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
Logging and engineering
Forest injuries and protection
Forest management
Industry and trade
Forest products and their utilization
Forest policy
CAMEROONS
· Forestry extension work, in the sense of the instruction of the local people in the art of silviculture, is an important part of the routine duties of forest officers in the British dependent territories. It is reported in this connection that on the mountain grasslands of Bamenda, in the Trust Territory of the Cameroons, demonstrations by the Forest Department of eucalyptus growing have been taken up so eagerly by the people that they have quite changed the appearance of the countryside.
CHILE
· In Concepción the descendants of Arturo Junge Sahr who introduced Insignis Pine (P. radiata) into Chile, have offered an annual prize of 10,000 pesos to the author of the best thesis on new uses for this species. The object is to encourage research and application of the results of the research. The jury for the award will be formed by one representative of the Society of Chemical Engineers, a representative of the research center to be organized as a result of this campaign, and a member of the Junge family. The Arturo Junge Sahr Prize is being donated by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to honor his memory, and will be awarded annually on 17 October, the date of his birth.
GERMANY
· Dr. Adenauer, the Federal Chancellor of West Germany, together with the Minister for Nutrition Agriculture and Forestry, Professor Dr. Niklas, participated in the ceremonies at the Green Week Berlin 1953 and the annual meeting of the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald (Union for the Protection of German Forests) at the Technical University. The president of Berlin's regional branch of this Union reported on the reconstitution of Berlin's forests, which was planned to be completed in 10-12 years but had proceeded so quickly that, after four years, full success could now be considered as secured.
NIGERIA
· After many vicissitudes, Farm and Forest, originally the Nigerian Forester, now appears as an annual volume devoted to land use and rural planting in West Africa. The technical articles cover a wide range of subjects, including, in addition to forestry and land use planning, cattle breeding, fishing, agriculture and composting, and the selection is made to emphasize the interrelationships between the several phases of land use. A recent forestry article describes research in the establishment of neem in Bornu Province and indicates the steps that are necessary to establishment of this desirable species in an area with 25 inches (635 mm.) annual rainfall, with an effective wet season of only 3 ½ months. Cultivation during and at the end of the wet season has a remarkable effect on the health and initial survival. It is important that planted materials should consist of stumped one-year seedlings, nursery raised, since neither stumped wild seedlings nor direct sowing of seed is effective. Good plantations form a closed canopy at 3 years; growth is rapid but thinning is unnecessary and the stand may be cut at 10 years.
UNITED KINGDOM
· At a special ceremony in July, Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Commonwealth representatives planted a grove of 62 oak trees in the park of Windsor Castle to commemorate Coronation year. The trees were Quercus petraea. Throughout the United Kingdom and in many parts of the Commonwealth, trees were also widely planted by individuals, communities and forest services in honor of the Coronation.
· British Commonwealth Forest Terminology (Part I: Silviculture, Protection, Mensuration and Management, together with allied subjects) has been published by the Commonwealth Forestry Association as the first part of a forest terminology prepared in consultation with representatives of the forestry profession in all parts of the Commonwealth.
The criterion for inclusion of terms is what a forest officer in the field might want to know. In addition to terms in connection with the branches of forestry covered, a number of terms have been included connected with ecology, soil science, genetics, photogrammetry and statistics, which occur with some frequency in literature necessary for the practicing forester. Appendices deal with silvicultural systems, tree classes and thinning grades.
It is hoped to publish in due course two further parts, dealing with (II) Extraction, Utilization and Trade in Forest Products, and (III) Forest Products Research.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· The work of an American consulting forester is described in a recent publication, Forests for the Future, the story of sustained yield as told in the diaries and papers of David T. Mason, 1907-1950, with introductory text and notes by R. C. Loehr. It is published by the Forest Products History Foundation, St. Paul, Minnesota.
As a private consultant, Mr. Mason was retained by a number of clients to formulate management plans, estimate timber values for individual companies and to promote cooperation in the lumber industry as a whole through regional and national trade associations. The book describes how Mr. Mason, with almost a crusader's zeal, worked at persuading private industry and public foresters to pool their timber resources to create sustained yield units for the purpose of stabilizing forest communities. The day-to-day steps which were followed to secure the necessary legislation for this purpose are described in detail, although what is cause what is effect, and what may be mere association is not always made clear.
· A grant of $30,000 has been made by the Rockefeller Foundation, New York City, to the Society of American Foresters to make a study of forestry research in America, specifically to determine the progress which has been made during the past quarter-century, to make an estimate of the present status of programs' and to appraise the needs for the next 25 years. All forms and fields of forestry research will be included, and a committee of qualified men has been appointed to draw up plans, employ personnel, and supervise the study.
GERMANY
· A book by F. v. Hornstein, Wald und Mensch (Natural forest and mankind), published by Otto Maier Verlag, Ravensburg, is a handsome and artistic volume which undertakes to present the history of the natural forests of the foothills of the Alps in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in terms of their influence on man and the effect man has had on the forests. The style is an interesting mixture of philosophical discussion and semi-scientific description in the field of forest ecology. The illustrations include some photographs but, for the most part, consist of reproductions of paintings and ancient maps.
The various sections cover forest history and evolution, landscape regional forests, primitive exploitation and silvicultural methods, natural forest succession from spruce invasion, primary, secondary, cultural, and tertiary forest types. The book is of considerable interest from the historical and philosophical point of view as background for ideas on forest land use possibilities.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· The plan for "remaking nature" calls, among other things, for the afforestation of more than 300,000 hectares of barren sands, which are continuously shifting with the prevailing winds. No afforestation is possible unless the sands are first stabilized. The usual method is to protect sown seed or planted trees for a number of years until they become fully established by building fences, or putting up screens and coverings of straw or other materials. These devices are cumbersome, time and labor-consuming and prevent the use of mechanized machinery.
