The theory and practice of working plans (forest organization)

Book i Copyrights iy~}

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

The

Theory and Practice

OF

Working Plans

(FOREST ORGANIZATION)

BY

Professor of Forestry Cornell University

SECOND EDITION, THOROUGHLY REVISED FIRST THOUSAND

NEW YORK

JOHN WILEY & SONS

Copyright, 1913, ioi7>by A. B. RECKNAGEL press or

BRAUNWORTH & CO.

BOOK MANUFACTURERS

BROOKLYN. N. V.

Preface To The Second Edition

The reception accorded the first edition of this work has encouraged me to prepare a revised and enlarged second edition. In doing so I have profited from four main sources, not open at the time of writing the original text.

The first of these is the work of the Committee on Terminology of the Society of American Foresters, which has gone far to standardize the nomenclature. It has been my privilege to serve as chairman of the sub-committee on Organization, Mensuration, and Management, and I have derived the greatest help from the hearty cooperation of my colleagues both within and without the Committee. The terminology of the second edition has thus been brought into accord with the best usage of to-day.

The second great source of assistance is the helpful criticism engendered by the first edition. While it has not proved expedient to adopt all the suggestions, nevertheless, the faults noted have been corrected just so far as possible without destroying the originality and coherence of the work. In a text on forest organization, a detailed discussion of the application of silvicultural methods, of the pros and cons of various kinds of rotations and similar material of a general character does not seem in place, any more than would a didactic attempt to say: such and such a method of determining the cut should be used with such and such species, or forests. The time is not yet ripe for such generalizations; they must wait until the practice of forest management in America has advanced further than to-day. A new feature of this edition is the " Correlation of Silvicultural Methods and Methods of Determining the Cut," which is as far as the author feels justified in going along these lines.

The third source of assistance has been the experience of

IV PREFACE

teaching forest management for the past four years. Nothing so quickly reveals the defects of a book as using it for a text. To this experience are traceable the new diagrams and the amplification of the section on the normal forest and its attributes.

Last but by no means least of the sources of assistance, has been the wealth of new data revealed in the forestry literature of the past four years. This has made it possible to diversify the examples used to illustrate the various methods of regulating the cut by introducing other species than the overworked western yellow pine of the first edition.

Throughout, I have endeavored to revise and improve the original text so as to embody all the recent developments in forest organization. In doing so I have drawn freely on the work of my colleagues in the profession of forestry and I take this occasion to acknowledge my indebtedness.

A. B. Recknagel.

Ithaca, N. Y.

Preface To The First Edition

This book does not pretend to present any original theories of Forest Organization, but merely the best of European efforts along this line adapted to the present needs of American forestry. The necessary data were gathered in the course of a year's study abroad, and, in their application, the experience gained in five years of similar work for the forest service in various parts of the United States was constantly kept in mind. The theoretical part has, therefore, been reduced to the minimum; similarly, the description of such intensive methods of regulating the yield as that by area and volume in periods has been merely sketched for the sake of completeness, since its application to America is of the far distant future, if ever. In a word, while sacrificing nothing to the completeness necessary in a textbook, the aim has been to make the book of value not only to the student, but also to the practising forester, and hence theory has in each case been subordinated to practice.

It will be ample reward for the time and labor spent, if this book takes its humble place in the growing list of American text-books on forestry.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to those who so unselfishly assisted in the collection of the subject-matter.

A. B. RECKNAGEL.

Dresden, September, 1912.

