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 Forestry Division for reference purposes. FAO assumes no responsibility for statements in news items accepted in good faith from outside contributors.
General
Fundamental Science
Silviculture
Mensuration and Surveying
Forest Management
Industry and Trade
Forest Products and their Utilization
Forest Policy
ALASKA
· B. Frank Heintzleman, regional forester, has been appointed Governor of Alaska. He has been in charge of National Forests in the territory since 1937 and, due largely to his negotiation with private industry, a pulp plant with investment of $46,000,000 has recently been set up. He had a large part in drafting the long-term timber supply contracts under which industries will operate and, in addition, has taken a leading part in many of the community development and improvement projects affecting the territory.
HONDURAS
· A technical assistance officer, E. J. Schreuder, is trying to interest the authorities in Honduras in creating a National Forest Park in a little-known area to the extreme northwest of the country, bordering on the Caribbean Sea.
Between elevations of 1,600 and 2,000 meters along the Sierra de Omoa occurs a magnificent stretch of virgin forest which, unfortunately is already being eaten into by lumbering operations, shifting cultivation and fire. The forest consists of mixed hardwoods and pines (Pinus pseudostrobus) which are thought to be between 200 and 300 years old. Trees up to 60 meters (200 ft.) in height and 1 meter in diameter are common. There is a heavy undergrowth of young trees, ferns and other vegetation. Orchids abound. Clear streams flow down from the hills and wildlife is abundant. Quetzals and turkeys which are elsewhere almost extinct in Honduras, are plentiful, and tapir, panther and deer are so far undisturbed.
It would be a tragedy if this magnificent area were to be lost wholly to the national heritage through ignorance, apathy or greed.
GERMANY
· The most important article in the 1951-52 Yearbook of the now 60 years' old German Dendrologic Society gives the results of an inventory of foreign forest trees planted in Germany in woods and parks. The inventory covers 12 American species, namely: Larix laricina, Pinus contorta latifolia, P. monticola, P. ponderosa, P. resinosa, Thuja plicata Tsuga heterophylla, Acer saccharum, Betula lutea, B. papyrifera, Fraxinus nigra, Liriodendron tulipifera.
At least some of these species may be of importance for German forests. The inventory does not cover: Pseudotsuga douglasii, Abies grandis, Picea sitchensis, Pinus strobus, Quercus borealis. These species have already proved to be very valuable to German forests.
Thanks to the helpful co-operation of all German foresters and of many landed proprietors, the Society received 371 answers to its questionnaires, of which 121 were concerned with Liriodendron tulipifera. The answers contained descriptions of planting sites, size of the plants when planted, age, height, diameter and enemies of the plantations.
The results of the inventory show good and very good growth of Thuja plicata, Tsuga heterophylla, Acer saccharum, Betula lutea and especially of Liriodendron tulipifera.
A second inventory covering 12 other American species, as well as some from Japan and the Balkans is already under way.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· In 1941, a program for the improvement of forest species was initiated at the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station of the U.S. Forest Service. After examination of a large number of slash (Pinus elliottii) and longleaf (P. palustris) pines reported to be high yielders of naval stores, 12 were selected as parent plants because their yield was more than twice as great as the average tree of the same diameter growing on the same site. Cuttings from the crowns of these 12 which have been rooted successfully have now reached the age of 7 years in a plantation from which cones have already been collected. The form and rate of height growth are reported to be outstanding.
Selection of superior trees is now being made on the basis of fast growth rate and good form instead of gum yield, which is considered to be a function of rate of growth.
Using micro-tapping techniques, gum yields of progeny of wind-pollinated cones from high-yielding and low-yielding mother longleaf pine trees have been analyzed. The results indicate that gum yield is an inherited characteristic, that yields of the 17-year-old longleaf pine from above-average mother trees were significantly higher than yields from below-average trees.
Mass selection is being carried on in nurseries to find exceptionally vigorous seedlings or mutations. A small plantation of such selected seedlings has shown interesting extremes in size and needles. These are being studied cytologically to see if chromosome numbers can be related to these characteristics.
Similarly, mass selection is being conducted in old stands to demonstrate variation in diameter and height growth, form, and branch size as a guide to silvicultural practice, particularly in selecting seed trees to be left for regeneration purposes after cutting.