In 1935, the Agro-Physical Institute suggested fixing moving sands by spraying with a bituminous emulsion immediately after sowing or planting. As the emulsion reaches the ground it loses its water through evaporation and the remaining particles of the bitumen cement the grains of sand and make them resistant to wind movement. The petroleum bitumen selected, in contrast to other bitumens tested, does not injure the plants. The emulsion is prepared by heating bitumen in a large caldron to a temperature of 130-140°C; into another caldron filled with water is introduced an emulsifier in the form of a sulphate concentrate (residual by-product of paper making) and caustic soda. The contents of both caldrons are conveyed by pipes into an emulsifying machine, from which emerges a 50 percent bituminous emulsion. Application is made at the rate of 2 tons of emulsion (1 ton of bitumen) per hectare. For better penetration into the sand, the emulsion is mixed with water (1 part emulsion to 9 parts water) before spraying.
Until recently, experiments with fixing shifting sands in this way were carried out on a comparatively small scale. In 1951-52, however, the method was applied on a large scale on the desert sands of Kara-Kum (Turkmenistan) and on the shifting sand of the lower Dnieper. In all instances the treatment stopped the movement of the sand, the effects were proved most convincingly in the ease of a large sandy area in the lower Dnieper region planted to pine. Half of the area was bituminized, the other half remained untreated. Two days after planting, a severe wind storm occurred. During the storm, the untreated area lost a layer of sand 30-35 centimeters in thickness or 3,000 tons of sand per hectare per day. The bituminized area showed no effect of wind erosion.
Tests made with plantings on steep slopes, exposed to winds coming from all directions, gave similar results, and winter, spring and fall precipitation had little effect on the bituminous film. In Kara-Kum, where strong winds occur very, frequently, the film during the entire summer was broken only on 5 to 8 percent of the bituminized area.
Tests were also made to determine the effect of the bituminous covering upon the moisture-absorption capacity of the sand. Where the standard 1 ton of bitumen was used, uniformly distributed, 210 millimeters of precipitation per hour could be absorbed. If the application of bitumen was increased from 1 ton to 2 tons per hectare, the absorptive capacity of the sand markedly decreased. It was found that the rate of evaporation from bituminized and non-treated surfaces during the night or early morning, and on cloudy days, etc., was exactly the same; but on hot or windy days, the evaporation from non-treated sand was nearly twice as great as from treated sand. This explains the generally greater moisture content of the sand under bitumen.
The dark color of the bituminous film also favors the absorption of heat. The sand at a depth of 20 centimeters, where most of the roots of the young plants are found, is therefore slightly warmer under treated surfaces but not sufficiently so to harm the growth of the trees in early spring, this higher temperature under the bitumen cover having a positive advantage. When the air in the soil contains about 0.5 percent of carbon dioxide and 20 percent of oxygen it is considered normal.
The percentage survival of plants seems to have been greater on bituminized sands than on sands mechanically protected from blowing by screens, fences or brush covering. The cost of operations was also in favor of bituminization. Tests showed that the treatment, using a hand pump, required 17.5 man-days per hectare. By using a power pump, the spraying could be done in 6.6 man-days per hectare; in contrast the erection of protective devices required 130 man-days per ha.
The large-scale tests with bituminous emulsion appear to have shown conclusively that shifting sands fixed by this method become densely covered with vegetation and that the sand movement can be completely stopped.
· The All-Russia Institute of Agricultural Microbiology is reported to have succeeded in obtaining a pure culture of the so-called mycorrhizal fungi and in developing a method for their mass propagation. This is of considerable practical importance to the forest planting activities on the steppes and other treeless regions where the fungi are absent. The presence of mycorrhizal fungi in the soil is essential to any successful, forest planting; the general practice was and still is to add, at the time of planting, some forest soil brought from a forested locality. This method is simple and effective, hut cumbersome. The use of pure cultures of mycorrhizal fungi does away with this necessity.
The efficiency of the application of the pure culture has been tested at many forest stations throughout the southeastern part of European Russia, chiefly in oak plantations. The acorns, before they have been sown, were sprayed with water containing hyphae of the mycorrhizal fungus. The seedlings subsequently showed a greater accumulation of nitrogen and other elements in the leaves than did seedlings on control plots not treated at all or treated with the addition of forest soil. The seedlings treated with the pure culture had also a larger foliage cover and a more intensive absorption of water. The greatest advantage of all, however, was that one grain of liquid pure culture could take the place of several hundreds of kilograms of forest soil.
BRITISH GUIANA
· The Rupununi savannas of British Guiana, which support a range cattle industry, have an average rainfall during the 8-month dry season of 20 inches (500 mm.) and during the 4-month wet season of 40 inches (1,000 mm). Soils are generally sandy and thus are readily leached of plant nutriments. To date there is relatively little serious erosion on the savanna lands. There are several range sites-bush, mountainsides, ironstone hills, white sand, brown sand and swamps and marshy areas - each with its own characteristics and value for grazing. The savannas have deteriorated as a result of misuse of the range. Indiscriminate and persistent burning has destroyed organic material, opened the soil to wind erosion, obliterated many fire-sensitive species including some most valuable as forage, and probably destroys at least three-fourths of the forage grown each year. Burning has been a practice for a long time and will have to be brought under some sort of control if a substantial program of range improvement is to be effective.
Other important measures of improvement include improvement of land tenure which is now such that ranchers are unwilling to make capital improvements in land used by their herds; stabilization and control of the local Amerindian population, at present free to go anywhere and the principal source of fires, betterment of marketing facilities; provision for financing the required range and ranch improvements; working out methods and programs to correct very severe nutritional deficiencies through addition of mineral salts, particularly on areas used by breeding herds and young animals; better grazing management including the control of area and seasonal use on the ranges; better livestock management practices; control of livestock diseases and parasites - for example, the dipping of stock for control of ticks rather than attempted and ineffective control through range burning, the present practice: improvement in quality of cattle through selective breeding of native stock together with import of animals from other South American countries having broadly similar conditions.
