their potential might in the economy of a deteriorated region. Even though the schematic outline of economic problems may not fit other areas and regions, it is to be hoped that the general pattern may be used elsewhere. The effort to see a region as a whole, to synthesize its separate problems, can hardly fail to stimulate comprehensive rather than fractionalized attention to great and complex forest problems. Such over-all attention is a challenge to the best brains that can be brought to bear on the whole economic problem of regions in which forests are or may be important.
Erfarenheter om anvandningen av motorsaga (Experiences with Power-Saw Felling.) Pp. 190. Föreningen Skogsarbetens och Kungl. Domänstyrelsens Arbetsstudieavdelning. In Swedish with English summaries.
The Job Study Department of the Forest Employers' Association and the Swedish Forest Service (Föreningen Skogsarbetens och Kungl. Domänstyrelsens Arbetsstudieavdelning, abbreviated S. D. A.), has, since January 1946, carried on time studies on power-saw felling to analyze the effect of timber dimensions and density of selected trees upon the work output, and to find a basis for calculations concerning the organization and improved efficiency of the work. Part of the results, primarily those of investigations and the experience gained in the use of the two-man power-saw have been recently published.
The first article, "Power-Saws - Their Possibilities in Swedish Forestry," by G. Carpelan, deals with the history of power-saws and with Swedish experiences with two-man power-chain saws of the so-called sword type. Comparison of time expenditure between power-saw and manual felling under similar conditions shows that the diameter limit above which power-saw felling proves its time-saving worth generally varies between 20 and 30 cm. (8 and 12 inches) b.h.d., over bark. On the other hand, it has been stated that, since it is not possible to operate with power-saws for as long a time in any one day as when the felling is carried out by hand, the lack of efficiency results in a loss of time, which, calculated in percentages, is the same for different dimensions. The diameter limit above which power-saw felling has turned out to be economical, under certain conditions, approximates 33 to 41 cm. (13 to 16 inches), depending upon the intensity of the sawyer's working day. The construction of some of the power-saws makes it possible to reduce considerably the height of tree stumps, thus decreasing the economic diameter limit. After having dealt with the most appropriate methods of organizing the power-saw felling work, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that, as the chain-saws are very sensitive to variations in economic conditions governing their use, they cannot be regarded as the final type of felling machine most suited to Swedish conditions.
The author of the other article, K. G. Zimmerman, deals with the organization of power saw felling based on experiences of two-man chain-saw logging in Central Sweden. He also concludes that, under certain conditions, two-man power-saw felling can be considered as economically sound provided circumstances permit a reduction of losses by leaving lower stumps than with manual saws. He agrees with the author of the first article, on the difficulties of using two-man power-saws in deep snow.
S. D. A. has recently started to investigate the use of one-man power-saws as well as the most suitable organization for working them under Swedish conditions, and hopes to be able to publish an analysis of the results in the near future.
History of the White Pine Industry in Minnesota. Agnes M. Larson. Pp. vii + 432. University of Minnesota Press. 1949. $7.50.
This book is first of all a careful and detailed documentary. The white pine industry, beginning in 1839 with a single sawmill, which cut 5,000 board feet a day in a forest of 38 million acres (70 percent of the State area), rose and expanded to a peak of production about 1907, then dwindled as region after region was cut out, mills were closed, and communities faded. So this industry ran its course.
Logging methods changed during this spectacular if brief history - ever toward greater and more rapid exploitation. Chopping with the axe gave way to sawing; skidding by oxen direct to water or rail head was replaced by vast sled-loads of logs hauled over iced roads for long distances; local sawmills developed into great Mississippi river manufacturing centers, served by a multitude of spring drives to concentration booms from where huge rafts of logs and lumber were first floated and later towed as far as 800 miles to lumber-hungry St. Louis; tiny muley mills gave way first to circular and later to band and gangsaw mills capable of ¾ million board feet a day; railroads expanded the distribution of white pine and speeded up logging; logging camp organization changed from the small groups of the early shanty boys living and working with the most primitive bare necessities to the big well-organized camp of later days. All of these make lumbering history and here is a source book about them.
The explosive expansion of the industry was made possible by taking from the Indians by one means or another the pineries to which their title had been earlier confirmed; by loosely liberal land laws, benignly administered, under which great concentrations of timberland were made honestly or otherwise by energetic and daring men, little concerned for the future.
