Title: The National Forests: Lands of Many Uses
Author: Anonymous
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The National Forests: Lands of Many Uses" ***


                                 TREES
                             OF THE FOREST
                         _Their Beauty and Use_


                     U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
                        FOREST SERVICE    PA 613

    [Illustration: Walk in the woods]



                    _Walk In the Woods One Day ..._


It will not take long to realize or remember that of all America’s
riches, the inherited and acquired, the natural and manmade, trees are
among our most cherished.

It would be a poorer nation indeed without them, if a nation at all. As
living creatures they delight the eye and inspire belief as you walk
among them. As wood, logged and hewn, they serve civilization in myriad
ways.

When the Founding Fathers arrived, the native American forest stretched
almost unbroken from the Atlantic to the Great Plains and beyond the
Plains to the Pacific. Trees were the source of their first crude forts,
of their furniture, firewood, fruit, and even of their medicines. Game
and fish for the table of pioneers were harvested in cool woodland
shadows.

The Nation’s forests have shrunk appreciably through the years, yet
today almost 800 different species of native trees and hundreds of
others introduced from foreign lands grow and thrive in the United
States. They fulfill many purposes. Peach, apple, and cherry are trees
of the orchard. Sheltering your home, shading your street, or lending
dignity to your city park may be the elm, oak, maple, weeping willow, or
handsome, slow-growing English yew. You may be on speaking terms with a
nearby Lombardy poplar, a slender, stately tree which President Thomas
Jefferson once planted in rows along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.
Or perhaps the wide-spreading ornamental hackberry, which like all trees
serves more than a single use: robins and mockingbirds thrive on its
purple-black berries.

Other types of trees, including more than 175 species of commercial
value, grace our contemporary forest. They add to the grandeur and glory
of our land, immeasurable in their fullest meaning, though in a tangible
sense furnishing food and protective cover to wildlife, shade and
firewood to campers, and timber to us all.

The future of the forest? One day walk in the managed stands of our 154
National Forests. Observe how these lands are managed for many uses, how
their trees benefit from man’s touch and influence, and how logging with
a purpose enhances the health of the forest and its value to your
children’s children. Meanwhile, follow through these pages the story of
growing trees and timber on the National Forests.

    [Illustration: Maple leaf and seed]


_Light, Water, Soil, and Space for Growth_

What are the National Forests from which much of our timber comes?

Trees are their dominant characteristic, but trees are hardly alone or
even self-sufficient, for a forest is a vibrantly complex, interwoven
community of many forms of life. Within its depths the tree, shrubby
plant, large animal, and minute creature struggle together and against
each other to survive and to perpetuate their species.

From the beginning to the end of its days, the tree exerts a ceaseless
effort in the contest for life. Like man, it must have air, light, heat,
water, and food. Having once taken root, it can never move to another
spot—yet within its own sphere it acts and reacts in drawing nourishment
from soil and air. Roots penetrate downward for water and mineral foods.
The trunk carries these to the crown and outward to the leaves.
Meanwhile, within tiny leaf cells the amazing green pigmentation called
chlorophyll captures light waves and the energy of the sun. These
combine with carbon dioxide breathed from the air to form a simple
sugar, later converted into other carbohydrates and then into wood. The
tree shows its growth and age through the addition each year of a coat
of new wood cells formed by the cambium layer between the outside layer
of the sapwood and the bark. The sapwood is the living tissue through
which water passes from roots to crown.

    [Illustration: Open woods]

In field and lawn, the shade tree has space to reach _upward and
outward_ for its sunlight. As it grows, the limbs spread and the crown
becomes broad and rounded. But the forest tree lives close to its
neighbors, and in turning to the sun must reach _upward_. Its lower
branches, cut off from sunlight, wither and fall. It develops height,
with a long, clean trunk, attractive to the eye and highly suited for
the milling of its wood into thousands of useful products.