IRAQ
· An Australian FAO technical assistance officer reports that it is evident from the widespread planting of single trees for shade or ornament that some species of eucalyptus are particularly suited to the Iraq climate and other conditions. The growth is so good that eucalyptus is an obvious choice for a major part of any afforestation program. About 20 species have been found planted in Iraq mainly at Rustamiyah, Zaafaraniyah, Habbaniyah and Abu Ghraib. Apart from these localities, however, the planting throughout the country is confined to two species - E. camaldulensis (syn. rostrata), and E. microtheca (sometimes called E. coolabah). The growth of these species is very good over wide areas, and finds its limit only with the low temperatures in the north at the Mosul, Arbil, Kirkuk line and on salty soils in the south. Almost all the trees are less than 20 years old, and with few minor exceptions are open-grown . The quality of the timber so far produced is therefore at the best moderate and the form of the stems often inferior. A plantation at Abu Ghraib which has been moderately well established is now about 14 years old. There has been some trial cutting and measurement of yields which is sufficient to show that good forest plantations can easily be successfully created, and it is obvious that with sound forestry technique, much better timber and stem form could he produced. The total volume increment in this plantation expressed as mean annual increment is about 3.6 m3 per dönüm 1 which is large, and it is clear that not only can this volume be expected generally but that with suitable techniques it can be substantially exceeded. There is therefore enough evidence to be sure of successful results in a eucalyptus afforestation program in Iraq. The degree of success will depend on the skill with which the program is put into effect.
1 dönüm - 0.22 acre (0.089 ha.)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· The School of Forestry, University of Florida, reports that experiments on the effect of colloidal phosphate on the height growth of slash pine plantations showed that small amounts applied in or immediately around the planting hole had no significant effect; heavy applications of from ½ to 2 tons per acre (1.2 to 4.9 tons per ha.) broadcast had highly significant favorable effects applications of ½ and 1 ton per acre (1.2 and 2.5 tons per ha.) broadcast and disked had marked effects, and applications of ½, ton per acre applied in four-foot (1.2 m.) strips and both dished and undisked, also had marked effects.
· The Institute of Forest Genetics of the California Forest and Range Experiment Station, has developed 23 pine hybrids which are being tested by the station itself and by various other institutions in different countries. The information from these tests has recently been summarized showing the probable or possible field conditions where the hybrid may be successful, the growth characteristics, susceptibility to insects and disease, and the like. Distribution of hybrid seeds is necessarily restricted to institutions and individuals in areas having probably suitable climatic conditions and who are prepared to conduct tests with acceptable care.
· The State University of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin State Conservation Department and various wood-using industries have supported an investigation of forest tree breeding in Sweden and other European countries, as a basis for recommendations on the progress, financing, aims and methods of the program already under way in Wisconsin.
A catalogue has resulted of the principal lines of work and forest species involved at each of the breeding stations and centers studied, a listing of the principal experts engaged in the work and the specific projects carried out by each, descriptions of vegetative propagation methods developed including methods for grafting spruce and pine, establishing clones of aspen through grafting and rooted cuttings, production of aspen seedlings, grafting oaks, and methods for inducing flowering with various species. Also a grafting timetable for various forest species as developed in Europe. Thus there is now available a handy compilation and critique of significant work under way in Europe which will undoubtedly be useful to American workers.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· In the northern region of European Russia, there are vast stretches of forest land which, because of clear cuttings followed by fires are bound to become waste land unless artificially regenerated. A test with airplane seeding during 1938-41 on 2,400 ha. of land burned over near Vologda in 1932-36, has recently been reported.
Before seeding from the air was attempted, three methods of soil preparation and ground seeding had been tried,
(a) plowing the land and sowing the seed into the furrows or on the soil turned up by the plow, the seed being raked in by hand;(b) harrowing land that had only a sparse ground cover with and without raking in the seeds;
(c) broadcast sowing without any preparation of the ground and without raking in the seed, thus retaining natural conditions. Scots pine, spruce and larch seed was sown by hand at the rate of 1.5 to 2 kg. per ha. and even greater for larch, during early spring in 1937, 1938 and 1939, one sowing made in the fall and another in summer proved unsuccessful. After each sowing counts were made of the number of seedlings that came up under each set of conditions. Sowing in furrows and on the upturned soil resulted in about 10 pine, 10 spruce and 4 larch seedlings per running meter; on harrowed land, pine 42, larch 31, and spruce 4 seedlings for each running meter; the most surprising results were obtained on the soil that had not been worked over at all, namely an average of 82 seedlings per running meter for all 3 species. These results clearly demonstrated that under local conditions unprepared soil provided a favorable bed for the seed and indicated the possibilities of using airplane seeding.
In the early spring of 1940 some 420 ha. were sown by airplane and another 1,000 ha. in 1941, at the rate of 1.3 kg. per ha. Checks on the ground made in the summer and fall of 1941 and 1942 disclosed that the first sowing produced on an average 19,367 seedlings per ha. and the second 26,855 seedlings. The latter included 14,650 pine (9,080 healthy 1,820 doubtful and 3,750 dead) and 12,205 spruce seedlings (11,200 healthy 575 doubtful and 430 dead). The total number of man-days required in airplane seeding (including staking out the area, preparation of the seed and the actual sowing) was 203 for every 1,000 ha. hand sowing -2,908 man-days, which on a per hectare basis gives 0.2 man-days by airplane, 2.9 man-days by hand. Airplane seeding appeared to give best results on freshly logged over land (1-3 years at most after logging). In this area the seeding should be done in late April or early May, preferably while snow is still on the ground.
· With large tree planting projects now in progress, the demand for planting material is enormous and this in turn calls for an uninterrupted abundant supply of high-quality seed. To provide such a flow of seed the Ministry of Forestry is carrying on every year a vigorous campaign of seed gathering all over the country - tree seeds and seeds of arborescent shrubs used in shelterbelt planting. In a number of forest regions selected forest areas, known as seed reserves, have been set aside and managed primarily for seed production.
