Canada
· A 370-year-old and 275-foot (84-meter) arrow-straight Douglas fir was selected by the forest industry of British Columbia as its Centennial Year gift to the people of the United Kingdom. When erected as a flagpole in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London, it will be the tallest flagpole in the world.
After being felled, the stem was cut to a length of 226 feet (88 meters), loaded on false bunks on top of two loaded logging trucks and delivered to a beach 25 miles (40 kilometers) away where it was dumped in the water and towed to Vancouver Harbor.
Two floating cranes loaded the 36-ton log aboard a freighter where it rested on a deckload of lumber bound for the port of London. Here the big pole was dumped into the Thames river and then towed up to Kew for seasoning and dressing. It will eventually stand 214 feet (65 meters) above the ground.
· Increasing interest on the part of the pulp and paper industry in the use of sawmill chips for pulp, together with improvements in design and operation of barkers and chippers, have made most of the larger sawmills in Eastern Canada, and many of the relatively small ones, potential pulp chip producers. Considerable information on processing methods and Costs are available but there has been a lack of reliable data on several important factors concerned with the development, by a sawmill, of a chip program.
One of the most important of these factors relates to the determination of the yield of suitable residues which may be expected as a result of the conversion to lumber of sawlogs of various sizes. Fairly accurate knowledge on this is a prerequisite to the determination of the feasibility of a chip program, as well as to the determination of the type and capacities of processing equipment for any particular sawmill. The yield will depend on the types of saw used, the accuracy of sawing, and the utilization standards of the mill.
A bulletin entitled A Pulp Chip Program to Utilize Sawmill Residue (Forest Products Laboratories Technical Note No. 7) provides data which should prove most useful to sawmill operators contemplating a pulp chip program.
Cuba
· During a short stay in Cuba to appraise the forestry situation, at the request of the Government, an FAO technical assistance officer, Mr. L. Huguet, visited all the main plantations on the island, either of native species or exotica. In the case of the former, small 1- or 2-hectare plantations of cedar (cedro), mahogany (caoba) and Calophyllum calaba - a gumyielding tree (ocuje, also called calambuco) are not considered as of much economic importance. It is common knowledge that cedar plantations are difficult to establish and that the Cuban caoba grows very slowly. It seems that there is only one relatively extensive stand of Pinus caribaea. This plantation in Topes de Collantes is of considerable interest because the trees, planted on fairly good soil at an altitude of 700 meters with a humid climate, have been growing at the rate of 2 centimeters per year in diameter and 1 meter in height. The standing volume after thinning is 150 cubic meters per hectare at the age of 17 years.
As regards exotics, eucalypts are the most widely planted and have always had great success on the most various soils. Eucalyptus saligna has given the best results.
The most interesting plantations are those established over the past eight years by the Minas de Matahambre company in the province of Pinar del Río, and which already cover about 600 hectares. Here on poor quality soils E. saligna attains an average of 25 meters in height and 20 centimeters in diameter within 7 years, and the form of the trees is practically perfect. The planting methods are simple and well known and the Cost of establishment is no more than 200 pesos (U.S.$200) per hectare. If eucalypts were to be planted on extensive flat areas, operations could be mechanized, reducing the Cost.
Other plantations established by the Central Beragué on better type soils, suitable for sugar cane, showed hardly more growth than the Matahambre plantations. The species used are E. saligna, E. trabuti and E. deglupta. On very poor serpentine but nonlateritic savannas of Camagüey, a small plantation of E. saligna, 2 ½ years old, was growing well, with heights of 6 meters.
Teak (Tectona grandis) has been planted on fertile soils; increment seems to be less than in the case of plantations on the island of Trinidad, but is still very good. Acacia decurrens and A. mollissima growing at low altitudes in nurseries with excellent soils do not seem to do well.
The large sugar companies are establishing plantations on surplus farmlands in order to obtain homegrown supplies of railway crossties (sleepers) and poles; the mining companies to produce mine timbers. Poles and frames for drying tobacco are in demand, and it is reported that paper and rayon mills are interested in pines and eucalypts. Planting projects therefore appear to be good business.
