100 Years of Federal Forestry Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 402

1. The old and the new way to travel into the National Forest—pack string and helicopter. (Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho). (F—496517)

Highlights

In 1946, engineers bounced a radar beam off the moon—the first successful human-induced intrusion into outer space. The same year, the Forest Service completed a postwar reappraisal of the forest situation in the United States. Twelve years later, as the first U.S. earth satellite, EXPLORER I, was launched into orbit, the Forest Service issued the results of a nationwide Timber Resource Review. This study was prepared over several years with the help of other Federal, State, and private agencies. A new age of technological adventure, economic growth, and international activity was at hand. The Forest Service endeavored to insure that the conservation movement could adapt to new times, in an age that increased the pressures on American forest resources.

The times demanded that the Service share its expertise, at home and abroad. Under the Cooperative Forest Management Act of 1950, the Forest Service strengthened its cooperative programs to give direct technical assistance to private forest land owners and operators and to processors of forest products. From the mid-1940's, the Forest Service began to play a continuing, important role in international forestry activities and affairs. The Agency joined the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in establishing a permanent Forestry Committee during 1944-1946. American foresters played major roles at the United Nations Scientific Conference on Conservation and the Utilization of Resources at Lake Success, New York (1949), and at the Inter-American Conference on Conservation of Renewable Natural Resources in Denver, Colorado (1948). In 1960, the Forest Service hosted the Fifth World Forestry Congress in Seattle, Washington. The Congress had as its theme, "Multiple Use of Forest Lands," and participants included 2,000 representatives of 68 countries and 9 international organizations.

In 1953, the Forest Service was given the job of managing some 7 million acres of "land utilization project" areas acquired by the Federal Government during the depression years of the 1930's. Some of these areas, renamed National Grasslands, were absorbed into the National Forest System in 1960, to be managed for multiple use and sustained yield as the National Forests are. Congress amended the mining laws in 1955 to curtail abuses which had interfered with management of the National Forests.

Recreational demands on the forests increased, and in 1957 the Forest Service launched Operation Outdoors. The 5-year program was designed to improve and expand the recreation facilities in the National Forests to meet the demands.

In 1959, the Secretary of Agriculture submitted to the Congress a "Program for the National Forests," a long-range plan calling for further improvement and development of these public forests. This was a follow-up to the Timber Resource Review findings of 1958 which indicated that the Nation needed to grow more timber if expected future requirements were to be satisfied.

Forest Service Research also changed to meet the new needs. In 1946, a system of multifunctional research centers was established, each center with its own assigned geographic territory and a program aimed at solving the primary local forest and range problems. In 1953, the Forest Service assumed charge of research and control work on forest insects and diseases from other agencies of the Department of Agriculture. Then, in 1959, a major Servicewide reorganization of research focused on the basic unit, the research center, which became a functional research project. The result was a strengthening of the scientific research capabilities in every field.

A memorable ending to an exciting period of great changes in Forest Service outlook, and National Forest activities in particular, came in 1960 with the signing by President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act. This legislation specifies that the National Forests shall be administered for outdoor recreation, range, timber, watershed, and wildlife and fish purposes—in such combination and in such a manner that they will best meet and best serve human needs. In effect, 55 years after Secretary of Agriculture "Tama Jim" Wilson stated the basic precepts, the Congress affirmed national policy to "develop and administer the renewable surface resources of the National Forests for multiple use and sustained yield of their several products and services obtained therefrom."

Throughout its history, the Forest Service has had to deal with clashes of interest as various individuals and groups competed for a share of the National Forest resources. With the passing of time, as the population of our country and the demands of our people for natural resources have dramatically increased, conflicts change but still continue to arise. This is a fact of life for the Forest Service as it continually works to balance the competition for the resources in order to meet the many present needs and allow enough for the future. In the Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act, it received a fundamental charter to insure that the basic purpose of forest conservation would remain valid in times of rapid technological and economic change. The forests would be used—and remain capable of supporting many uses—in perpetuity.

(F—91993)

1946-1960

1 (top). The offices of the Chief Forester and his staff were moved into the South Building (center) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1940. Here are located the national administration, planning, and policy-making headquarters for the Forest Service, a strongly decentralized agency. (F—447583) 2 (bottom). In 1949, President Harry S Truman honored the memory of the first Chief of the Forest Service, changing the name of the Columbia National Forest in Washington State to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Grandson Gifford Pinchot III looked on as the President signed the name-change proclamation. (F—455275)

Sidelights (1946-1960)

The Third American Forest Congress was held in Washington, D.C., in 1946, under the auspices of the American Forestry Association. This meeting and the discussions of many interested people from the forest industries, labor, Federal and State forestry agencies, and various civic and conservation agencies resulted in a "Program for American Forestry." This program called for expanded efforts in protecting forest and watershed lands from wildfires, insects, and diseases; for more research; for better timber cutting practices; and for increased technical help to small woodland owners.