In the second place the book appraises the results of the rapid and uncontrolled exploitation of a great forest. In Minnesota itself the lumber industry stimulated the development of farming because of needs for food in order to expand lumber production; the industry resulted in formation of capital for investment in the State and in the great undeveloped farming areas to the west and south; railroad building was hastened to move lumber to multiplying prairie farms; some good, but more poor land was cleared for farming; jobs for the mounting wave of immigrants were provided, and these stimulated population growth.
Elsewhere the development of the great farm areas of the middle west could hardly have proceeded so rapidly without the abundant supply of lumber; the use of the Mississippi as a water highway for lumber and logs speeded development of cities on its bank.
On the debit side the great northwoods were reduced to huge areas of waste or understocked forests, mostly unsuited for farming; only remnants of good forest, belatedly placed in public forest reservations, remain to show what might have been if the idea and practices of forest conservation had been in existence early in the exploitation process instead of at its end, when the horse was out of the barn. Tax delinquent lands, impoverished local governments, abandoned towns and industries were part of the price.
The book is a good job of regional writing, interesting and worthwhile on its own account. But it has a greater significance as well, for the lesson that shows through the mass of careful detail is what can happen to a great forest estate when there are no effective controls and an ambitious, energetic, resourceful people discover the benefits and profits to be seized by immediate and rapid exploitation. This process was dramatic in the white pine of Minnesota, as it has been elsewhere, but were the wastage and the necessarily long aftermath really necessary? Could it happen again today in some other country, given the same essential conditions?
These are questions that may well be pondered. The book would, in the third place, lead to the conclusion that unless forest conservation begins in the very early stages of regional forest exploitation, it cannot be very effective. By the time the regional consequences of uncontrolled exploitation become so evident in the region that conservation action is taken, it is too late to do more than salvage remnants from the general wreckage.
Above all, public action suited to the situation, can best go with rather than behind private forest exploitation.
Development of a Blister Rust Control Policy for the Nation's Forests in the Inland Empire. Donald N. Matthews and S. Blair Hutchison. Pp. 116. U.S. Forest Service, 1948. A preliminary report. Mimeographed.
For more than two decades public agencies have been waging a successful but costly fight against this imported disease which is thoroughly established in the Inland Empire region, which comprises roughly northern Idaho, western Montana, and eastern Washington. Today, greatly increased costs raise anew the question of justifiability, how far to go, how much to spend to protect western white pine, viewed from the broad standpoint of national interest.
Western white pine is the most important timber on 3.6 million acres, one-third of which is saw timber, about one-half young growth and the rest deforested. So far, blister rust control has been done or is planned on 2.6 million acres. Experience shows that blister rust can be controlled; that control is most economical if made part of a general program to increase white pine yields and thereby reduce the cost of control per thousand board feet. New hormone sprays offer hope that future control costs may be lowered. White pine has been the key species for the lumber industry, and in the future will remain important despite increased utilization of other wood.
Events will not wait for blister rust control to be completed. It must be pushed energetically, coupled with a management program. Proper timing and balance are essential, though there are real but surmountable difficulties involved in growing white pine.
The report reviews control history, lessons learned from it, responsibilities, decreased and fluctuating output, rising costs; analyzes consumption trends and future needs for white pine; discusses regional importance of the lumber industry and white pine's importance to it; brings together data on control costs and the degree to which white pine yields may be increased by good management.
It then recommends "1. That the Forest Service launch an aggressive campaign to grow continuous crops of white pine. From now on make it a white pine project instead of a blister rust control project. 2. That the white pine project should be developed on whatever scale appropriations permit with the work always concentrated in those units which will give the largest stable output of white pine for the money spent. 3. That a great deal of emphasis should be put into developing cheaper control methods, a stable program, and more effective blister rust control workers. 4. That there should be an aggressive program to bring good management to all those lands, regardless of ownership, which have been dedicated to growing white pine because of high productivity and relative economy of treatment. 5. That, however, the limitations of mixed ownership be realistically faced. And that provision be made to simplify the land ownership pattern where adequate management by every owner is not assured. 6. That the objective in this region should be to grow an amount of white pine in keeping with regional and national needs. 7. That in fulfillment of this objective there should be spent four million dollars annually during the next five years for blister rust control and white pine management on the national forests. After that, for 15 years the expenditure should be about 1.3 million dollars annually."