Dominican Republic
· A report to the Latin-American Forestry Commission recalls that Law No. 4389 (19 February 1956) set aside a forest reserve (the Armando Bermúdez National Park) for scientific purposes, nature protection, and particularly the protection of the watersheds of five rivers. In compliance with this law, the process of expropriating private property located within the bounce of the national park has continued and families who lived within the area have been relocated elsewhere, each receiving land sufficient and appropriate for its needs. A forest ranger corps has been created to develop the national forest resources, mainly in this national park but also in the timber-producing areas where the felling of pine for agricultural purposes has also been prohibited.
Law No. 4371 (29 January 1956) declared reforestation and afforestation throughout the country to be in the national interest. Later the President, on his personal initiative, proclaimed the year 1956 to be Reforestation Year. The Ministry of Agriculture put into effect a reforestation campaign and established 23 nurseries, one in each province, for producing forest trees and fruit and ornamental trees. The plants are distributed for planting out on private farm holdings, state and municipally-owned land, and to embellish avenues, parks and highways.
Ethiopia
· Several years of technical assistance, under both bilateral programs and the FAO program, have given momentum to an extensive program of forestry development, according to a report to FAO.
The Forest Department in the Ministry of Agriculture has been reorganized and a new building to house it is under construction. An Imperial Ethiopian Forest Service (field service) consisting of forest conservatorships in the 13 provinces with the necessary administrative organization, is being developed. By the end of 1958, seven of these conservator-ships will have been established.
A forest rangers school has been founded in conjunction with the agricultural college at Ambo. Courses have started. A forest research institute is also being established at Ambo; the necessary buildings are under construction and scientific equipment has arrived. A National Park at Managasha (near Addis Ababa) is being created, to serve as a school forest for practical training for the rangers school and as a model managed forest.
An aerial reconnaissance has been carried out and the location, approximate area and general composition of forest areas have been ascertained. Some forest regions of special importance have been photographed from the air and mosaics made up as a basis for planning. A new forest law is under discussion in parliament and is expected to be passed.
The commercial exploitation of existing forests is being brought under control. Utilization will be on a working plans basis, founded on permanent forest industries and prescribed regeneration operations. 18 foreign technicians will have been engaged by the end of 1958. Professor Franz Heske has been appointed Director-General of the Forestry Department.
French Equatorial Africa
· Pointe Noire in the Middle Congo was the location for the second Inter-African Forestry Conference (3 to 10 July) organized by the Commission for Technical Co-operation in Africa South of the Sahara (CCTA).
Representatives attended from Ghana and from territories of France, Belgium, Portugal and the United Kingdom. FAO had an observer present as at the first such conference held at Abidjan in 1951.
After considering the present situation in respect of forest policy in countries south of the Sahara, the Conference covered a wide range of technical topics including the natural reconstitution of forests in areas under exploitation and traversed by shifting cultivation (nomad agriculture); planting methods for indigenous species and exotics; measures to obtain a biological balance in land utilization; and the maintenance of a sustained yield from the forests of tropical Africa. Technical committees dealt with the nomenclature of African forest formations and with Miombo-type woodlands which cover at least 2,690,000 square kilometers (1 million square miles) of the continent.
Views were expressed as to the future scope of the forestry activities of CCTA particularly in regard to research, and on the form which future collaboration with FAO should assume after the establishment of the new FAO African Regional Office with its sub-regional offices in East Africa and North Africa. The FAO Regional Representative will be Mr. Pierre Terver who served for many years with FAO's Forestry Division and has lately been Director of the Program and Budgetary Service in the Director-General's Office. Mr. Terver spent a large part of his early career in Africa.
Nicaragua
· Nicaragua is a country with extensive areas of dense forest. The actual area was estimated in 1960 by an FAO Mission to be 17.6 million acres (7.1 million hectares) or over half the area of the country. These immense resources have tended to overshadow the very real need for forest conservation and efficient utilization.