Experiments are also being conducted on stimulating the seed-bearing capacity of individual trees. Most of the experiments on girdling, pruning of crowns and cutting of roots - some of which have continued for 10 years - have given apparently no positive results and some even proved negative in their effect. The only method that seems to hold real promise is systematic and repeated thinning of the stands to produce large uniform crowns exposed to full sunshine from all sides. Such thinnings must begin at an early age, at about 15 to 20 years. Experiments carried on since 1935 on the Siversk experimental forest in the Leningrad province, have yielded some interesting results. In all, 18 experimental plots were established, of which 14 were thinned and 4 left unthinned as control plots. Observations on seed production were made in 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1940. Interrupted during the war, they were resumed in 1946, and therefore cover a 10 year period. The stands were made up of Scots pine, 15 to 20 years old, on soil of fair to good fertility. In the first thinning from 200 to 600 trees were left per ha.; the control plots had about 1,000 trees per ha. Even after 3 years of thinning, a considerable difference in the length of the crowns in the thinned and unthinned stands became evident. The depth of the crowns in the thinned stands was 2 to 2.5 greater and their spread 3 to 4 times larger than in the unthinned stands. In -1946 the number of cones in the thinned stands amounted to 35,030, against 6,736 cones counted in the control plots. The number of trees bearing cones in the thinned stands amounted to 130 against only 32 in the control plots; the yield of cones in the thinned stands was 492 percent greater by weight and 520 percent greater by number than in the unthinned.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· In California, the perennial conflict between log haulers and state highway authorities reached a stalemate early this year - a "sitdown strike" of loaded trucks when the state tried to tighten the enforcement of load limits and the tolerance of overload allowed by administrative discretion. The logging industry has special problems in trying to adhere precisely to load limits, either total load or load per truck axle. Industry practice is to gauge loads by board foot content, whereas state authorities check loads by weight in pounds. Determination of log or load weight before loading in the woods is difficult, costly and not highly accurate, and is not always feasible or practical. The weight of different logs of the same gross dimensions can vary in a ratio of as much as two to one. Distribution of the weight on the truck, particularly of huge butt logs with pronounced basal swelling cannot be controlled to equalize weight per axle.
There is evidence that road damage is caused more by type of equipment, particularly size of tire and horse power, than by gross weight of the equipment and load. The effect of weight varies with the type of load; lightly surfaced roads are more subject to damage than more heavily surfaced roads with deeper sub-bases. The universal use of logging trucks on public highways means some compromise must be reached. Proposals include setting up maximum dimensions for butt logs, substitution of board foot measurement for weight, in pounds, setting up gross weight tolerances for trucks of certain specifications, provision of discretionary permits under specified conditions, and permission for haulers to offset overloads by financing the repair of any abnormal damage to roads.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· How to make logs of broadleaved species more floatable has been studied for some time by several research institutes. The traditional method is to leave the logs, cut in winter or summer, to dry in the air for six months or longer. This has several disadvantages. First, the drying proceeds slowly and not uniformly; even after six months some logs still contain too much moisture to make them safe for floating. Second, through being left for a long time in the forest, many logs, especially birch, become infected with several forms of rot; barked logs develop cracks and the wood becomes discolored .
A proposed method of reducing the specific gravity of the logs to increase their floatability is through the use of the evaporating power of the leaf surface of the trees. It has been established experimentally that an average tree crown of 60 m² surface transpires into the air every 24 hours the following amounts of water: ash 8.0 kg., birch 9.0 kg., aspen 9.0, beech 5.5, maple (sharpleaved) 4.0, spruce 4.0, pine 3.0, and fir 3.0 kg. If the water supply from the roots can be cut off while the leaves continue to give off water the moisture content of the wood can be greatly reduced within a short time. This process Russian foresters call biological drying in contrast to surface drying.
WEIGHT BEFORE AND AFTER BIOLOGICAL DRYING (kilograms per m³)
|
SPECIES |
Before drying, freshly cut |
After dying for different lengths of time |
||
|
5 days |
10 days |
15 days |
||
|
Birch |
950 |
860 |
780 |
750 |
|
Aspen |
970 |
870 |
780 |
750 |
|
Spruce |
850 |
730 |
660 |
630 |
|
Pine |
860 |
820 |
790 |
770 |
During 1949-1952 tests were made on 4,000 m³ of sawlogs, mostly of broadleaf species, in one of the forest units in the Leningrad province regarding the effect of biological drying on the floatability of the logs. The tests were made both in the laboratory and under actual field conditions. In the case of conifers it is enough to cut through or girdle the sapwood to sever the water supply; with broadleaved trees the water - conducting vessels occur in both sap and heartwood and the center of the tree contains most moisture - girdling the tree therefore is not effective and the whole tree must be cut down.
The felled trees must lie on the ground with all their branches and foliage for about 8 to 10 days before they are cut up into log lengths. This period of biological drying is sufficient to lower the weight of 1 m, by 150 to 200 kg. (see Table). These results relate to clear felling where care has been exercised to avoid trees falling one upon another. With selection felling it requires 30 to 45 days to obtain these results (and by air drying of logs - 230 days).
A number of birch 1 logs 5 meters long and 16 to 28 cm. in diameter at the smaller end were followed through an entire log drive to check floatability. Biologically dried logs remained in the water without sinking for 50 days; after 3 months there was a sinkage of about 10 percent. Logs treated, in addition, on the ends with some waterproof substance remained in the water in excellent condition for 5-6 months, the sinkage for the entire period ranging only from 0.5 to 3 percent depending on the waterproofing substance used. It therefore seems that biological drying plus waterproof coating of the ends of the logs can preserve the floatability of broadleaved species for a long enough period (4 or more months) to complete their transport by water to their normal final delivery points.
AUSTRALIA
· The State of Victoria has a total area of around 87,000 square miles (35,200 ha.) of which 7,800 square miles (3,100 ha.) are permanent forests and national parks and 14,200 square miles (5,700 ha.) are unreserved timbered Crown lands. The climate is characterized by long, dry summers, by hot winds of very high velocity and by very low relative humidities.
The first great fire disaster occurred in 1851 in the early days of settlement when almost the whole State was burned over and many lives were lost. Other great fires occurred in 1886, 1898, 1901, 1914 and 1919, after which a Forests Commission was formed. But great fires continued, culminating in the disaster of January 1939 when 71 lives were lost, 69 sawmills destroyed, over three million acres (1.2 million ha.) of valuable forests destroyed or seriously damaged, and two townships obliterated. Climatic conditions were extraordinarily severe, shade temperatures reaching 117°F (47°C), relative humidity falling to 4 percent, and wind velocity attaining 60 to 70 miles per hour (96-112 km. p.h.).
