Lumbermen to Plant New Tree for Each (s[--Establish Nursery to Furnish Stock

Washington, November lO,-Establishment of the CoOperative Forest Industry Nursery at Nisqually, Washington, has been announced by the West Coast Lumbermen's Association as a step by the Northwest forest industry to carry out its announced intention of planting a tree for every tree cut. Five million new young trees a year for replanting in commercial forests of Washington and Oregon will be the initial output of the nursery.

The nursery, on which preparation of the soil for seeding has already begun, is a forty-acre plot, located eight miles north of Olympia. Forest landowners in the Northwest have made an initial investment of close to $200,000 in the co-operative project. Planting stock, itself, accounts for $85,000 of this sum, and another $100,000 will be spent in setting the young trees out on the timber operators' lands.

Already contracts have been placed for 21,500,000 trees, which represents over 80 per cent of the total capacity of the nursery for the first five years. Those in charge expect the nursery production to be oversold, and more ground is available for its extension, or similar nurseries may be established on other sites in Washington and Oregon.

The first commitments by private forest owners to purchase young trees from the nursery are actuated by the lumber induStry's policy that "timber is a crop" and mean, substantially, that between planting and natural seeding from seed trees left in logging for that purpose, ten to 20 seedlings will take root for every tree cut in the Pacific Northwest.

The trees that will be produced by the nursery will mean $300,000 per year in future payrolls, according to Frank C. Reed of the Simpson Logging Company, Shelton, Washington, one of the underwriters of the project.

"The value of the industry nursery," says Mr. Reed, "may be roughly gauged on a basis of an average annual increment of 500 board feet per acre in the growth of a timber crop from seedling to saw log size. At current rates, this footage represents $6 in forest wages.

"We have considerable areas of good, tree-growing land now idle. These areas are largely on sections which were swept by fires of early days while carrying virgin timber. Much of the burned timber was salvaged and nature has produced a new crop on the gieater part of the old burns. On the remaining acreage, tree planting is needed to hasten the production of a new crop."

"The new, co-operative nursery is a logical development in meeting a long-existing need," says Corydon Wagner, president of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association. "Many companies have sought to restore growth to fire-denuded areas of their lands, but no planting stock has been available for private purchase. The whole project will be fortified by experience gained in the operation of smaller nurseries by several farsighted companies, which have tried out, over long periods, the growing of trees for planting.

"It is important to keep in mind that this project is a rounding-out of the conservation program of the forest industries in the Pacific Northwest that it is by no means a first requisite of reforestation on cutovers. Keeping fire out of growing trees remains our No. I task in reforesting lands that have yielded their harvest of old trees for the production of homes and of vital material for national defense."

Buildins Hits New High Volume

With October supplying a $7,826,871 volume of business, building authorized in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County this year has leaped far ahead of 19'10.

For the first 10 months, the building total runs $41,699,540 as compared to $32,178,930 for the corresponding period a year ago.