At present the forest industry in Nicaragua is very smell and in no way reflects the immense reserves of the country. The present annual value of exports of all forest products is less than $4 million coming predominantly from the Atlantic Coast, while the value of timber supplied to the local market is probably of somewhat less value. However, with such reserves of timber it is feasible to build the export of timber from the whole country up to an equal or greater value than coffee or cotton exports, an FAO technical officer suggests.
This diversification would be of great advantage as a stabilizing influence on the economy, for timber prices are much less variable than most crops and the annual output, being little subject to variations due to climatic conditions or pest infestations, is much more predictable. As well as the good export possibilities, it is probable that with more efficient production and subsequent lower prices, the local demand for timber for all purposes would rise at a far greater rate than the increase in population.
However, due to local depletions of the reserves near centers of populations, prices of timber products in Nicaragua are increasing, and without conservation measures this steady depletion of timber will lead to even higher prices. Even now the timber reserves of the Pacific Coast have been so depleted that it is very profitable for even small scale operators near roads to ship timber over 200 kilometers to the Managua market. The major reason for this depletion of timber reserves is due to clearing of land for agricultural purposes, mostly with destruction of the standing timbers by burning, as the lack of roads makes it impossible to forward the timber to market.
This process has been, and is still being repented throughout Nicaragua. Settlement has always preceded road construction, and by the time suitable roads are built, only a small fraction of the commercial timber remains. Further, the lack of any efficient system of utilization, lack of knowledge on the uses of each species, and the small amounts available have made it often unprofitable to extract what little timber remains. These are the general problems facing the timber industry in Nicaragua.
Portugal
· Last April a project for a six-year development plan (1969-65) was submitted to the National Assembly. This new plan envisages a total investment of 21 million cantos (U.S.$725 million) almost double that for the first plan (1963-68). Since the gross investment capacity of the country for this six-year period is estimated at about 68.6 million cantos (U.S$2,366 million), this means that some 30 percent of total investment will be controlled by the national administration.
The new plan also shows a significant change in the proportion of investment allotted to agriculture, forestry and livestock farming: the 10.8 percent of the first plan has been increased to 17.3 percent. For forestry which furnishes 30 percent of the country's exports, the total amount allotted is 750,000 contos (U.S.$2,475,000) or 21 percent of the funds for the agricultural sector.
More than half this amount is to be invested in afforestation, carried out by the Forest Administration and to cover somewhat more than 100,000 hectares. It is recognized that forestry provides about the only way to rehabilitate the great portion of the country which is either mountainous or where the soils are very poor. In the south of the country alone, one million hectares ought gradually to be transferred to forestry from the cultivation of cereal crops which not only results in considerable erosion but also gives very low cash returns. Experience in Portugal shows that yields of 700, 1,200 and 1,000 escudos (U.S.$24, $40 and $34) per hectare can be obtained from pine, eucalyptus and cork oak plantations, figures which are rarely attained by wheat or rye cultivation in this region.
The State afforestation program is expected to be supplemented by planting operations carried out by private landowners, benefiting by the special facilities granted by a law of 24 April 1954. This law provides for exemption from taxes, preferential credits, facilities for the supply of seeds and plants, and free technical assistance for owners of land where afforestation is considered indispensable to soil conservation. A total of 81,000 hectares are expected to be afforested under the provisions of this law.
About 20 percent of the total forestry investment is to be devoted to supplementary works - roads, buildings, telephone lines, meteorological stations, etc., - the "infrastructure" of forest development.
Forestry developments in the Azores also occupy an important place in the plan. Since the conditions on the islands confine cultivation to a narrow coastal strip, grazing by livestock is the main support of the islands' economy. Most of the islands are suitable for cattle breeding, and it is certain that a program of range improvement would contribute greatly towards increasing the production of meat, which is a scarce commodity in the Portuguese economy. Range improvement will consist mainly of eradication of scrub, artificial seeding of valuable grass species, and planting of trees for shelter, the whole covering a total area of 15,000 hectares. Fencing over 160 kilometers is also being considered - a measure of particular importance in the Azores where deep ravines are a serious menace to the security of the livestock and often entail their being kept away from good pasture zones.