A Royal Commission was appointed to study and report on requirements to meet the fire problem. Most disastrous fires originated outside the major forest belts, being caused by burning operations to clear lands and from deliberate incendiarism. The forests themselves, composed almost wholly of eucalypts, become excessively dry, as do many of the pastures maintained for grazing. Even today, all of the dangerous fires are caused by man through intent or carelessness.
The fresh start taken after 1939 aimed at creating a fire-control system designed to meet the worst possible conditions, reducing fire numbers through publicity and educational programs, providing comprehensive and strict fire laws; creating adequate detection and communication systems; minimizing the time between detection and suppression action; creating a trained, properly dispersed, thoroughly equipped fire-fighting force, extending protection beyond the State forest boundaries; making the forest areas accessible to motor vehicles; and providing static water supplies wherever needed.
Progress during the past 13 years has been good, though there are still too many fires. Public behavior has been changed for the better. A very adequate and comprehensive law gives needed powers to the Forest Authority. There are 110 continuously manned lookout towers, and the Royal Australian Air Force provides supplementary patrol for detection. A system of fire weather forecasting is provided by the Commonwealth Meteorological Bureau. Radio and telephone communication has reached a high level of completion. A fleet of 200 trucks, together with a large stock of other equipment, particularly tank trucks, has been built up. There are 360 permanent officers and 1,500 short-term employees available during the fire season. Controlled strip burning is carried out along the borders of more valuable forests and within marginal areas of low value forests, slash burning is controlled, and hazards around sawmills, camps and forest townships are removed annually. Accessibility has been greatly increased through the construction of 8,000 miles (12,900 km.) of motor roads. Many water storage facilities have been installed. A country fire authority, charged with fire control on the farming and pastoral areas of the state, has been created, is well organized, and co-operates fully with the Forest Authority.
CANADA
· Studies of decay in white pine (Pinus strobus) have been made in Ontario, according to the Canadian Journal of Botany, on sample areas where the trees were felled and cut up for analysis. About 52 percent of the more than 1,000 trees examined contained decay, with a clearly marked relationship between age and decay. Thus 40 percent of the trees in the 60-year-age class had decay, and 100 percent in the 220-year-age class, with loss in merchantable volume of respectively 4 and 40 percent. There was no consistent relationship between percentage of decay and diameter but, in comparing vigorous and non-vigorous trees, the percentage of volume lost was greater in the latter. The age of maximum net periodic increment, that is, the pathological rotation, was found to be from 160 to 170 years. Although 13 wood-destroying fungi were found, Fomes pini was responsible for 90 percent of all loss in living trees.
UNITED KINGDOM
· In the October 1951 and January 1952 issues of the Quarterly Journal of Forestry, two articles were published on forest fire insurance abroad and in Great Britain. From these it appeared that the advantages afforded by insurance elsewhere in Europe were not available to forest owners in the United Kingdom, which was due largely to the feet that companies did not look with much enthusiasm upon forest fire insurance - partly because owners were apt to select only adverse risks for insurance and partly because so little information was available regarding the incidence of fires in private woodlands over a period of years, and it was difficult to assess a suitable premium.
To overcome these difficulties, Lloyd's Underwriters have made a study of all the data available and have recently produced a standard forest fire insurance policy, which, it is hoped, will meet owners' requirements at rates which they will be prepared to pay. The policy applies only to woodlands dedicated to or approved by the State Forest Service, and incorporates two new ideas. The first is that when an owner decides to insure, he will be asked to cover all his woodlands under 25 years of age, the second that he must take out his policy for a minimum of three years. These provisions have been designed to prevent the selection of only bad risks, and to enable Lloyd's to quote finer rates of premium. Special arrangements can be made to cover woodlands over 25 years old. The basis of valuation is the net replanting cost plus the value of the annual increment.
Annual rates vary from 2s. (28 cents) percent for hardwood plantations to 10s. ($1.40) percent for pines. The average rate for a well-wooded estate containing hardwoods mixed woods, larch and other conifers, would probably work out at about 5s. (70 cents) percent over-all.
The question of forest fire insurance is worthy of the closest consideration by all owners, as in many eases large sums are locked up in private woodlands; at these rates of premium many will think that forest fire insurance is worthwhile.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· A recent step in providing forest credit in the United States is the adoption of large woodland loan programs by three of the major insurance companies and active study of such an undertaking by two others. The conditions covering the loans are not fully set, but generally include provision for a sustained yield management, and protection from fire insects and overgrazing. The lending agencies usually prefer loans of $25,000 or more, and interest rates are about 5 percent.
CANADA
· While the demands of the fishing industry and the export trade in pitprops account for a considerable portion of the primary production from the forests of Newfoundland the two pulp and paper companies are responsible for the greater part of the manufacture of forest products. Composed of many small units, the sawmill industry's output is not large, mainly because of the localized character of settlement and the quality of the raw materials, which are much more suitable for pulpwood than for sawlog production.
As in other parts of Canada, the pulp and paper industry in Newfoundland expanded rapidly since the first pulp mill was erected in 1907. Although early production statistics are not available, the industry's growth can be gauged by the rise in newsprint exports from 62,000 tons in 1931 to 315,000 tons in 1941. Wood-pulp production in 1949 reached a peak of about 400,000 tons. In that year, Newfoundland, with a record newsprint production of about 440,000 tons, ranked third among newsprint-producing countries of the world, being surpassed only by the rest of Canada and the United States.
In terms of employment and value of products, the pulp and paper industry ranks lower than the fishing industry. Over the past 10 years, the two pulp and paper companies have employed an annual average of over 3,000 men in forest operations and over 3,000 men in mill operations. The latter figure remains fairly constant throughout the year, while the number of men in woods operations varies considerably, showing a maximum in the autumn, when most of the cutting is done.
