The \(/est Coast Forest Picture

By Dean Johnson, President \flest Coast Lumbermen's Association

Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox are gone forever from the woods of Oregon and other parts of the Pacific Northwest. They epitomize the pioneer courage, vision and strength of the lumber industry as an enterprise that turned the big timber of the virgin forests into wood products for the markets of all the world.

Prdduction in the age of Paul Bunyan meant only the production of logs and log products.

Now, in the new day of the west coast forest, industrial production also means the production of trees from the land.

The promise is substantial. Lumbermen have learned that it pays to grow trees-to produce trees as well as to produce logs and lumber. And so lumbermen who are re_ sponsible for the majority of west coast production are committed to ..the cdntinuous growing of timber crops,' - within the West Coast tree farms program.

On the other hand, the hope and promise of the west ,.coast forest future are rooted in research and in the new wonders of wood that have proved their value, in recent - years, particularly in the war. They greatly broaden the market for forest products, they offer increasing utilization . of forest material now unmarketable.

. Forest defeatism is folly. The greatest days of trees and men together in this region are ahead of us. Let us look a few facts in the face.

West of the Cascades-from Canadian border to Califor_ nia line-are 29 million acres of forest land, cover ing g.6 per cent of all west coast land area. Federal forest survgys show that 259 milliori acres of this land are commercial forests.

Today this area supplies our nation with 3O per cent of all lumber used, 90 per cent of the wood shingles and 23 per cent of the pulpwood. Last year, 1944, we cut a little less than 8 billion feet of lumber. Federar survevs show that in the Douglas fir bert alone we have 45r biliion feet of unreserved saw timber--old growth timber. This saw timber comprises several species, all valuable commercialry -Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, west coast hemlock, western red cedar, Balsam firs and some hardwoods.

- Back of this stand of old growth timber is a tremendous . reserve of young timber, growing trees, capable of making from 5Q0 to 1500 board feet per acre per year of wood.

What is the new 'West Coast lumber industry doing to provide perpetual crops of forest products ? In .western Oregon and Washington more than 2,000,000 acres of privately-owned timber land have been certified as tree farins. This means that owners of 51 separate tract's from small holdings to half-million acre estates have agreed to.prac_ tice intensive forestry so that these lands will produce the maximum of forest products.

Many more owners of timber land have installed expensive fire protection systems; are leaving seed sources so that newly logged areas will reseed naturally; are practicing better logging so that small trees, not yet mature, are left.

There is going to be some economic adjustment necessary in this region as we shift from a mining to a cropping policy in our timber, from a harvesting of wilderness forests to managed forestry. This adjustment is already going on. It may often be an economic dislocation instead of an adjustment. fn some areas a slowdown in amount of timber that can be cut must be undertaken. It will require from 25 to 50 years before we can apply the sorind prograrri of sustained yield to all of our lands, before rve can work out the very difficult problems of allotment of public-owned ' timber to operators in various regions.

Today we are forced by the strict law of economics to leave much wood in the forestS, finding it profitable to take out only good grade sawlogs or pulp logs. At the mill other wastes occur.

Tomorrow we know that most of this waste will be channeled into profitable products for the use of humanity. The forest industries shall do their part to create many thousands of new jobs, permanent jobs, in the making of products which will utilize our materials to the full.

Laboratories at Oregon State College, Longview, portland, Bend and Seattle are tirelessly at work on projects in research, all aimed at creating new products from wood. More jobs will be created in our industry in the futuie not only from new by-product industries, but from our further processing of lumber. Better grading, trimming, packaging will suit the customer.

Developments in new products have been so nurnerous during the war that even those of us inside the industrv do not yet know all the story.

'We are truly living in the new age of wood. If some of the great scientific developments in wood use are hidden to our eyes for national security reasons, our boys in the army and navy know about them. They know the job wood has done since it was first inducted.

When the war is over, wood will take its place here in the , greatest timber-growing area in the world, west of the Cascades, as the raw material from which prosperity will be fashioned. The economy of this legion will be a forest economy, for most of the land is good for little but timber growing.