Romania
· The reeds of the Danube delta supply the raw material for an international pulp enterprise at Braila constructed under the auspices of Comecon (council for mutual economic co-operation). Romania has half-shares in the project, and the other participants are Czechoslovakia, Poland and east Germany. The plant is planned to produce initially 50,000 tons of pulp per year, to be doubled later, as well as derivative products such as textile fibres, paper, fodder yeast and various chemicals.
The harvesting of the reeds which is being organized from Tulcea at the head of the delta, takes place between November and April and is emerging from the experimental stage. The objective is to replace the present process of manual cutting by seasonal labor, with full mechanization using reed-cutting machinery and marsh-going tractors. Many imported machines have been tried out and other modified types have been constructed locally.
Union of South Africa
· More than £50 million (U.S. $140 million) are said to have been invested by the State and by private interests in extensive afforestation programs, using fast-growing exotics. The weighted average for the annual increment for all exotic species in South Africa is 11.195 cubic meters per hectare (160 cubic feet per acre), and the short rotations possible with these species has brought them rapidly into production, to the extent that plantations are now the major domestic source of supply for the wood-using industries.
Over the last ten years sawlog production has increased by 80 percent; output in 1956/7 was 937,000 cubic meters of coniferous wood and 235,000 cubic meters of broadleaved wood. Production of sawnwood increased by 70 percent in the period between 1954/5 and 1956/7: In the latter year 154,000 cubic meters of boxboards were produced. A rising demand for pitprops for the coal and gold mines has been met mainly from privately owned plantations of broadleaved species. The total output of 1,215,000 cubic meters of pitprops in 1956/7 was double that of 1936/7.
In 1957, exports from South Africa of forest products amounted to about £7,000,000 (U.S.$19,600,000) in value. They included 45,000 metric tons of pulp and 28,000 tons of fibreboard. Both these and the plywood and particle board industries are now well established, with expanding outputs. Imports of forest products in recent years amounted to about £ 30,000,000 (U.S.$84,000,000) annually. In 1957 the major items were sawlogs and sawnwood (700,000 cubic meters) and paper of all kinds (167,000 metric tons). However, with the exception of lumber for construction and furniture, and of certain pulp products, the proportions of South Africa's requirements which are produced domestically are either being maintained or are rising.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
· Various articles in recent issues of Liesnoie Kkozyaistvo (Forestry) have dealt with the development of forest management systems in the U.S.S.R. The forests that are worked for industrial timber are logged by units (liespromkhozes) which come under the Ministry of Forest Industry and are completely independent of the forest management units (lieskozes), which come under the central authority of the Ministry of Forestry. Lack of liaison between the two often raises many difficulties.
This organizational structure was reached only through a trial and error process.
When the Soviets took power in 1917, the State appropriated all forests, whether belonging to private persons or to communities. All forests were made government property by the basic law of 27 May 1918. But this did not solve the question of the optimum utilization of the immense forest resources thus concentrated in Government hands.
During the NEP (New Economic Policy) period priority was accorded to the wholesale mobilization, by any means, of all the country's resources usable for economic development. Logging concessions were granted in certain forest areas, even to foreign firms. In 1919, for instance, considerable areas of northern forest were leased to a Norwegian company for logging. A Dutch company, which had previously had a contract with a private owner, continued to work a 4-million hectare area in the northern Dvina basin until the middle of 1919. In the Far Eastern taiga and in the central parts of the country, concessions over 5 million hectares were given to a company called "Mologolies", which harvested 1.5 million cubic meters of timber per year. Naturally this company was under government supervision and its activities had to follow prescribed management plans.
This formula did not produce the results anticipated, and there arose the idea of leasing certain forested areas to forest cooperatives. In 1921, for instance, a project was worked out for the 35-year lease of a forest area the basins of the Pasha, Oyat and Svir rivers. Soon, however, it appeared necessary to abandon entirely the system of granting concessions or leases.