Beneath the canopy of upper limbs and leaves, openings on the forest
floor fill with little trees. They shoot up from the ground or sprout
from the stumps of old trees which have died or been cut. They test
their strength to survive against lesser plants, insects, and animals,
for whom _they_ are the sustenance of life. And they must compete with
each other.

But survival of the fitter does not produce National Forests of the
fullest value in our modern day, for not all tree species are useful to
man. These and other undesirable forest vegetation fight for their share
of soil and water and, if strong enough, crowd out or slow the growth of
more desirable trees. Very old trees, like very old people, become
afflicted with infirmities. They suffer disease and decadence; unlike
people, they seldom die alone, for they threaten an entire forest by
inviting infestation by insects and creating conditions favorable to
fire.

Through forest management and its implements, including timber cutting,
National Forests are cared for in their own best interests and in the
interests of man. The most useful trees are perpetuated in their proper
environment through _silviculture_ (_silva_, the forest, and _culture_,
to cultivate), the science of producing and caring for a forest.

How does this work? The Forest Service ranger, to begin with, must
understand the surroundings in which specific trees are born from their
seeds and the conditions which produce their best growth. He must also
be familiar with society’s use and needs for timber-type trees. These
constitute two general classes: Softwoods or conifers, the mostly
evergreen cone bearers; and the hardwoods or broadleaf trees, of which
most are deciduous, that is, shed their foliage in the fall.

Among the conifers are pine, fir, spruce, redwood, and hemlock.
Conifers, the oldest of tree families, were widespread on the face of
the earth millions of years ago. The somber giant sequoias still stand
as living history pre-dating the birth of Jesus. Bristlecone pines have
been found that range from 4,000 to 4,600 years old. Conifers are the
main strength of America’s timber resources, providing four-fifths of
the large sawtimber trees. The conifer is called softwood and is used
extensively in construction and fiber for paper pulp.

    [Illustration: Pine cone and needles]

Broadleaf trees include oaks, maples, elms, and sycamore. Their wood is
used in furniture, among other purposes, and together they are called
hardwoods (although a few are softer than some softwoods).

The forest manager knows that deciduous trees require some moisture
throughout the year, while conifers can survive where it is concentrated
mostly in winter snowfall. But this is only the start, for there is also
the magic of tree seeds to fathom, interpret, and adapt.

Seeds range in weight from the heavy, large black walnut down to specks
almost as fine as sand. Some are borne on wings, so remarkably balanced
that they ride the winds for miles. Some are sown _only_ by birds and
other animals—if not consumed by them first! Many trees produce seeds
every year, others less often or irregularly. Of every 100 seeds
reaching the ground, only a few may sprout. And the cones of some trees,
like jack pine in the Lake States (sometimes called fire pine), and
knobcone pine in the West, are opened and their seeds prepared for
germination by fire.

    [Illustration: Root system]

The forest manager must reckon with seed behavior and the complex
conditions required for seeds to take root and reproduce the forest.
Some are best allowed to seed naturally from mature parent trees. Others
are best sown by hand or by airplane. Millions of seedlings are grown in
National Forest nurseries and are planted in the forest by hand and by
machines. Then, once in the ground, the young trees (plantations) may
require some shade to survive, freedom from competing brush, and
protection from animals, insects, and fire. Providing this is called
plantation care.

Forest trees are also classified by their tolerance and intolerance to
shade. Sugar maple, for instance, is called a tolerant tree because it
will endure as a youngster with only a minimum of sunlight under the
cover of taller trees. But Douglas-fir is relatively intolerant to
shade, as is black cherry.

Various silvicultural cutting practices are used to obtain the desired
degree of light and to encourage seedling establishment. Cutting can
alter the density of the forest canopy or _overstory_ to enable more
light to reach the forest floor. Or it can open a new bed for seed if
located the proper distance from nearby uncut stands. For southern
pines, such a distance is usually not over 500 feet; for red spruce, in
contrast, it may be as far as 1,500 feet.

In essence, three systems of harvest cutting are applied on the National
Forests: Selection cutting, seed tree cutting, and clear cutting, with
variations based on specific terrain and other conditions.