This study is significant because it treats blister rust control as part of the entire problem of improving white pine yields through better silviculture and other management measures, and not as a program apart. It sees clearly that some forms of land ownership cannot be permitted to continue to break up a unified management and control program. It contemplates that fully stocked stands and proper methods of cutting will in themselves help solve the blister rust problem. Fractional stands may not justify the costs of control; full stands will. This type of economic-social-technical analysis helps to answer the question, "Does good forestry pay?" by showing some of the costs resulting from lack of forestry or from partial forestry.
A Vegetation-Types Map of Tanganyika Territory. Clement Gillman. Map in full color, scale 1:2,000,000 (size 24 x 24 inches), 31 photographs, text map of types of land occupation, 31 pp. text. American Geographical Society, New York, U.S.A. 1949. $1.00.
The map, published by the American Geographical Society, is the crowning achievement of the career of Clement Gillman, who died in October 1946 before its completion. He was the great authority on the geography of Tanganyika. The map, which was begun in 1913 on a scale of 1:2,000,000, is based on classification into 8 principal types of vegetation: (1) forest, (2) woodland, (3) bushland and thicket, (4) wooded grassland, (5) grassland, (6) permanent swamp vegetation, (7) desert and semidesert, (8) vegetation actively induced by man; and two intermediary types, one between (1) and (2), and the other between (2) and (3)-(4). In addition, a distinction is made between two subtypes of grasslands - valley grasslands and mountain ridge and slope grasslands, and between two other subtypes of vegetation actively induced by man-vegetation induced by the indigenous population and vegetation induced by settlers.
Use is made of the term "complexes," to represent various types of vegetation found in conjunction with or in juxtaposition to one another. These are indicated by means of widely spaced circles or dots of the color representing the type of minor vegetation showing up against the ground color of the dominant type of vegetation.
Used in a larger sense is the concept of "catena." A "catena." is a distributional sequence of vegetation types determined by a given set of physiographical or hydrographical conditions (or both simultaneously) constantly repeated. Two "catenas" are particularly noteworthy in Tanganyika. The first is the vast peneplain of the central plateau which consists of alternating ridge and upper hillsides woodlands, of grasslands on the valley bottoms and of bushlands and wooded grasslands between the two on the lower portion of the hillsides. The second, in the much more sparsely vegetated Northeast, consists of alternating woodland and bushland, depending upon topographical conditions which cause variations in humidity, either due to the exposure or the altitude of the terrain.
From the forestry standpoint, the pitifully small extent of forest remnants in the large river basins is particularly striking. As is stated in the introduction to the map "the plains can remain, or again become the home of a stable rural population only if the forests are protected against the inroads of the mountain dwellers and if the rehabilitation of the forest areas is energetically and promptly carried out in the many areas where deterioration is advanced."
Influence of Woodland Chaparral on Water and Soil in Central California. P. B. Rowe, Pp. 70, illus. Published by the State of California under terms of a co-operative agreement with the California Forest and Range Experiment Station, U. S. Forest Service.
The San Joaquin Basin in Central California, located between the Sierra Nevada on the East and the Coast Range mountains on the West, covers an area of 20 million acres (8 million ha.). Of this, 2.5 million acres (1 million ha.) of cultivated land depend entirely upon irrigation in this semi-arid climate. In addition 3,170,000 acres (1,283,000 ha.) are potentially irrigable if water utilization facilities can be improved. However, floods, which occur at intervals exceeding one in five years, cause great damage.
The flanks of the coastal region and the lower portions of the Sierra Nevada are covered with brush vegetation, mainly consisting of Ceanothus spp., Aesculus californica, Lonicera interrupta, etc., commonly called chaparral, which exerts a marked influence upon the water table and erosion, but which is subject to more or less frequent fires.
In 1929, exhaustive experiments were started using six plots, 1/40 of an acre (0.01 ha.), each in order to determine what results clearing land by burning it over, and other such practices, have on runoff and erosion. Mr. Rowe's report explains in detail the results achieved by these experiments over a 9 year period.
It appears that the destruction of vegetation by fire increased water runoff on an average by 14 percent on experimental plots burned over annually, and by 2 percent on plots only burned twice during the 9 years. The average annual rate of erosion, in the first instance, was 25,000 lbs. per acre (28,000 kg. per ha.) and in the second, 1,000 lbs. per acre (1,100 kg. per ha.) whereas on the control plots it amounted to only 1.5 lbs. per acre (1.7 kg. per ha.). After 3 to 4 years, ravines formed, following surface erosion on plots burned over annually.