During the next 20 years other methods of dividing functions on government-owned forest lands were developed. For instance, a forest area of over 1 ½ million hectares in the Archangel region, was made a land settlement area where extensive tracts of forest could be gradually cleared for settlement and agriculture. At the same time the first centers for the supply and distribution of forest products on a long-term basis were organized along present-day lines. In 1926, over 10.5 million hectares of forest were assigned to 11 such extraction centers to obtain an annual production of 11.9 million cubic meters. Certain forest areas were allocated to scientific institutes, technical schools, etc., but the total so allocated was only 4.6 million hectares, including the 1.1 million given to the State farms (sovkhozes). Management of these stands remains the responsibility of the body to which they have been assigned, always under Government control.
From 1931/32 on, this system of allocating forest areas was extended to industrial organizations charged both with the logging and silvicultural management of the stands. However, it was found that the latter function was neglected and that industrial organizations, in particular, were little concerned with the regeneration of cut-over stands. This system was rejected in 1947 in favor of the system now in use.
Although the lieskhozes have the authority to see that logging operations are carried out with due regard to silvicultural requirements, there is plenty of room for improvement. After logging a considerable amount of timber is found, especially hardwoods, left standing or fallen to waste. Moreover the lieskhozes are often handicapped in carrying out regeneration operations by shortages of machines and labor.
United Arab Republic
· It has been claimed that, in parts of many Near East countries, tree planting could be a better business than raising agricultural crops. Figures have been calculated for the net income per hectare of different types of cultivation in Syria as follows:
|
Product |
Net annual income per hectare (Syrian pounds) |
|
Vegetables |
1 000 - 1 500 |
|
Fruit trees, vineyard, cereals, cotton |
1 250 - 1 750 |
|
Poplars on a 13-year felling cycle |
3 600 - 4 000 |
|
Poplars on a 40-year felling cycle |
4 000 - 5 000 |
Under the more favorable growth conditions in Egypt, poplars could probably give the same results in 25 years as in Syria over 40 years. A rotation of 12 to 15 years should be sufficient to produce logs, at present imported, for the match factories. One row of poplars planted as a windbreak at an interval of two meters between trees should yield about 100 Egyptian pounds for every 100 meters over 12 to 15 years: £25 from the first thinning after 6 to 7 years, £25 from the second thinning after 10 years, and £50 from the final crop. Similar results could probably be achieved with other fast-growing tree species. Experiments are being conducted to ascertain what can be produced.
United Kingdom
· The first issue of the Journal of the Institute of Wood Science (21, college Hill, London, E.C.4) appeared in March. The institute, which was formed in 1955, has as its purpose the advancement of the scientific, technical, practical and general knowledge of wood and allied subjects. The new journal, which will appear twice per year, is to publish original work on all aspects of wood science, whether it be pure research of a theoretical or laboratory kind or more directly development work. The first issue contains papers on the botanical, physical and chemical aspects of wood science.
A new monthly technical publication has also appeared this year. With the title Board (published by Industrial and Commercial Publishers Limited, 13 New Bridge Street, London, E.C.4) the periodical is claimed to be the only one in the world to deal exclusively with hardboard, insulation board, particle board and allied products. Among articles in the first issue were ones dealing with fire resistance treatments for fibreboard the manufacture and use of particle boards, world output of board products, and synthetic resins. Separate sections are devoted to "Oversea Reports" and to "Materials, Machinery and Tools".
United States of America
· An area in the White Mountains of Inyo County, California, which contains the oldest living things of earth - bristlecone pine trees - has been designated as a reserved forest by the United States Department of Agriculture. The Chief of the Forest Service has signed an order establishing the forest within the Inyo National Forest and providing for its administration for botanical and historical purposes and for public enjoyment.
The area designated includes 27,000 acres (10,000 hectares) along the crest of the White Mountain Range. Within it are 100 bristlecone pines (Pinus aristata) over 4,000 years old and thousands in the 3,000 to 4,000 age bracket.
A grove of the oldest trees will be named the Edmund Schulman Memorial Grove in honor of the man who discovered in 1957 that the ancient bristlecones were the oldest living things in the world. The discovery was the culmination of 20 years of research by Mr. Schulman among old trees. His findings aroused widespread interest when reported by the National Geographic Society in its magazine.