Section 2. Forest Survey 2 ° Preliminary Work 2 °

Survey of Area 2I

Timber Estimates 22

Requisites 22

Base Lines 2 3

The Strips 2 4

Topographic Notes 2 7

Time of Survey and Estimate 2 7

Use of Yield Tables 2 8

Cost 28

Forest Description 2 °

Division of Area 37

Designations of Divisions 39

Boundaries of Divisions 4°

Maps and Tables 42

Stand Table 47

Stock Table 48

General Stand Table 5°

Age Class Tables Si

vii viii CONTENTS

PAGE

Section 3. Determination of Method of Treatment 53 Governing Conditions 53

The Unit of Regulation 53

Object of Management 54

Silvicultural Method of Management 55

The Rotation 58

CHAPTER II Regulation or Cut

Definition 66

Section 1 . Determination of Cut 67 By Area (1) 69

By Volume. Von Mantel's Method (2) 72

Methode de Masson (3) 74

By Current Annual Increment (4) (Swiss Method) 74

Formula Methods: Austrian Formula (5) 78

Karl's Method (6) 81

Hundeshagen's Method (7) 85

Breymann's Method (8) 86

Heyer's Method (9) 88

Summary and Comparison of the Formula Methods 91

French Method (10) 92

Indian Method (n) 98

Diameter Class Method (12) 100

By Area and Volume. MSthode du Contr61e (13) 106

Direct Method (14) 108

Hufnagl's Method (15) no

The Stand Method (16) 112

The Period Methods (17) 116

American Method (18) 121

Review of the Methods of Determining the Cut 1 24

Correlation of Silvicultural Methods and Methods of Determining the Cut 1 26

Section 3. Present Procedure 237 Forest Plans 238

Preliminary Plans 240

Working Plans 244

Annual Plans 247

Outline for the Plan of Silvicultural Management 250

ILLUSTRATIONS

Plate I. — Cutting Series and Compartment Lines in Spruce, Saxony.

Frontispiece

PAGE

Plate II. — A Reconnaissance Survey Party, Florida 22

Plate III. — A Reconnaissance Survey Camp, Florida 28

Plate IV. — Fig. 1. A Compartment Reproduced by Shelterwood Cutting, Baden. Fig. 2. A Compartment Reproduced by Selection Border Cutting, Wurttemberg 56

Plate V. — Road Forming a Compartment Boundary Line, Saxony 194

PLArE VI. — A Burned Area, Forming a Subcompartment, Arizona 248

Fig. 1. — Sketch Map of part of a Block, showing Compartments, Sub-compartments, Age Classes, and Cutting Series 44

Fig. 2. — Division of a Prussian Forest into Compartments 45

Introduction

Forest management may be broadly denned as the application of forestry in the conduct of the business of a forest. Forest organization, a subdivision of forest management, deals with the principles of organizing a forest for business. Forest organization may, therefore, be defined as that branch of forest management which concerns itself with organizing a forest property for management, ordering in time and place the most advantageous use of the property, usually with the ultimate aim of securing a sustained yield.*

In order to have a definite scheme for the conduct of operations on a tract so as to secure most effectively the objects desired by the owner, a working plan is formulated. This may be defined as the plan or plans under which a given forest property is to be continuously managed.

SCOPE OF WORKING PLANS

In its broadest sense a complete forest working plan deals not only with silvicultural management of the timber resources, but may cover any or all of the following subjects:

1. General administration.

2. Silvicultural management.

3. Grazing management.

4. Permanent improvements.

5. Forest protection.

6. Uses of forest land.

* The term forest regulation covers the same idea, but, since it suggests police and administrative prescriptions seems less desirable except for that part of organizing which concerns itself with regulating the cut.

xiii

XIV INTRODUCTION

Since the prime object of any forest is the growing of timber, the silvicultural management is the most important; it is also the most difficult. The present work will, therefore, confine itself to this phase.

SPHERE OF WORKING PLANS

The working plan is not confined to such forests as are managed with the idea of a sustained yield,* but is equally adapted to the exploitation forest; i.e., forests which are to be logged within the next ten or twenty years. As in every other business the advantages of systematization are obvious; the working plan secures these advantages. At the same time it is usually to the interest of the owner to leave the tract in as favorable a condition as possible for future growth without the undue expenditure of time, timber, or money. The working plan secures this by so organizing the logging operations that the natural reproductive powers of the forest are brought into full play instead of being nullified by the fortuities of haphazard and often unnecessarily destructive logging.

The sphere of forest organization therefore embraces all forests and is applicable to all classes of owners, large and small.

* Sustained yield: the yield or cut of timber from a forest which is managed in such a way as to permit the continuous removal of an approximately equal volume of timber annually or periodically (equal to the increment).