Some forests are best managed through selection or partial cutting. In
starting harvest of a virgin stand, older trees are cut first. So are
the defective and diseased. Younger, healthier trees are encouraged, by
this release from competition, to further growth—much like the weeding
of a garden. The forest is also opened to stimulate new seedling growth.
In seed tree cutting, the entire stand is logged except for a few
carefully selected seed trees which are left to regenerate the forest.
These, in turn, are harvested after the new stand has been successfully
started.

    [Illustration: Forest suited for selective cutting]

Douglas-fir, however, is one of several species best managed with clear
cutting in blocks. Selection cutting of the lusty giant has been tried
in the National Forests, but with little success. It proved difficult to
remove the tall Douglas-firs, standing over 200 feet, without seriously
injuring others as they fell. Those remaining in a stand, shorn of
protection from neighboring trees above and interweaving roots below,
became victims of blowdown in high winds. Nor would Douglas-fir
reproduce itself without benefit of full sunlight. Thus, clear cutting
or patch cutting is practiced on blocks of 40 to 100 acres; this enables
sunlight to reach the ground and to help the valuable Douglas-fir forest
renew itself. Seeding by hand or by airplane and planting nursery-grown
seedlings are methods used to reforest these large openings.

    [Illustration: Seed release]

    [Illustration: Seed release]

    [Illustration: Patch-cut forest]

    [Illustration: Forest wildlife]



                      _The Balances of Management_


Throughout the 182 million acres of the National Forests other important
factors are weighed in the balance with the need to produce timber. They
may be the reason for heavy cutting, light cutting, or no cutting.

Wildlife, for example, has become increasingly dependent upon the
National Forests. Almost everywhere the land available to it has been
reduced through the spread of towns, cities, industries, and highways.
It is estimated that the native American forest once covered more than
900 million acres, with extensive borders and many open places where
grass, plants, and herbs grew and served as food for deer, elk, wild
turkey, and other animals and birds. In our modern managed forests,
clear cutting and heavy selection cutting make more food available to
animals and birds by opening clearings and creating _edges_.

On the other hand, fish are benefited by not harvesting timber along the
streamside. The forest canopy provides shade and a favorably cool
temperature. Insects fall in the water from overhanging branches,
providing food. Roots of trees and shrubs bind the soil, holding banks
in place, affording sheltered retreats along the streamside.

    [Illustration: Conifer forest]

    [Illustration: Pine seedling]

A vital factor in balanced management is the need to protect the forest
as a natural reservoir of water. Uncontrolled logging and fire can strip
the land of its porous cover, leaving it unable to absorb water. The
disastrous consequences are soil erosion, flash floods, and muddy
streams. Thus, as soil conditions require, the forester may plan light
to moderate selection cuttings. Or in other cases, as in the Southwest
where virgin timber grows amid a dense understory of young growth and
water is in short supply for a growing population, he may consider heavy
thinnings to replace deep-rooted trees with grasses and broadleaf herbs,
making more water available for human use.

In campgrounds and picnic areas, recreation values are protected by
limiting cutting to dead, dying, and diseased trees. In natural areas,
old trees and surrounding vegetation are subject only to minimum
management so that visitors may read living history as written on the
land. In wilderness and wild areas, timber cutting is not allowed. Those
primitive lands, 14½ million acres in all, have been dedicated by the
Forest Service to wilderness use and are protected in their natural
state for those who enjoy extensive foot or horseback travel in serenity
and solitude.

Each forest resource and each of the many uses of resources is needed in
the pattern of a growing Nation. Each is accorded its place in balancing
National Forest plans of management.

    [Illustration: Trees, like people, have their own characteristics
    and habits. The stand, or community of forest trees, nearest your
    home is as different from the next one as your town or city differs
    from the town in the next county. This means that the National
    Forests, ranging through 39 States and a Commonwealth—from the White
    and Green Mountains of New England south to Puerto Rico, westward to
    the Pacific and north to Alaska—must be managed, harvested, and
    renewed in different ways.]