· A Forest Biology Committee with a nationally representative membership has been set up by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI). Its purpose is to secure interchange of information between forest biologists and specialists in the fundamentals of pulping and paper making, and to stimulate research in subject areas of forestry that are of direct concern to TAPPI. In the initial phases, attention will be devoted primarily to forest genetics and forest tree improvement, as they relate to wood as a raw material for the manufacture of pulp, paper and board. Later the committee will concern itself with other factors influencing pulpwood quality such as forest fertilization, tree spacing and wood decaying fungi.
Another example of industry's concern with research is indicated in a brochure, Modern Methods of Manufacturing Veneer and Plywood, (United States Machinery Company, Inc., 90 Broad Street, New York). Here it is claimed that experimental work and broad experience with the various woods and climatic conditions now permits recommending the proper equipment for cutting, drying gluing in practically every country of the world where timber is available.
· Writing in the Journal of Forestry, Professor Stephen Spurr suggests that few problems of forest terminology have evoked so much confusion as the usage of the terms selection and selective. They have come to be used in so many senses as to make effective communication difficult between even well-trained professional foresters. It is high time that an effort be made to define these terms so as to take into account their ordinary usage by foresters. He suggests the following set of definitions:
1. Uneven-aged management: A system of silvicultural management involving selective or partial cuts repeated at intervals with the object of creating and maintaining an uneven-aged forest stand. Syn. selection method, selection system.2. Selective cutting: Any cutting in which trees are marked or otherwise chosen for removal in preference to other trees that are left uncut. Syn. partial cutting.
3. Marked-tree cutting: A specific type of selective cutting in which the choice of the trees to be cut or left involves the independent judgment of the forester, as opposed to partial cuts based upon arbitrary rules.
4. Thinning: A type of selective or partial cut made for the purpose of stimulating the growth of the residual trees as opposed to partial cuts made for the purpose of realizing stumpage values or for the purpose of obtaining natural reproduction. Since all thinning involves the act of selection, the term selective thinning is both redundant and confusing, and should be avoided. Specific types of thinning can be indicated by carefully chosen modifiers (i.e., crown thinning).
Venezuela
· Earlier in this issue is an article on the development of the Forest Products Research Institute in the Philippines.
In recent numbers of Unasylva there have been several references to the Latin-American Forest Research and Training Institute at Merida. The devoted support of Dr. Uzcategui, Director of the Institute, Dr. Rincon, Rector of the University, and Professor Viloria, Dean of the Forestry Faculty, has been a major factor in the initial success of this Institute, together with the close collaboration developed with professors of the Forestry Faculty of the University of the Andes.
Set on a high plateau in the shadow of Mount Bolivar and Mount Pico, imposing snowy peaks of the Andes, the Institute is impressively equipped and, by means of laboratory and field research, efforts are being made to solve some of the problems facing governments and private wood-using industries in opening up the natural forests of the region to sound exploitation.
The intimate connection between extracting useful products from the forest and the agricultural development of steep slopes requires that colonization schemes and rural resettlement must be based on carefully worked out research on soil-vegetation relationships, and more comprehensive knowledge of the potentialities of local tree species, as well as of modern methods of soil conservation and watershed management practices. Failure to do so can only serve to aggravate the already serious menace of soil erosion and its many disastrous consequences.
The work of the institute in forest ecology is laying the basis for a better understanding of the forest as a protective cover and as a source of wood products, and is already finding application in the plans of the Venezuelan Government for agricultural development and colonization. Knowledge is being built up as to growth and seeding habits of many forest species. In the process of building up this knowledge, the students of the Forestry Faculty are receiving much useful training in the establishment of sample plots in the forest, measuring the trees, and analyzing the effects of silvicultural treatment on regeneration and early development of the stands.
Systematic testing has started of wood specimens of many Latin-American species, and the results are being compiled for the use of interested industries. This service of testing woods bids fair to increase as more countries avail themselves of the Merida laboratory facilities. A large museum-display room is being arranged, where visiting industrialists can see examples of woods of local species made up into a number of products.
