University of Idaho School of Forestry - Forester Yearbook (Moscow, ID)

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PLANNING A FOREST FOR THE UNIVERSITY OE IDAI-IO E. A. SHERMAN United States Forest Service WHEN Dean F. G. Miller, of the School of Forestry of the University of Idaho, turns from his desk and looks out of his ohice window, his eyes rest on the timbered south slopes of a range of hills known as the Moscow Mountains. These constitute a short secondary range running east and west almost at a right angle to and fairly well detached from the main mountain mass occupying the central and northern parts of the State. The most striking feature of the range, Moscow Moun- tain proper, is only 12 miles in an air line from the dean's ofiice. The area is unusually productive, with a fertility carried to it in wind-borne soils from the famous Palouse region. The total area comprises 65,753.62 acres and is divided naturally into two rather distinct units, the Moscow Mountain unit, con- taining 35,410.79 acres, and the Potato Hill unit of 30,342.83 acres. All the principal com- mercial forest types are well represented, with acreages as follows: white pine, 14,0803 pon- derosa pine, 20,0003 larch-fir, 28,7105 Douglas ir, 1,3905 cedar-white fir, 700. It would be hard, the dean believes, to find a more nearly ideal set-up for a university forest. To obtain this area for the Idaho School of Forestry as a field laboratory to be studied, protected, developed, and managed by his stu- dents has long been the dream of Dean Miller. Two steps toward the accomplishment of that ambition have recently been taken. In 1932 the Forest Development Company donated to the University about three thousand, six hun- dred and fifty acres of forest land on Moscow Mountain. This area is already in use by the forest school and forms a nucleus for the projected forest. The second step was taken on January 13, 1933, when Representative Burton L. French, of Idaho, introduced in Congress a bill which, if enacted into law, will enable the State to acquire for its university the entire forest area in question. The plan which passage of the bill will fur- ther is based upon the fact that the State of Idaho owns large acreages of land within the boundaries of the national forests in the State. The bill authorizes the Federal Gov- ernment to acquire privately owned lands within certain described sections in the Mos- cow Mountains region and extending north- eastward of that region to the Palouse division of the St. Joe National Forest and southward to Potato Hill fa landmark of some local prominencej. Boundary lines are to be so drawn as to exclude farm lands and settle- ments and all land having substantial agri- cultural potentialities. The Federal Govern- ment would acquire these lands with the ultimate object of exchanging them for an equal value of the lands owned by the State within the boundaries of national forests. It may take many years to round out the entire project, as a great many small owner- ships are involved. Meanwhile, the State and the Federal Government already own a part of the land. In addition to the tract donated to the University, the State owns 8,029 acres within the boundary limits of the two units, and the Federal Government before long will come into ownership of about 9,000 acres, 200 from the public domain and the balance from pending donations, making combined State and Federal holdings of approximately 20,000 acres. The terms of the final exchange transaction between the State and the Forest Service will be worked out after the Federal Government has completed the work of consolidation and the State authorities have been empowered to make such an exchange.-Forest Worker, March, 1933. Income From Recreational Sources New England's annual income from recre- ational sources amounts to S500,000,000 and, if this is considered as a 6 per cent return on a capital investment, it would place the cur- rent economic value of New England's recre- ational assets at about 8M billion dollars. The value of the recreational property in New England is placed at S550,000,000 and taxes amounting to 315,000,000 are paid on this property. The recreation dollar is spent as follows: Transportation, 20 cents, accommo- dations, 20 cents, retail stores, 25 centsg food, 21 centsg amusements, 8 centsg confections, 6 cents.-Jozwwzal of Forestry, March, 1933. Wood Stood Philip Lord, '33, completed his academic work the first semester this year and returned to his home in South Pasadena, California, just in time for the earthquake. He writes as follows: Practically all the serious damage occurred to brick buildings. I have been over a large part of the damaged area and in no case did I see any major damage to an all-wood struc- ture. Some of the wooden buildings were moved several feet from their foundations by the shock yet they did not fall. The lumber companies are advertising with the phrase, 'Wood Stood? Lumber will have no trouble holding its own as a building material in this section of the country, 17