  _Legend_
    NATIONAL FORESTS
    NATIONAL GRASSLANDS
    NATION’S TOTAL FORESTED AREA
    REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS
    AREAS DESCRIBED ON PAGES 22, 23, AND 24
    STATE AND PRIVATE AREA DIRECTORS



                  _Great Trees of the American Forest_


  Douglas-Fir, ponderosa and southern pines, yellow-poplar, sugar maple,
  and the white oak are great American trees, beauties on the landscape
  wherever they stand. As forest trees, they are grown to serve many
  useful purposes. You can derive more enjoyment from your travels
  through the National Forests by observing these and other species and
  learning why each grows best in its particular environment.

    [Illustration: Douglas-Fir]

_Douglas-Fir_, the State tree of Oregon, produces more wood products
than any other American tree and perhaps is the world’s most valuable
species of conifer. It grows in moist forests from the Rocky Mountains
to the Pacific coast, reaching its largest size on the western slopes of
the Cascade Mountains and along the northwest coast, where soil is rich
and moisture plentiful. Douglas-fir grows second in size only to the
California sequoias, giant sequoia and redwood (_Sequoia gigantea_ and
_Sequoia sempervirens_), with heights of 200 feet or more and diameters
of 3 to 6 feet. Under favorable conditions individual trees may live a
thousand years, grow 10 feet through and 300 feet tall, with furrowed,
cinnamon-brown bark 1 foot thick.

Douglas-fir scatters its seed prolifically (with an average of 42,000
seeds per pound taken over its entire range; California has
30,000-35,000, British Columbia 49,000) and young trees grow fast and
dense in the mineral soil of the Northwest. At 10 years they are 15 feet
high, and in 25 years are twice as tall with sometimes as many as 1,000
trees to the acre. As they grow, the forest thins naturally; in a
century the trees can reach 200 feet in height and may then number about
115 to the acre.

Small trees are hardy and attractive for ornamental planting. With their
soft, rich green needles hanging on long after cutting, they are also
beautiful and popular Christmas trees.

The wood, yellowish to light red in color, is strong for its fairly
light weight, and is resistant to decay. The size of the tree permits
the manufacture of lumber remarkably free of knots and other defects,
with pieces 60 feet long by 2 feet square. The softwood veneer and
plywood industries depend almost entirely on Douglas-fir for raw
materials. Recently new uses (fiberboard, book paper, wrapping paper)
have been developed for sawmill leftovers.

For years this unique conifer was a botanical puzzler, having been
called spruce, hemlock, balsam fir, and even pine. The scientific name
meaning false hemlock (_Pseudotsuga menziesii_) honors Dr. Archibald
Menzies, physician and naturalist with Captain Vancouver’s voyage, who
discovered this tree on the Pacific coast in 1791. It remained for the
roving Scotch botanical collector David Douglas to send the first seeds
to Europe in 1827. Soft, deep yellow-green or blue-green needles about
an inch long, flattened and pointed, grow all around the twig. The oval
cone with distinctive three-pronged bracts hangs like a pendant.

    [Illustration: Ponderosa Pine]

_Ponderosa Pine_, a beautiful and hardy tree, grows in every State west
of the Great Plains, and is the State tree of Montana. It has a total
stand greater than any native tree species except Douglas-fir, and
reaches maximum growth in the resin-scented Sierra forests of
California: over 200 feet in height, 5 to 8 feet in diameter, 500 years
in age.

During its early life ponderosa pine bark is dark brown, nearly black,
which prompts the local names “blackjack” and “bull pine.” Then it
becomes plated and scaly, turning distinctive cinnamon-brown to
orange-yellow. Bluish-green needles, 4 to 7 inches long, grow in
clusters of three or sometimes two. The brown cones are clustered too,
standing erect on small stalks and growing 3 to 6 inches long. Like most
other pines, the ponderosa’s cones require two seasons to mature.