Besides materially altering the pattern of employment in Newfoundland, these companies through their development have made possible the establishment of a number of settled townsites in the interior of the island.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· To help the establishment of new factories in underdeveloped areas on a world-wide basis a non-profit organization, whose income is derived from manufacturing, has been set up in the United States to sponsor the following services:
1. Investigate the needs of the various areas of the world for manufacturing plants to convert raw materials at the source.2. Through research, determine efficient and practical machinery for small low-cost factories. Design standard factory layouts for manufacturing high-grade materials on a profitable basis.
3. Train and bring together specialists for the establishment and operation of these factories.
4. Arrange for the installation and demonstration in each major area of one standard small factory for each chosen resource, in cooperation with machinery manufacturers, sponsoring organizations and governments - this factory to serve as a demonstration unit and as a training school.
5. Arrange for the purchase and shipment of machinery and supplies for additional standard units when requested.
6. Aid in the establishment of each production unit as a going concern.
7. Help obtain financial participation in favorable situations, where it is requested.
8. Supply marketing aids for production which is in excess of domestic needs.
UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
· Strenuous efforts have been made over the last two decades to shift the centers of the timber industry from the west and central European provinces to the north, the Urals and the Far East. It was necessary to open up new regions by roads, to create large industrial enterprises capable of utilizing the timber, build settlements for workers, and to allocate to each enterprise a large enough forest area capable of supplying a definite annual cut for a long time. It is reported in Lesnoye Khoziastvo that, by the beginning of 1953, some 1,720 large timber-producing enterprises had received definite allocations of exploitable timber reserves with a total possible annual cut of 300 million m³ over a period of 21 years. There are still many difficulties to overcome before the planned shift can be completed.
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL. ANNUAL CUT
|
REGION |
1948 actually cut |
1953 expected cut |
At end of 5 Years Plan | |
|
Northern European Russia |
11.0 |
13.0 |
17.0 | |
|
Karelia Republic |
3.0 |
3.0 |
5. 0 | |
|
Urals |
16.0 |
20.0 |
20.0 | |
|
W. Siberia |
7.0 |
9.0 |
9.0 | |
|
E. Siberia |
11.0 |
13.0 |
14.0 | |
|
Far East |
6,0 |
7.0 |
7.0 | |
|
|
TOTAL |
54.0 |
65.0 |
72.0 |
|
Northwestern part of European Russia |
3.5 |
3.0 |
3.0 | |
|
Central provinces |
23.0 |
21,0 |
17.0 | |
|
Volga region |
3.0 |
2.0 |
1.5 | |
|
N. Caucasus and Crimea |
6,0 |
2.0 |
1.5 | |
|
Central Asia and Kazakstan |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 | |
|
Transcaucasia |
0.5 |
0.5 |
0.5 | |
|
Southern parts of European Russia |
6.0 |
2.5 |
1. 5 | |
|
Western parts of European Russia |
8.0 |
3.0 |
2.0 | |
|
|
TOTAL |
51.0 |
35.0 |
28.0 |
By the end of the present 5-year plan, it is expected that more than 7/10 of the total annual cut will be centered in the north of European Russia, the Urals, western and eastern Siberia, and in the Far East. The progress expected is shown in the above Table.
UNITED KINGDOM
· Recent laboratory studies on fire endurance of timber beams and floors, made as part of the National Building Studies in the United Kingdom, have resulted in methods for calculating the fire endurance of most typical timbers of floor-ceiling constructions. The steps involved are:
a) to estimate the breaking load of the joist;b) to express the applied load of the joist as a fraction of the breaking load;
c) to read off the fire endurance from curves developed by the studies which show the time up to collapse in minutes against the ratio of applied breaking load for beams of different sizes;
d) to add to the endurance indicated the period of protection expected from the ceiling as worked out during the studies.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· AS experience has been gained with the production of yeast from waste sulphite liquor, so interest in its usage has expanded into the field of pharmacy and the realm of foods for human consumption. In order to supply the expanding market, a new yeast plant is now under construction at a pulp mill in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where a production of some 4,500 tons of yeast per year is planned, starting in 1954. It is of interest to note that the first yeast plant at Rhinelander, Wisconsin, designed to produce 1,200 tons of dry yeast annually, has since been expanded to manufacture about 2,000 tons per year, and further facilities for increased production are being installed.
Uses for the supplemental values in this yeast were first developed in the poultry field, but additional market are developing in the feeding of pigs, dairy calves and cows, fish in hatcheries, dogs and other pets, as well as in foods for fur-bearing animals, particularly mink. The production, however, of speciality products which may be of far-reaching value in the field of food as a whole still requires much expensive research for adequate development.
· The Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin, is currently doing much special research for various defense agencies. A major activity deals with shipping containers. Projects are under way covering cushioning materials, packaging of grease-coated parts, crates for aircraft parts, fiber drums for aircraft components, packaging of training planes to be shipped by padded van or by air, blocking and bracing of jet engines on railroad cars, and preparation of a manual for air cargo shipment. A potential saving of about $45 million in air transport cost is within reach as a result of the research done to date. Other research under way is the evaluation and development of new structural plastics, adhesives and sandwich constructions; plastics and metal sandwich construction which must operate at temperatures far above those at which wood burns; the performance of wood at 70°F (21°C) below zero; and use of wood for transporting liquid gas to be subjected to temperatures nearly 300°F (112°C) below zero.
AUSTRALIA
· There is no national forest policy for Australia as a whole. The several state governments each control independently the forests within their boundaries, and each state has its own forest policy and forest legislation. The Commonwealth Government has established a Forestry and Timber Bureau, which ensures sound management of such forest areas as are under Commonwealth control, and performs certain function of a national character in the forestry field, such as education and research. The bureau also acts as a central medium in achieving a measure of cooperation between the various Australian forest services.
The planning and construction of roads to virgin native forests has resulted in a general increase in timber production of at least 2 percent over the rate of population increase during the last two years. The financial stringency which resulted in the curtailment of loan funds for the financial year 1952-53 will have reduced the amount of road construction possible in that period, and this must consequently reduce to some extent the rate of increase in timber production. However, the same financial stringency has also caused a diminution of demand for timber within Australia, and resulted in a considerable increase in exports overseas.