The chaparral cover causes a slight loss of water by direct evaporation, but this loss amounts to only 5.2 percent of the total rainfall. On the other hand, it results in the partial reduction of soil moisture fluctuation.
Measured over 4 years, from 1934 to 1938, the average annual water production (runoff water plus infiltration water) was greater in plots burned over annually than on control plots - 27.9 inches (70.9 cm.) compared to 26.2 inches (66.5 cm.). However, most of the water derived from the burned-over plots consists of runoff water loaded with silt and discharged swiftly during storms. Consequently it is lost for any useful purposes, unless it can be retained in reservoirs. These would be costly to construct and their capacity would be reduced rapidly due to deposits of eroded soil displaced from the mountain sides.
Such studies present a striking demonstration of the prime importance of the proper care of the vegetative cover in mountainous regions for the maintenance of water resources.
Minimum Rate Fire Insurance. H. T. Gisborne. Pp. 4. Research Note No. 72. Northern Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, U. S. Forest Service. April 1949.
In British Columbia, rebates on fire insurance premiums are granted to logging operations which use specified procedures for recognizing bad fire days and also which take specified steps to prevent and control fires on those days. It is believed that operators in other regions can profitably reduce their chances of loss by using the same method. The actions to avoid the dangers resulting from severe fire days during the normal fire season include:
(1) Identifying such days in advance. Four factors are taken into account: (a) calendar date, indicating general stage of dryness of vegetation; (b) daily low humidity, which controls moisture content of fire fuels; (c) fuel moisture content measured by standard ½" sticks, which represent condition of coarse fuels and take care of carry-over effects of recent precipitation; (d) wind velocity.(2) Enforcing specified requirements to reduce number of logging fires. The great threat is fires in slash where logging fires commonly start.
(3) Pre-organizing of fire-fighting facilities and trained fire fighters with leadership, so that prompt and effective suppression action will be taken.
(4) Shutting down operations in cases of extreme danger.
These measures have reduced losses on timber, logs, and equipment. The instruments for spotting bad fire days are obtainable. Such an orderly program of fire control may be beneficial in other regions where logging fires are a severe source of loss, even though insurance is not available.
UNASYLVA is prepared by the Division of Forestry and Forest Products and published by the Information Division of FAO at the Organization is temporary headquarters in Washington, D. C. It is printed in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. UNASYLVA is published in English, French, and Spanish. UNASYLVA may be obtained from the following sales agents: Australia: H. A. Goddard Pty., Ltd., 255a George St., Sydney; Canada: The Ryerson Press, 299 Queen St. W., Toronto 2; China: The Commercial Press Ltd., 211 Honan Rd., Shanghai; Czechoslovakia: (Moravia and Bohemia) Orbis, Stalinova 46, Prague xii; (Slovakia) "Journal," Leningradska 14, Bratislava; Denmark: Ejnar Munksgaard, Norregade 6, Copenhagen; East Pakistan: Farcos' Publications, 2 Inglis Rd., P.B. 13, Ramna, Dacca; Egypt: Librairie de la Renaissance d'Egypte, 9 Sh. Adly Pacha, Cairo; Finland: Akateeminen Kirjakauppa, 2 Keskuskatu, Helsinki; Hungary: Grill's Bookshop, R. Gergely A.G., Dorottya Utca 2, Budapest V; India: The Oxford Book & Stationery Co., Scindia House, New Delhi; The Mall, Simla; 17 Park St., Calcutta; Messrs. Higginbothams, Mound Rd., P.B. 311, Madras; Ireland: The Controller, Stationery Office, Dublin; Italy: The European Regional Office of FAO, Villa Borghese, Rome; Netherlands: N. V. Martinus Nijhoff, Lange Voorhout 9, The Hague; Norway: Johan Grundt Tanum Forlag, Kr. Augustsgt, 7A, Oslo; Union of South Africa: Central News Agency Ltd., P.O.B. 1033, Johannesburg; United Kingdom: H. M. Stationery Office, P.O.B. 569, London, S.E.1; United States of America: International Documents Service, Columbia University Press, 2960 Broadway, New York 27, N. Y.; United Nations Bookshop, Lake Success, N. Y.; FAO Documents Sales Service, 1201 Connecticut Ave., Washington 6, D. C. Requests from countries where sales agents have not yet been appointed may be sent to: FAO Documents Sales Service, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Washington 6, D. C., U.S.A. Annual subscription US$3.50, single copy 65 cents, in local currencies.