Ponderosa pine (_Pinus ponderosa_) is the most valuable and extensive
timber tree of the Southwest, ranging in a 300-mile belt from the Gila
National Forest of New Mexico to the Kaibab Plateau of the Kaibab
National Forest in Arizona. It grows just above the sagebrush and
pinyon-juniper woodland, requiring less water than most other commercial
trees. Tenaciously the seedling withstands drought, often surviving on
only the dew of night. A year-old tree will sink its roots 2 feet deep
in quest of water, a 4-year-old tree more than twice as deep. In many
places on these southwestern forest lands, as many as 6,000 to 10,000
young ponderosa pines stand congested on a single acre, competing for
water, soil nutrients, and light.

At its best the ponderosa pine, rising to a broad, conical crown, makes
a handsome ornamental tree. It also makes hard, strong, and fine-grained
wood. High-grade ponderosa is used for doors, sashes, frames, and
paneling; the low-grade wood for boxes, rafters, joists, and railroad
ties.

    [Illustration: Southern Pine]

    [Illustration: Cross-section of trunk]

_Southern Pines_ are now recognized as a vast, important source for the
Nation’s future timber supply. An indication of the South’s role in
forestry is the fact that it produces fully 80 percent of all forest
tree seedlings grown in the United States. The pine is the State tree
for both Alabama and Arkansas.

The most plentiful southern pine, loblolly (_Pinus taeda_), often grows
in moist depressions which in the early days were known as “loblollies.”
Its needles are borne three in a cluster and grow 6 to 9 inches long.
This rapidly growing tree develops a clean, straight trunk, reaches
maturity in about 70 years, and sometimes yields 20,000 to 30,000 board
feet of timber per acre. Slash pine (_Pinus elliottii_) is a beautiful
tree of the Coastal Plain with lustrous dark green needles, usually
three in a cluster and 8 to 12 inches long, and a purplish-brown bark.
The two other major southern pines are shortleaf (_Pinus echinata_),
with slender bluish-green needles 5 inches long or less, two or three in
a cluster, and longleaf (_Pinus palustris_), with tapering trunks up to
120 feet in height, and dark green needles three in a cluster, 10 to 15
inches and sometimes 18 inches long. Longleaf and slash pines are the
principal sources of turpentine and rosin, known as naval stores because
of their early use in caulking wooden ships. Six other species of pines
are native in the South. The southern pines have a variety of other
uses, notably for paper pulp, housebuilding materials, fuel, and general
millwork.

    [Illustration: Yellow-Poplar]

_Yellow-Poplar_, or tuliptree, distinguished by its excellent form and
rapid growth, is one of the tallest and most valuable hardwoods in the
United States. Widely distributed through the Eastern States, it grows
in sheltered coves of the Appalachians in stands mixed with other large
broadleaf trees and an understory of dogwood, azalea, rhododendron, and
many wild flowers. It is the State tree of Indiana, Kentucky, and
Tennessee. The yellow-poplar reaches heights of 80 to 120 feet (maximum
recorded 198 feet) and diameters of 2 to 6 feet, with its straight,
deeply furrowed trunk clear of limbs for much of its length. It may live
250 years or more.

Hardly any American tree has a richer tradition than the yellow-poplar.
“Everyone,” wrote William Byrd, in his early _Natural History of
Virginia_, “has some of these trees in his gardens and around the house,
for ornament and pleasure.” Indians and settlers made dugouts of it. The
Delaware Swedes called it the “canoe tree.” George Washington, who had
an astonishing knowledge of many trees and their uses, planted
yellow-poplars at Mount Vernon. Two of them, nearly 120 feet tall, still
vigorous and growing, are now the tallest trees at this great estate.

Though called yellow-poplar, because of its light-colored softwood, it
is really a member of the magnolia family and bears the scientific name
_Liriodendron tulipifera_, “lily tree bearing tulips.” Its large
flowers, a blend of green and yellow tinged with orange, are among the
early spring arrivals in the forest, a welcome source of nectar to
honeybees. The blossoms emerge above a background of long-stemmed,
glossy, notched leaves that tremble in the slightest breeze. The flowers
develop into dry, cone-like fruit, from which winged seeds fall twirling
to the ground.