Techniques are also being developed to improve rooting of cuttings, grafting, and induction of early flowering. Actual breeding work is also being actively carried on, particularly with slash pine, and with hybrids of slash longleaf pines, and loblolly (Pinus taeda) slash pine, and others.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· The effectiveness of shelterbelts in modifying wind velocity, and the effects of wind have been made the subject of tests in several countries, principally the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R., over a good many years. But, since different methods have been used and some foresters, chiefly in the U.S.S.R., have not reported on their methods, the effects of windbreak have been appraised differently.
The U.S. Soil Conservation Service has recently conducted a series of wind-tunnel studies to determine:
1. effect of barrier shape on wind flow patterns;
2. effect of different velocities about a barrier of constant shape;
3. determination of the zone of influence of barriers of different shapes;
4. evaluation of wind-tunnel results in terms of atmospheric conditions.
In the tests, three known geometrical shapes of barriers and a model tree windbreak were used, and the results are presented in mathematical form. A result of great interest is the reduction in average horizontal wind velocity in relation to kind of barrier as summarized in the following table in which H = height of barrier:
|
Object |
Distance at 0.1 H to |
||
|
75% reduction |
50% reduction |
25% reduction |
|
|
Vertical plate |
13.0 H |
15.5 H |
21.5 H |
|
Triangular shape |
10.5 H |
15.0 H |
20.5 H |
|
Cylindrical shape |
7.0 H |
9.0 H |
14.0 H |
|
Model trees |
1.0 H |
13.5 H |
27.0 H |
The model tree barrier caused a more extended zone of reduction in velocity than any of the other shapes tested.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· In October 1952 the Ministry of Forestry held a five-day conference of representatives of forest schools, regional foresters, and members of the Ministry on the new Instructions for Cultural Cuttings. In the course of this conference discussions took place on the theory and practice of thinnings, improvement and intermediary cuttings, known in Russia as "cultural" cuttings, to show that the purpose is largely to improve the forests and only in a lesser degree to obtain useful material. These discussions are of interest in that they reflect the thinking of some outstanding Russian silviculturists on the nature and growth of forests.
Cultural cuttings in the U.S.S.R. are no longer of a secondary importance. They form now an essential activity of the Ministry of Forestry. During the five-year period between 1909-1913 improvement cuttings in the then state forests were made only on about 35,000 hectares, during 1936-1940 the forest area covered by improvement cuttings reached close to 4 million hectares. During 1946-1950 cultural operations extended only to the forests of European Russia. Now they include also large areas in the Urals and Siberia involving millions of hectares of forest land and tens of millions of cubic meters of timber.
The basic elements of the problem are: what kind of trees should be removed from the stand and what volume of wood should be cut per hectare? The kraft classification of trees on the basis of dominance (dominant, co-dominant) used for decades is considered inadequate first, because it applies only to pure even-aged stands and second, because the mere position of a tree in the stand does not indicate its energy of growth or its stage of maturity. For this reason some of the participants in the conference, largely professors of forestry schools, suggested that the trees in the stand be divided into 3 large classes: class I - trees of vigorous growth: class II - trees of retarded growth, and class III - trees of poor growth: also that each class should be further subdivided into (a) trees of retarded development, and (b) trees of rapid development.
Stress is laid on the stage of development - a new concept that crops up in all Russian silvicultural considerations. By analogy with some agricultural crops, which pass their biological cycle from the embryonic stage through maturity, flowering to fruition and death, foresters divide the life of forest trees also into three stages of development - juvenile, mature and senile. Senility, according to this concept, is characterized by abundant seed-bearing.
The object of improvement cuttings therefore, according to Prof. V. G. Nestorov, should be in the case of pure stands, their "physiological rejuvenation" by removing trees that show signs of senility, irrespective of the class in which they occur whether dominant, intermediate or even suppressed. In practice, this means cutting both "from above" and "from below". Experience has shown that this leads to excessive opening of the stands. In mixed stands only "liberation" cuttings are recommended, i. e. removal of trees interfering with the growth of the selected trees. These and several other similar proposals were not accepted by the regional foresters and the representatives of the Ministry on the grounds that they must still be tested in actual practice, that the cultural cuttings must be conducted in the field by forest rangers and other lower forest personnel, and to this end the newly revised Instructions for Cultural Cuttings were issued, which are briefly as follows:
To carry out intermediate cuttings trees in the stands are divided into 3 categories: 1. the best, 2. the useful (auxiliary), 3. the interfering (the ones to be cut).