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16 example, in the production of naval stores fturpentine, pine oil, rosinj, maple syrup, rubber, tung oil, and many other products the woody structure of the tree is not utilized, but materials which are naturally produced by the tree and only require collection are used. Only those industries which utilize the Woody struc- ture will be considered here. CHARCOAL INDUSTRY CENTURIES OLD Although most chemical industries depend- ing upon wood as raw material are of recent development, there are some which originated several centuries or more ago. The most notable example is the destructive distillation of wood. However, the modern wood distilla- tion industry is a far cry from the charcoal making of five centuries ago. The old collier THE IDAHO FORESTER duction of acetic acid, acetone and wood alcohol. The pulp and paper industry is the greatest of the chemical forest industries and is the seventh ranking industry in the United States. Paper was invented by the Chinese in 105 A. D. and was made by hand from that time until after the middle of the past century. With the advent of the chemical processes for producing pulp from wood, the paper industry passed, in a relatively short time, from making a few hundred hand sheets per day to mills produc- ing 400 tons of paper for the same period of time. Paper is a thin sheet of plant fibers made by separating the individual fibers in the plant and then felting them together again in a uni- form sheet. Since wood is composed mainly The Wood Conversion Laboratory Contains Considerable Modern Equipment and Machinery for Instructional Purposes. obtained only charcoal from wood and thereby unwittingly burned and wasted the most valu- able products. At present, thanks to research, chemicals which were formerly lost in gases and smoke are now the most important prod- ucts of wood distillation. The more im- portant chemical products are acetic acid, wood alcohol, acetone and tar oils which rind wide industrial uses as solvents, for the manu- facture of one form of rayon, in preparing formaldehyde, synthetic resins, various druys, dyes, perfumes, and other valuable products. The wood distillation industry is constantly undergoing radical development and improve- ment in economy of manufacture, in yield of products, in the refinement of products and the recovery of by-products. In the more re- cent plants sawdust and chipped waste wood may be fed continuously to the distillation re- torts, effecting both economy and improved production. The refinement of the products is carried out in complex modern chemical en- gineering equipment. It is believed that with these improvements the industry will be able to compete successfully with the synthetic pro- of fiber-shaped cells it is an excellent raw material for paper. But in order to separate these cellulose fibers the cementing substance, lignin, must be removed. The gradual accumu- lation of research on Wood during the nine- teenth century led to the discovery of the present-day pulping process in which the lig- nin is dissolved from the Wood, thereby freeing the fibers. WOOD A RAW MATERIAL FOR TEXTILES As in other modern industries, research is constantly bringing about improvements. The actual pulping processes are still but imper- fectly known and are the center of very in- tensive research. The number of forest spe- cies which may be used for pulp is gradually being enlarged. Also improved pulping proc- esses and the development of pulp refining methods is broadening the market for pulp. Highly purihed wood pulp is competing to a greater extent with cotton as a raw material for rayon and other cellulose products. A new industry which is related to the pulp and paper industry is the manufacture of fiber LContinued on page 495

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GIFT OF EXPERIMENTAL FOREST F. G. MILLER Dean, School of Forestry, U'nifoers'ity of Idaho BY OUTRIGHT gift the University of Idaho has come into possession of a choice ex- perimental forest for its School of Forestry. The gift was made by the Forest Development Company, a VVeyerhaeuser subsidiary at Lew- iston, Idaho. It consists of 3,646 acres of for- est land, and it was accepted by the State Board of Education October 11, 1932. In conveying this gift to the University of Idaho Mr. C. L. Billings, President of the Forest Development Company, stated it to be the thought of the company that the area shall be used as an experimental forest as long as there is a School of Forestry at the University. Mr. Billings has also furnished the School a full and complete report, with maps, descriptive of the forest cover on these lands, which will serve the School as a basis in formulating its plan of management for the area. LOCATION AND ACCESSIBILITY These lands are suitably and conveniently located for an experimental forest. They are all within the Moscow Mountain Range, 3,046 acres lying on the north slope and 600 acres on the south slope. Their average distance from Moscow is about 18 miles northeast. The lands on the north slope may be reached di- rect over a graveled and dirt road known as the Old Princeton Road, or by way of Pot- latch over a graveled highway to Potlatch, thence over a dirt road the rest of the way. The 600 acres on the south slope are accessible over a dirt and graveled road by way of Troy. It probably will not be many years until the main body of the area, that on the north slope of the mountains, will be accessible all the way over a surfaced road. TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL The land is all either rolling or mountainous in character, but any of it can be readily logged. It is practically all good timber pro- ducing soil. The forest on the south slope is drained by a beautiful mountain stream which traverses its full length. That on the north slope of the mountains is fairly well watered by streams, the principal one being Hatter Creek. FOREST COVER The principal species found on the area are ponderosa pine, western white pine, tamarack, Douglas fir, white fir, western red cedar, and lodgepole pine. These species grow largely in mixed stands. All age classes of all species of timber common to the northern part of Idaho are found within this forest. Practi- cally all of the merchantable timber has been removed, but the timber was cut in such a way as to leave intact on most of the area the trees below merchantable size. The report of the Forest Development Com- pany shows that 2,180 acres or nearly 60 per cent of the area is now covered with from 14 to 53 trees per acre of pole size, that is to say, trees 8 inches or over in diameter breast high. There are, of course, some younger trees below this size, which were not counted when the cruise was made. This means that there is left standing a suiiicient number of trees to restock the area by natural regeneration. In fact some reproduction has already started. About 500 acres or 14 per cent of the area bears young trees of the sapling stage-trees from 3 to 6 inches in diameter breast high, per cent is partially varying in size from 2 inches in diameter while 180 acres or 5 stocked with seedlings 6 inches in height to breast high. Nearly 14 per cent has been burned over and 7 per cent is classed as open land. Very probably the 79 per cent of the area now bearing poles, saplings, or seedlings will restock itself. The other 21 per cent may have to be planted, though it is possible that some of this will eventually reproduce by natural means. ACQUISITION 0-F ADJACRNT LANDS The gift of this line forest property came at an opportune time as it is opening the way to the acquisition of a larger School Forest as described by Dr. E. A. Sherman in an article under the caption: Planning a Forest for the University of Idaho, on page 17.. Besides serving as a field laboratory for the training of students in forestry and experi- mentation in methods of silvicultural manage- ment, this enlarged School Forest would be highly useful as a game preserve and for recreational uses, not to mention its potential value for the production of timber. It may be added that the School is already realizing some revenue from the gift area from the sale of cordwood and grazing privileges. Due ac- knowledgment is here made to the Forest De- velopment Company for this timely and im- portant donation. It will be known as the Moscow Mountain Experimental Forest. RESPITE STANLEY Foss BARTLETT Let me turn away for a moment From the ways that are blazed to goals, Let me wander gypsy-minded While I rest from my worldly roles. Let me go where there is 'I'LO commerce, Thought-free from my friencl and foe, For Foe peace to make with my soul and God Ancl Pye dreams of my own to lmow.