Young trees shoot toward the light and, in some of the best stands, grow
50 feet in 10 years. The twigs and branches of very small yellow-poplars
are tasty to deer, which sometimes cause extensive damage.

With its attractive flowers, foliage, and symmetrical form, the
yellow-poplar is frequently adapted for shade and ornamentation. The
straight-grained wood of yellow-poplar is used in furniture and
woodware, for veneer, and in construction. Its importance as a lumber
tree has increased immensely since the tragic loss of the once great
forests of chestnut. (Many foresters regarded the chestnut as the finest
hardwood tree in America before it fell victim to a relentless blight, a
fungus introduced from Asia.) Its nuts were a food staple of squirrels,
turkeys, bears, and other animals, all of which have suffered since the
passing of the chestnut. No remedy has been found for the blight, but
Forest Service researchers have been encouraged recently in their
efforts to breed a blight-resistant chestnut.

    [Illustration: Sugar Maple]

_Sugar Maple_, the most abundant and versatile of all the maples, the
showy beauty of the autumn landscape, is notable as the source of fine
hardwood lumber and maple sirup. It is found in nearly every State east
of the Great Plains, with its largest stands, usually mixed with other
hardwoods, in the Lake States and New England. Sugar maple grows slowly
but lives 300 to 400 years, reaching heights of 80 to 120 feet. It is
the State tree of New York, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The apt scientific name, _Acer saccharum_, refers to the sweetness of
the sap, from which maple sirup and sugar are boiled when winter is on
the wane. Like the sugarcane and sugarbeet, this maple is characterized
by an unusually high concentration of sugar, produced the year before
and stored in roots and trunk during the dormancy of winter. With leaf
buds swelling and the imminence of spring, the sap rises and is tapped
just inside the bark by driving in a spout and attaching a tube or
hanging a bucket beneath it. In this sturdy, stately tree, tapping may
go on for years without seriously affecting the life of the tree or the
quality of its wood. In spring, after the sugaring-off season, the maple
sends forth myriads of greenish-yellow clustered flowers from which bees
obtain pollen and nectar. In early summer seeds mature and fall to the
ground on papery wings. Later, in autumn, sugar residue in heart-shaped
thin leaves combines chemically with other substances to produce the
most striking orange-yellows and reds of the hardwood landscape.

Maple has been a choice wood since the time of the Romans, who used it
for their pikes and lances as well as furniture. Known to the lumber
trade as hard maple, the strong, close-grained wood makes firm flooring,
lustrous furniture, bowling alleys and pins, and musical instruments.
Accidental forms known as curly maple and birdseye maple are prized for
fancy-figured furniture and cabinets.

    [Illustration: White Oak]

_White Oak_ has been known and loved since the earliest days of
settlement in the New World. It reminded the colonists of the English
oak—and the Indians showed how to boil and eat its large acorns. White
oak grows from New England south to Florida, through the Middle West to
the Lake States, and as far west as Oklahoma and Texas. It is the State
tree of Connecticut and Maryland, while “native oak” is the State tree
of Illinois.

This tall, broad-crowned tree reaches heights of 80 to 100 feet
(maximum, 150 feet), with diameters of 3 to 6 feet. Its whitish or pale
gray bark is decidedly lighter in color than that of the black (or red)
oak group. Its scientific name _Quercus alba_ includes the classic Latin
generic name for all oaks, _Quercus_, and _alba_ (white), applied by the
famous botanist Linnaeus.

The large leaves are formed with five to nine rounded lobes and, unlike
the black oaks, have no bristles. The deep somber brown, or russet, of
the oak leaf is a familiar feature of the autumn landscape, and on young
trees many dead leaves remain attached throughout the winter. Acorns,
the seed of the oak, mature in early autumn. These shiny brown,
sweet-flavored nuts, known as mast, have become an important food for
bears, squirrels, and birds, particularly with the passing of the
chestnut.