1. The best trees must have a long trunk clear of branches for not less than 7 meters, a normal uniform crown, 1/3-1/4 of the tree in height and be well rooted. Such trees must be left, even if they are bearing abundant seed, in fact, this is an advantage since they constitute a source of good seed.2. The "useful" are those trees which help the clearing of the better trunks of their branches, formation of their trunks and crowns, or have soil-protective or soil-improving qualities. Any tree can serve the purpose, whether it bears much or little seed. The functions of such trees are entirely that of service to the better trees.
3. All trees, irrespective of species height or diameter, which interfere or hamper the growth and development of the selected "best" and "auxiliary" trees and all crooked dying and infected trees must be removed from the stand.
At the same time the amount of wood to be removed in intermediary cuttings has been greatly reduced. Thus between 1936-40 it amounted on the average for the entire country to 14.4 m3 per hectare, between 1946-50 it was reduced to 12.6 m3 per hectare and now stands at 10.9 m3 per hectare.
GERMANY
· The exact determination of the solid volume of wood stacks and of the related conversion factors by the xylometric method, which measures the water displacement of each log, or by measuring each stick separately with a caliper involves considerable work. Moreover, the second method cannot be used in the ease of split cordwood.
Making use of H. S. Mountain's1 reports, the following practical method of determining the volume of stacked wood has been developed.2
1 H. S. Mountain, "Determining the solid wood volume of four feet pulpwood stacks" and "Wood evaluation and its significance", Minutes of meeting of the American Pulpwood Association. 4-5 October 1950.2 Das Paper 6, pp. 524-526, 1952, Darmstadt, Germany.
A ruler l meter long is suspended by means of a white ribbon 3 meters long from 2 nails placed horizontally l meter apart and with the camera facing the center of the square photographed so that each side of the square is reduced to 10 cm. (Minor errors can be corrected by appropriate mounting of the photographic-paper).
This photo is placed in a wooden frame which fits the photographed square and perforated by 400 gramophone needles placed at an equal distance of 4 mm. on an exactly fitting cover.
The punctured photo is then used for counting the number of incisions in the wood which give the exact percentage of solid volume.
Rotten pieces are marked with a chalk cross, thus enabling determination of the approximate percentage of unsound wood.
Experiments showed that the results gained this way coincided an average error of ± 1 percent with those gained by piece-wise measuring and cubing, and, if both sides of the stack are photographed, with an error of less than 1 percent.
To measure very large stocks, e. g. whole shiploads, it is sufficient to repeat this procedure every 5 or even 10 meters.
SWEDEN
· One section of forest economies now being studied closely is that of the business side of forest management, in which forest enterprise is looked at from the point of view of a business concern. The purpose of this research is to ascertain, through statistical calculations over a sufficient number of years, the cost of a forest enterprise based on sustained yield, and the possible financial advantages of certain felling policies, running expenditures and investments.
Such a study has recently been made of the Swedish State forests which are managed as a semi-commercial enterprise; it is based on statistical data gathered on these forests between 1911 and 1950.
The most important consideration in a study of this kind is the question of self-cost prices - the ratio of production cost per unit of output (including management costs and possibly logging costs) to selling price of the same unit. Efficiency of production can be checked by examination of the variations in such ratios. Comparison of them as between forests under different general economic and ecological conditions is also the most accurate way of assessing the effect of such conditions from the financial standpoint.
For any given region there is in theory, an ideal balance between income and expenditure that will yield maximum profit. The aim is, therefore, to find the annual management expenditure for different economic and natural conditions consistent with this ideal balance. Such studies always assume sustained yield or an attempt by the forest owner to achieve it; but, unlike the aim of national policy, which is to obtain the highest sustained yield in order to meet the country's needs, the objective here is so to fix the level of sustained yield that, having regard to the financial outlay necessary to attain such a level, the owner can make as much profit as possible. When the owner has determined exactly how intensive should be the silviculture methods to be applied to his forest, management expenses remain unaltered, whatever the annual cut. Consequently, a rise in the latter brings down production costs per unit of output, and a drop in cut raises that cost. Such variations are of small importance in practice in a normally-constituted forest worked on a sustained yield basis. They should, however, be given considerably more attention where the forest composition is abnormal, and the attempt at sustained yield automatically gives rise to variations that can be quite substantial in terms of annual cut.