There is a definite shortage of Australian grown softwood, and all forest departments have planned increased rates of establishment of softwood forest, in some cases, even at the expense of the regeneration and protection from fire of the native hardwood forest.
BELGIAN CONGO
· The forest policy adopted with the coming into forge of the degree of 11 April 1949 continues to be implemented. It involves:
a) inventory of state forests and assessment of the proportion of natural forest in the total wooded area of the country;b) reservation of forests to be maintained for climatic, economic or other reasons (erosion control), and study of management methods for these reserved forests;
c) regulation of logging on the basis of the allowable cut for the existing forests;
d) improvement of cut-over forests by introduction of species valuable as exports through planting with cash crops or by broadcast sowing, clump or strip planting;
e) protection of the savannas and control of brush fires so as to promote the restocking of suitable savanna lands with forest species; combining forest fallow with crops where at present only fallow under grass is possible (hardwood belts being used to compartment the savannas);
f) establishment of stands to meet specific needs of the population, industry or transport.
The Governor-General's Ordinance of 25 May 1953 for the protection of the savannas and the control of brush fires is a decided improvement on previous legislation in that it prohibits late burning but encourages early burning which has very little effect on the tree or shrub life of the savannas and destroys less organic matter than late burning.
So far as specific timber needs are concerned, in certain centers and for certain forms of transport (shipping and railroads) there is a problem of fuelwood supplies. A production program has been drawn up under which stands of fast-growing species are established to yield good quality fuelwood at an early age. Volume yields of some exotic species, particularly eucalyptus, in the mountains of the eastern Congo have exceeded those obtained over the same period of time in their country of origin. In Ruanda-Urundi, less fertile land unsuited to pasture and farm crops has been compulsorily reforested with a view to satisfying the domestic needs of the people.
CANADA
· The Canadian report to FAO for 1952-1953 states that, under authority of the Canada Forestry Act of 1949, the Federal Government, between 4 December 1951 and 12 June 1952 entered into agreements with the governments of eight of the ten provinces of Canada. These agreements provide for federal financial assistance to the provinces in completing inventories of their forest resources within the ensuing five years, and in the reforestation of unoccupied Crown lands during the same period.
The classes of forest inventory surveys covered by these agreements are, broadly speaking, those defined as reconnaissance and national forest surveys in FAO's publication, Planning a National Forest Inventory. 1 They are designed to determine the extent and location of forested areas to classify productive forest as to type and size of forest growth and as to ownership or tenure in the accessible regions, and to provide estimates, by species, of accessible timber volumes for large areas such as provincial administrative districts, together with some information regarding annual growth. The Federal Government undertakes to pay one half the cost to the provinces of carrying out such surveys, including the preparation of forest map and inventory reports, the programs and performance of the work being subject to federal approval. The more detailed working plan type of survey is not eligible for federal aid under the agreements.
1 FAO Forestry and Forest Products Study, No. 1.
Except in the case of Prince Edward Island, where forest conditions differ materially from the other provinces, the federal-provincial agreements respecting reforestation provide for payment by the Federal Government of one-fifth of the expenditure made by the province in each fiscal year for the reforestation of its unoccupied Crown lands under approved programs, or the amount by which such expenditure exceeds the average cost borne by the province itself for that purpose during the three years immediately preceding, whichever is less. An incentive is thus provided for the expansion of reforestation programs on denuded provincial lands which are not under lease or license. In order to simplify accounting and auditing procedures most of the agreements were amended in 1952 to provide for federal payments, substantially equivalent to the above, on a flat-rate basis according to the number of trees planted or acres seeded rather than as a percentage of cost. In addition, the Federal Government undertakes to pay one-fifth of the cost to the provinces of establishing and operating new forest nurseries, that is, nurseries not yet in actual production.
The Forest Research Division of the Federal Forestry Branch recently adopted a new statement of forest research policy and undertook the preparation of plans to govern work in the near future in the various field districts. These plans, while providing for research activities likely to be of the greatest usefulness in individual districts will so far as possible be coordinated in such a way as to ensure a reasonable distribution of research activities among the major problems which are common to forestry in all parts of the country.
Similarly, a new statement of research policy was adopted by the Forest Products Laboratories Division to govern the work in the laboratories located in Ottawa and Vancouver. Programs of research sponsored by the Federal Government and the pulp-using industries, aimed at increased use of hardwoods for the manufacture of wood pulp, have also been actively pursued.
CEYLON
· An act concerning soil conservation was approved by the Ceylon Parliament on 13 August 1951, but there may be delay before it becomes effective. Ultimately, it will empower the Minister of Agriculture to:
1. declare any area an "erodable able area" and enforce special protective measures against erosion on all land within its confines;2. apply general regulations to certain types of cultivation or soil utilization, for example, prohibit or restrict the burning of grassland and impose penalties for allowing fire to spread during the burning of "chenas" or shifting cultivation.
It is hoped that penal measures will not have to be inflicted and that demonstrations and training given to land users, as planned under the act, will be sufficient for its enforcement. The present staff of the Ministry of Agriculture is inadequate to carry out the proposed program, for which the eventual requirements are estimated at 20 officers and 450 field demonstrators. A special three-month course in soil conservation work is planned to provide a nucleus of temporary staff.
GREECE
· Reforestation mainly with conifers is carried out both for economic reasons and soil conservation purposes, the latter especially on torrent watersheds. A serious effort is being made to establish fast-growing species such as poplars and eucalyptus.
It is not expected that new stands will yield more than 1 m³ per ha. annually during the early years, and when fully developed their capacity is not likely to exceed 1.5 m3 per ha.
A government report states that there are now in operation 12 sectors of projects concerned with torrent restoration, individual works being carried out on 58 torrents. During the fiscal year 1952-53 three billion drachmae were made available for the construction of engineering works in these watersheds. In the torrent basins under restoration, a change in the type of the farmers' economy through the restriction on goat breeding is assisted by the development of forestry.
A special effort is being made to improve mountainous grazing land which covers 50 percent of the land area, approximately 6 million hectares. Two grazing districts are being organized on the mountains of Olympus and Tzumerka. Improvement projects are carried out in these districts, for instance watering facilities for animals, construction of reservoirs, roads and trails. Water collection projects are also in hand, together with fencing, artificial seeding, re-seeding, establishment of experimental plots and demonstration plots for imported forage plant varieties.