The oak grows slowly but lives long, sometimes 500 to 600 years. In open
fields or lawns the trunk is shorter and the branches spread outward 80
feet or more. In the forest, white oak grows best in deep humus soil and
is found in a mixture with other oaks, hickory, and maple.

Of the more than 20 species of commercially important Eastern oak, white
oak is truly outstanding. From the earliest days it provided a valuable
source of timber for houses, ships, and furniture. Strength, durability,
and beauty are the words for white oak. Its uses range from barrels and
bridges to flooring and fine cabinets.



                     _Exploring the World of Trees_


  In every National Forest there are places where visitors can see and
  learn more about America’s trees—the firs, pines, poplars, maples, and
  oaks already briefly described, and others of the forest’s 175
  commercially important species. These areas of outstanding interest,
  demonstrating various phases of tree growth, management, and use, are
  located in every section of the country. Among these are the following
  10:


1 _The Big Acre, near Lake Quinault, Wash., Olympic National Forest,
Pacific Northwest Region._

This plot encompasses giant Douglas-fir and other species growing in
favorable conditions of the rain forest. A replica is shown in diorama
in the Hall of North American Forests in the American Museum of Natural
History in New York. On the east side of the Olympic Peninsula, Mount
Walker Summit (elevation 2,769 feet) looks deep into ridges and valleys
with examples of block cuttings where Douglas-fir is growing anew.

    [Illustration: Blue Jay]


2 _Wind River Experimental Forest, where forest research began in the
Pacific Northwest, near Carson, Wash., Gifford Pinchot National Forest,
Pacific Northwest Region._

The arboretum is a proving ground for conifers of the world and now has
groups of more than 135 species. Separate areas are devoted to shade
tolerance, seed dissemination, rodent control, and other studies. And
nearby at the Wind River Nursery, about 5.5 million new trees are
produced yearly for reforestation in the Northwest.


3 _Institute of Forest Genetics near Placerville, Calif., Eldorado
National Forest, California Region._

The Eddy Arboretum, named for its founder James G. Eddy, contains
species of pines from all over the world: 70 species, 35 additional
varieties, and 90 different hybrids. It was established in 1925 for
breeding and improving this group of timber trees. The Institute,
working to propagate faster growing, disease-resistant trees, is
successfully crossbreeding species such as Jeffrey and Coulter pines
into superior strains.

    [Illustration: ]


4 _Town Creek Plantations, Centerville, Idaho, north of Idaho City
Ranger Station, Boise National Forest, Intermountain Region._

This 200 acres of new forest was dedicated to the youth of Idaho in
1955, on the 50th anniversary of the Forest Service. Ponderosa pine
plantings were made with different techniques every year for 5 years and
are being studied in order to develop best methods for regeneration.


5 _Kaibab Plateau, managed timber areas near Jacob Lake, Ariz., Kaibab
National Forest, Southwestern Region._

The Kaibab Plateau, 60 miles long and 40 miles wide, is rich in scenery,
water, wildlife, and timber (ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir). Once the
population of the great Kaibab deer herd reached 100,000, far beyond the
capacity of the range. Trees were destroyed by wildlife, and thousands
of deer died of starvation. Public hunting now keeps the herd in
balance.


6 _Trees for Tomorrow Camp, Eagle River, Wis., Nicolet National Forest,
North Central Region._

The marked nature trail demonstrates how the forest lives and grows, its
relationship with other natural resources, and how man supplements
Nature’s management. This camp is operated by Wisconsin wood industries
in cooperation with the Forest Service as a school primarily for high
school and college students and teachers in conservation.


7 _Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, near Robbinsville, N.C., Nantahala
National Forest, Southern Region._

This 3,800-acre tract of primeval wilderness was dedicated in 1936 after
the Veterans of Foreign Wars suggested a fitting shrine be created to
the memory of the author of “Trees.” Within the national shrine are 100
species of hardwood trees, including giant yellow-poplars, oaks, birch,
basswood, maple, buckeye, and cherry, with shrubs, vines, and flowers
carpeting the forest floor.


