page_title: Sun Pass State Forest
section_title: Forest management
hierarchical_section_title: Sun Pass State Forest / Forest management
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo shows results of selective cutting of ponderosa pine in Oregon forest
context_page_description: Sun Pass State Forest is one of six state forests managed by the Oregon Department of Forestry. The forest is located 40 miles north of Klamath Falls, Oregon near the southeastern corner of Crater Lake National Park. It is the largest single block of Oregon state forestry land east of the Cascade Mountains. The forest is managed as part of the Klamath-Lake District, comprising 21,317 acres of the 33,739 state-owned acres within the district.
context_section_description: When the State of Oregon acquired the original 14,450 acres (58.5 km²) of land, it had been thoroughly logged. State foresters allowed an existing understory of white fir to develop. Much of the area was an ideal environment for a new generation of ponderosa pine and sugar pine to take hold. As a result, today’s Sun Pass forest is unusually diverse compared to similar forest areas of eastern Oregon.
  The Klamath-Lake District made its first sale in May 1944, selling ten cords of firewood. In July 1949, the district completed its first regular timber sale. In 1955, the Board of Forestry appointed a full-time forester to manage the state forest lands in Klamath and Lake counties. During the early years of active management, most timber sales were clean-up logging and salvage sales designed to cull areas of white fir and remove pockets of insect infested or diseased trees. Commercial thinning was done in the ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine stands to encourage continued growth in those areas.
  The first forest inventory was completed in 1959. The inventory was updated in 1976 and expanded in 1990-91. A tree improvement program began in 1970. Its goal was to introduce genetically superior seedling into the Sun Pass forest. In 1979, tree plantations were established to provide well adapted seedling for the Sun Pass area. In 1978, the Klamath-Lake District developed a long-range plan that continues to help forest managers to balance a wide range public interests in the Sun Pass forest.
  Today, most of Sun Pass State Forest is covered with uneven-aged, mixed conifer stands dominated by ponderosa pine that have been shaped by selective timber harvesting. The stands include a variety of tree sizes. Clearcutting is generally limited to the lodgepole pine areas in the northeast corner of the forest.
caption: Example of selective cutting in ponderosa pine forest
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