INDIA
· The research institute at Dehra Dun has recently set up a soil conservation branch with centers in the different states for research and demonstration purposes. It is affiliated to the Central Organization for Soil Conservation of India, which operates under the direction of a Soil Conservation Board composed of the Minister of Agriculture as chairman, the Director of Soil Conservation as secretary, the Inspector General of Forests, the Agricultural Commissioner, a member of the Central Water and Power Commission and a representative of the Society for Soil Conservation. The principal functions of this are to promote, organize and co-ordinate research on the conservation of soil under various types of land use - agriculture, forestry, grazing, etc. - and to give technical, administrative and financial assistance to the different states and river valley projects. It is setting up a technical staff, both at senior and junior levels, to take care of soil conservation projects. A desert research center, recently formed at Jodhpur, will also come under the direction of the Board.
NETHERLANDS
· A new forestry hill has been prepared to replace the existing act, which dates from 1922, and some emergency acts of shortly before and after the war. This bill has been published but not yet introduced into Parliament. Detailed regulations will be left to a forestry board which will probably be established in 1953, to be composed of representatives of various organizations or interested parties (labor organizations, associations of forest owners, the State Forest Service). All forest owners are statutorily bound to observe the regulations made by this board.
The State Forest Service, which has been in existence for more than 50 years, is concerned not only with the state forests, which comprise approximately 15 percent of the total forest area, but also with many forests owned by municipalities and general associations. It is also responsible for the administration of all statutory regulations and the dissemination of information but not for forestry research.
Forestry research is carried out by the Forestry Experiment Station and the Institute for Forestry Research, both at Wageningen, and the Institute for Applied Biological Field Research at Oosterbeek. The latter is mainly responsible for research on and control of insect damage.
NEW GUINEA
· A revision of the existing forest legislation in Netherlands New Guinea is under consideration. For a full development of forest utilization it is necessary that the forests should be freed from user rights; this is also specially desirable in the case of forests reserved for watershed protection roles, and efforts are being made to bring about a satisfactory state of affairs.
For the first time for many years Molucca ironwood is being exported again in 1953. The wood is purchased by the forest administration, and also by private concerns and some local people. Timber felling is mainly the concern of cooperatives, which either sell the timber themselves or supply it to the forest administration.
PUERTO RICO
· According to Puerto Rico's report to FAO for 1953, the objectives for forestry in the island have been clarified by restatement as a section of the country's agricultural development program. The goal is the raising of forest productivity of some 600,000 forest-type acres (242,820 ha.), about ¼ of the land surface of the island, to a point where each acre will in the long run contribute its potential of forest products, soil conservation, and water-flow regulation for the benefit of the most people. This program, led by the forest services of both the United States and the island, aims to intensify educational efforts to ensure improvement and development of privately-owned forest land and, where progress is economically unattainable, to incorporate such lands under government ownership by voluntary donation, exchange or purchase.
SURINAM
· The aerial survey made in 1947 of the northern half of the country has revealed that 75 percent of that part of the country is covered with tropical forests. Present timber production of Surinam amounts to 130,000 cubic meters of roundlogs per year, which is far below the potential output. The timber crop per hectare is low on account of poor knowledge of the timber stand and antiquated logging and transport methods, and consequently exhaustive felling has taken place along the accessible rivers. The current forest project aims at locating economically exploitable timber stands over an area of 500,000 hectares and a minimum production of 50 cubic meters per hectare. With a felling cycle of 80 years and a yearly felling on 6,000 hectares a yield can be obtained of 300,000 cubic meters. The project has four distinct phases:
Inventory - a ground survey based on aerial mapping.Research - of the 200 usable species only 50 are sufficiently known. Ecological studies will be necessary in order to obtain data on regeneration prospects. Technical and economic possibilities as to types and species and their processing will be examined.
Exploitation up of forest areas and laying out the principal communication roads, etc.
Extension - education and publicity on exploitation methods, processing and handling of timber, and marketing.
The estimated total costs, inclusive of an amount of 800,000 guilders for an investigation into the possibilities of large-scale planting of pulp and plywood species, amount to Sur. florins 6 million. In comparison with production in 1950 valued at about Sur. fl. 4 million, the increased production is expected to amount to Sur. fl. 13 million, with exports valued at Sur. fl. 11 million.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
· Two systems for obtaining a comprehensive and integrated management of major river basins are now under test. The first, exemplified by the well-known Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), is based on a central federal authority. The other, for example the Missouri River Basin, is based on an interagency committee including the six major federal departments concerned in comprehensive plans, together with governors of the ten basin states, the theory being that, through exchange of information and plans, and through discussion of these, an effective co-ordination will be worked out.
The Missouri Basin comprises 529,000 square miles (137 million ha.) or 17.5 percent of the total area of the continental United States. About 2 percent of the State of Minnesota is in the Basin, whereas 100 percent of Nebraska and 97 percent of South Dakota are in the Basin, and other states lie in between these proportions.
Since 1945, when the committee was organized, study and planning has been continuously under way and, with the current fifth revision of the plans, the total estimated cost for the Basin has reached the figure of nearly 11¼ billion dollars, an increase of nearly 1.9 billion dollars over the previous estimate, due to increases in unit prices and to supplementary features added as a result of recent unprecedented floods in the Basin. Current estimates involve an average of over $ 33 per acre ($ 82 per ha.) for the entire Basin area. Of the total, about 67 percent is calculated for major engineering projects, chiefly on main streams, and the remainder for all other measures. In particular, projects planned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture involve those for conservation and improvement of grass and crop land and for forest and forest range lands, together with measures for stabilizing small water courses.
That the comprehensive program planned at present is of a long-term nature is indicated by the fact that detailed estimates contemplate expenditure of no more than 27 percent of the total program during the next six years. The program is already under way on an individual project basis as projects have been given legislative approval. To-date, about 11 percent of the total estimated program has been installed or is in the process of construction.