8 _Longleaf Trail Vista, near Alexandria, La., Kisatchie National
Forest, Southern Region._

This general area includes some of the highest land in the State,
ranging up to 350 feet above sea level. It lies within the Red Dirt Game
Management Area, where demonstration woodlands are thinned by commercial
logging in order to provide food and improved conditions for wildlife.

    [Illustration: Sunlit forest]


9 _Hearts Content Scenic Area, near Warren, Pa., Allegheny National
Forest, Eastern Region._

This is a 120-acre primeval forest of towering eastern white pine. Parts
of the land were presented to the Government by a lumber company and
women’s clubs. About 15 miles east of Hearts Content is the Tionesta
Scenic Area, nearly 2,000 acres of magnificent virgin hardwoods and
eastern hemlock.


10 _Federation Forest, on the road between Danby and Peru, Vt., in Ten
Kiln Meadows, Green Mountain National Forest, Eastern Region._

This drive through the heart of the Green Mountains will show managed
northern hardwood forest types, including sugar maple.


In addition to these areas, many of the 800 National Forest ranger
stations contain displays on local trees. All are designed to show the
American people how the resources of the National Forests are cultivated
and used to serve the country now and in the future.



    [Illustration: NATIONAL FORESTS • Lands of many uses]

The Multiple Use Tree, based on an ancient symbol for wood and used as
an element of design in this booklet, is the central figure of the
symbol for the National Forests.

Each of the tree’s oval branches stands for a renewable resource of the
forest—water, timber, forage, wildlife, recreation—and the products and
services flowing from them. The trunk represents the Nation and its
people who benefit from forest resources.

The line inscribing the tree establishes the interrelationship and
interdependence of resources and their users. Its continuity symbolizes
multiple use management by indicating that each resource is developed
and managed in coordination with each of the other resources, and that
all are developed and managed for optimum benefits to the Nation.

The National Forest symbol, created by enclosing the tree with a ring
bearing the legend, _National Forests—Lands of Many Uses_, is a hallmark
of service to a growing America.

    [Illustration: Forest stream]



                              Information


For detailed information on visiting the National Forests, see the map
for the headquarters of the Forest Service Region administering the
areas you are interested in and write to the appropriate Regional
Forester, Forest Service:

  Federal Building
  Missoula, Mont. 59801

  Federal Center 1720
  Building 85
  Denver, Colo. 80225

  517 Gold Ave. SW.
  Albuquerque, N. Mex. 87101

  324 25th St.
  Ogden, Utah 84401

  630 Sansome St.
  San Francisco, Calif. 94111

  Post Office Box 3623
  Portland, Oreg. 97208

  Peachtree Rd. NW.
  Atlanta, Ga. 30309

  633 West Wisconsin Ave.
  Milwaukee, Wis. 53203

  Federal Office Building
  Post Office Box 1628
  Juneau, Alaska 99801

                      STATE AND PRIVATE FORESTRY AREAS

  Northeastern Area—S&PF
  6816 Market St.
  Upper Darby, Pa. 19082

  Southeastern Area—S&PF
  1720 Peachtree Rd. NW.
  Atlanta, Ga. 30309

This booklet is one of a series on the many uses and benefits of the
water, timber, wildlife, forage, and recreation resources of the
National Forest System. Others include _Backpacking in the National
Forest Wilderness_, _Skiing_, and _Camping_.

          Issued April 1964    Slightly revised December 1971

           ★ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1971 0—446-376

    [Illustration: _The National Forests_
    Lands Of Many Uses]

The Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, is dedicated to the
principle of multiple use management of the Nation’s forest resources
for sustained yields of wood, water, forage, wildlife, and recreation.
Through forestry research, cooperation with the States and private
forest owners, and management of the National Forests and National
Grasslands, it strives—as directed by Congress—to provide increasingly
greater service to a growing Nation.



                          Transcriber’s Notes


—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
  is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
  _underscores_.





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The National Forests: Lands of Many Uses" ***

Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.