The present research has brought out some interesting facts. It shows for example, that in the northern region of Sweden where a more extensive silviculture is practised a higher profit is obtained from the sale of felled wood than from standing timber. Exactly the contrary is the ease in the south where, however, the proportion of different types of the products of fellings is also very different from that in the north. In 1950, for example the ratio of fuelwood to total cut was 15 percent in one northern district, and over 40 percent in one southern district; the ratio of pulp wood was 45 percent in the north against 30 percent in the south.
Examination of the distribution of forest management expenditures per hectare of productive area between 1921 and 1950 shows that they rose substantially, but this is due in part to currency depreciation. Of all the items in the total expenditure, road maintenance and construction costs led in 1950 with 39 percent as against 26 percent for administrative costs, whereas in 1921-25 cost of administration was the biggest item at 40 percent, with road maintenance and construction at 29 percent. Pure silvicultural costs rose from 6 percent in 1921-25 to 12 percent in 1950.
Average stumpage value (estimated standing) per hectare naturally declines from north to south; but the same is true of management expenditure per hectare. However, the ratio of the one figure to the other, at 63 percent for the State forests as a whole, varies little from north to south. The outside figures are 53 percent and 74 percent. In one district, however, the ratio is 86 percent.
There is a substantial variation from one region to another between net profits from felling sales to the unit of output, but the variations in net profits to unit of area are much greater (10 times greater in the southern districts than in the northern); thus, as regards general conditions in Sweden, this latter ratio is a much more sensitive and important index of the financial value of a particular forest.
SAUDI ARABIA
· Saudi Arabia is exporting packaged dates for the first time in its history, following technical advice from an FAO officer, thereby opening up a new export industry that is expected to increase the wealth of the country.
Dates have been exported in bulk from Saudi Arabia for many years, but the idea of packaging them in attractive and portable containers originated as a means of providing an appropriate souvenir for sale to the 150,000 Moslems who yearly make their pilgrimage to the holy cities of Islam.
The FAO officer, who was familiar with packaging dates in his own country, was asked by the Saudi Arabian government to advise and assist in the selection and installation of processing equipment and to design a package. Machinery for the cellophane and cardboard wrapping was brought from the United States.
Saudi Arabia has just started assembly-line packaging, which is expected to reach 50 tons of dates during this year, and the first two packages to leave the country were flown to FAO headquarters.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· A new development laboratory for pulp and paper products has recently been set up by the Crown Zellerbach Corporation, with an investment of $500,000.
This new laboratory built beside Crown Zellerbach's huge specialty paper plant at Camas, Washington, has its own small-scale paper mill complete from chipper to Boater, and aims at producing new products in papers and from pulp liquors hitherto wasted. The old laboratory at Camas established as the company's research center 13 years ago, will continue its workbench experiments, while the new laboratory, in its 200 by 75 foot (61 × 23 m.) building, is taking over the job of application. The two have divided up the former staff of 35, and have added another 10 or so.
Researchers will investigate new products and the development laboratory will then work out techniques to produce them on a commercial scale. This has been done many times before, of course, but the miniature mill will speed up the task, since it can carry out all processes of the big plants, thereby relieving them of making test runs for experimenters, always a costly interruption to commercial operation.
New ways of "tailoring" papers to meet special needs will be hastened among the more recent being a fungicidal wrap for citrus fruits to arrest mould. Wood species not hitherto widely used for paper may now be adapted in the new laboratory. Lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine and other species from the West's inland reaches may be better adapted, and even non-wood sources of fiber will be better studied.
But perhaps of greatest significance is the one-third of floor space reserved for the chemical engineers and any pilot plants they may design for study of pulp liquors. Little more than half the log is cellulose fiber; the rest is largely lost in liquid waste. Lignins and other materials in the pulp liquor offer an almost untapped commercial resource. Crown Zellerbach chemists have developed their first market item from this waste in the form of Orzan, derived from ammonia base pulp liquid. It has been found valuable as plant fertilizer, as a dispersing agent in asphalt emulsions, gypsum, clay slips and sprays, as a base for synthetic resin plywood glues, and as a binder in fuel briquettes, hardboard and road surfacing.
In its confidence in the future of such items, the company has established an industrial products division which will develop appropriate distribution methods.
The little mill will also help earn its keep commercially, since it can easily turn out small amounts of certain papers which lack a sizeable market, or can supply samples where runs of a few hundred pounds are sufficient.
