The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1936-11-26
Develop Perpetual
Lumber Industry
Continued from Page II


proportion of accessible sawtimber
There are few private operators now
managing their forest estates upon the
principle of sustained yield. State and
local policies of taxation, the highly
competitive character of the timber in
dustry, and other forces have created a
practice in the extraction of this great
resource which is rapidly liquidating
this forest domain. Depicting by cut
ting is proceeding at pace twice as
rapid as the current annual growth.
Timber Disappearing Rapidly
ITO that depletion must be added
other causes, principally fire and in
sects, which are removing timber about
half as rapidly as it is being produced.
These are the figures for all forest
lands, private and public. In many parts
of the region the timber resources are
approaching exhaustion. This is par
ticularly true in northern Idaho in
northeastern and northwestern Wash
ington, and in the once heavily tim
bered counties of northwestern Oregon
adjacent to the Columbia river. 1t is
estimated that in Idaho the next ten
years will see rapid shutting down of
lumber operations. In western Mon
tana the situation is not SO acute. In all
of western Washington, except in Lewis,
Cowlitz, and Pacific counties, the major
supply of highgrade fir and cedar on
private lands will disappear in less than
ten years. In those areas there is
very small supplemental supply of the
same kind of sawtimber on public
lands The Gray's Harbor area IS
rapidly curtailing its lumber opera
tions because Of this decline in the sup
ply. The problem in Seattle, Tacoma,
Everett, and other towns of the Puget
Sound is becoming much the same
Within comparatively short time there
will be less than half the present ca
pacity operating unless the demand for
lumber should so change as to permit
the utilization of small logs and other
species. In western Washington and
northwestern Oregon there are large
remaining stands of publicly owned
pulp timber, adequate to support con-
siderable expansion of pulp and paper,
but that expansion cannot proceed at a
rate to compensate for the rapid shrink
age which is occurring In the lumber in
dustry AS Washington is being cut
out, new mills spring up in the fir-tim
Der area of the upper Willamette river
and the other coastal watersheds in
Oregon, with the prospect Of rapid
depletion Of the best fir timber there.
What happened in the timbered sec
tons Of New England and in the Great
Lakes region is now on the way in the
Pacific Northwest.
1.-THE practice of sustained yield is
urgently required on private timber
lands, state and county timber
lands, as we'll as the federal forests, if
this resource of the Pacific Northwest
region is to continue In present i'm
portance as a basic supply for the ma
ton and for the livelihood of the peo-
pie in that area. Sustained yield man.
agement requires a policy which will
return annual timber crops of approx
mately equal size and value and furnish
permanent employment, wages, and
stable industrial communities. This is
an objective which can be reached only
by the cooperation of state and national
legislatures and administrations and the
industries concerned. An intricate
series of policies is involved, too lengthy
to recapitulate here, but they are set
forth in detail in the staff studies of
this report Attention has been di-
rected to this problem in the previous
Land Reports of the National Resources
Board"
Local Problem
That is the problem facing us in the
Northwest No wfor our local problem
which includes the whole county. A
few years ago we had the following
mills and their logging operations in
Lincoln county:
Eureka 4O,OO0,00O it.
Warland ..........................20 ,OOO,OOO it,
Libby so, 100000 IT,
Troy ............................. 100000 #.