UNITED KINGDOM
· The Forest Products Research Laboratory at Princes Risborough has published a very comprehensive lens key for the identification of hardwoods, covering a wide range of species from all over the world which have long been used, together with a large number which have only recently appeared on the market. The method, which was developed at the laboratory 15 years ago, has fully stood the test of time. The key is for the use of those with a sound general knowledge of wood structure and not for those lacking previous experience.
The key uses 87 features grouped into pores, soft tissue, other features, rays, physical properties of sound hardwood, geographical regions and growth rings. The system involves the use of multiple entry perforated cards on which the data are recorded by clipping out the appropriate holes. The comprehensive listing of timbers by botanical family and species and common name, together with the feature numbers appropriate, is given, as well as excellent microphotographs of selected wood specimens. A separate index and cheek list shows the botanical family under which anatomical description of the timber may be found.
CHILE
· A decree creating an Agricultural Development Committee has been signed by the President of the Republic of Chile. The committee, which is reinforced by two subcommittees is required to submit to the President, within a period of 90 days, a concrete program of agricultural and forest development for Chile, together with the economic studies necessary for its achievement. The development program is to be based on a report prepared a few months ago, at the request of the Chilean Government by a group of experts of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and FAO.
The decree contains a detailed description of the chief reasons for the adoption of an agricultural and forestry rehabilitation program. They are mainly the low productivity of the agricultural sector, the resulting increasing need for imports of agricultural foodstuffs, and the desire to lift the standard of living of peasants and farmers, to slow down the process of erosion, to harmonize agricultural and forest development with the rapid strides made by industry, etc. The need for co-ordinating agricultural and forest development with the over-all economic possibilities of the country is clearly expressed in the decree.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
During 1952, the acreage of State and private forest lands placed under organized protection from fire, under co-operative federal and state financing, was increased by some 3-5 million acres (1.2-2 million ha.). This reduced the area without organized fire protection to about 60 million acres (24 million ha.), or some 14 percent of the total area of State and private forest lands needing fire protection. The Engelmann spruce beetle epidemic in Colorado - the largest beetle control project ever undertaken in the United States - was checked, but an equally serious epidemic of the same beetle developed in northern Idaho and western Montana. Larger areas containing wind-blown and bug-killed timber were surveyed in western Oregon and Washington in preparation for salvage operations.
Some 462 million forest tree seedling a, enough to plant about 500,000 acres (200,000 ha.), were produced during the year. About two-thirds of the total was distributed by 43 States and 2 Territories under a co-operative program with the Federal Government; the balance by other Federal and State agencies, forest industries and private commercial nurseries.
Considerable effort was also devoted to programs for improving forest management on small privately owned woodlands, which aggregate more than one-half of all the forest land in the country. About 28,000 small owners of woodland, with 2½ million acres (1 million ha.), of forest land, received technical assistance in timber cutting, woodland management and marketing from the 260 service foresters employed.
This program of assistance was complemented by the educational programs of the Agricultural Extension Service, and by practical demonstrations of good forest management given woodland owners at the research centers of the Federal Forest Experiment Stations. State governments, industry associations, numerous pulp and lumber companies and other organizations also conducted general educational programs and engaged in demonstrations designed to encourage good forest practices.
During the year several large life insurance companies entered the forest credit field, and in the State of New Hampshire it was announced that forest fire insurance was available from a private insurance company.
Substantial gains were also made in improving the condition of national forests and other public forest lands. For example, on the national forests about 50,000 acres (20,000 ha.) were planted or reseeded to trees, and timber stand improvement work was carried out on some 700,000 acres (280,000 ha.). Nearly 60,000 acres (24,000 ha.) of national forest range lands were reseeded to palatable forage species and over 200 miles (320 km.) of range fence and corrals were constructed.
Approximately 4.8 billion board feet (22 million m3) of timber were harvested from the national forests during 1952. Receipts from the sale of this timber amounted to 66 million dollars, an all-time record high for annual value of such timber.
Well-organized research on all phases of forestry and forest products utilization was continued. One notable development in this respect was the initiation of a nation-wide program for a comprehensive timber resource review to assemble up-to-date figures on timber resources and to appraise progress and programs.
Short range programs designed to increase output of forest products and industrial capacity for defense purposes were also continued. Under this program accelerated tax amortization has been granted to more than 110 pulp companies, plywood plants and other forest industries to encourage construction or expansion of new plants.