In 1954, the first pulpmill in Alaska began operations, the result of many years of Forest Service effort to bring about development of a pulp and paper industry in southeastern Alaska. The basis for this development was a sustained supply of wood from National Forest lands.

Dropping water and chemicals on active forest fires was successfully carried out for the first time in 1956. The Forest Service and cooperating California agencies used specially designed air tankers for the pioneering efforts which were destined to prove tremendously effective as a firefighting tool in years to come.

The Soil Bank program came into being as one of the provisions of the Agricultural Act of 1956. Farmers were offered financial assistance in converting general cropland to conservation uses, including the planting of trees.

The year 1955 marked the 50th anniversary of the transfer of the Forest Reserves to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the renaming of its Bureau of Forestry as the Forest Service. Many of the Agency's earliest members or "alumni" were still living. They recalled the early struggles of the Bureau to promote the then rather novel idea of managing forest lands for continuous production and, in the face of considerable misunderstanding and antagonism, to protect and develop the public forests for perpetual use.

1 (top). Cooperation—State and Private Forestry. Here State and Federal foresters get together to study log grading procedures in Texas in 1951. (F—464466) 2 (bottom). Writer and poet laureate of South Carolina, Archibald Rutledge, owner of the famous 2000-acre Hampton Plantation, discusses forestry matters with C.G. Herrick, Assistant Supervisor of the South Carolina (Francis Marion and Sumter) National Forests (1950). (F—465024)

1946-1960

1 (top left). Forest Ranger showing a Girl Scout patrol the proper use of compass and map in wilderness camping. This 1960 Girl Scout All-States Encampment took place in the Deschutes National Forest, Oregon. (F—497193) 2 (middle left). Research . . . Pilot Joe Soloy and Elmer Shaw, as guide, explore boundaries of a 40-acre experimental seeding area in the Olympic National Forest, Washington (1952). (F—474663) 3 (bottom left). Ranger Grant Williams checks enclosure set up by researchers for a grass-growing experiment in the Dixie National Forest, Utah (1953). (F—474934) 4 (top right). Reforestation . . . Proper planting is essential to the success of western white pine seedlings being planted on the Kaniksu National Forest, Idaho (1966). (F—515013) 5 (middle right). Trees injured by wind in Oregon during a heavy blowdown. (F—471466) 6 (bottom right). Grazing sheep on the Apache National Forest, Arizona (1960). (F—497887)

1. Resource Management—Timber. Ranger Ted Seely measures the height of one of the tall yellow poplars on the Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, in 1949. (F—458499)

1 (top left). Forest Service scaler measures logs in a raft at the Ketchikan Pulp Co. mill in the South Tongass National Forest, Alaska (1957). (F—485140) 2 (top right). Cartographic Aide Fred Kyle uses a tellurometer, brought in by helicopter, to make distance measurements on the Flathead National Forest, Montana (1960). (F—496196) 3 (bottom). Engineering—Surveys. Forest Engineer Bob Toney (second from right) briefs the crew surveying the right-of-way for a new road to an overlook point from which visitors can better enjoy the view of Mendenhall Glacier, Tongass National Forest, Alaska (1958). (F—486815)

"Forest conservation involves much more than the growing of crops on forest lands to supply raw material in one form or another for an ever-growing list of uses. Forestry must be coupled with the social and economic welfare of rural communities, especially in regions primarily dependent upon forest industries. Improving forest productivity should mean a great deal to rural America in augmenting the income of farm folk, maintaining pay rolls in small communities, and sustaining the tax base to support local government functions."

Lyle F. Watts (1943-1952)

1 (top left). Lyle F. Watts, Chief of the Forest Service, 1943-1942. (Drawing by Rudolph Wendelin) 2 (top right). Planting for the future! In 1938, Mr. Tipton was a CCC enrollee when he helped plant shortleaf pine trees in a plantation within the Clark National Forest, Missouri. Twenty years later he, as a pulp logging operator, purchased the timber he helped plant. The sale of pulpwood was the first commercial cutting in the plantation. (F—488405) 3 (bottom right). "Should auld acquaintance be forgot . . ." To celebrate this first sale in 1958, former CCC Camp Bradley members gathered at the planting area. From left to right: First Sergeant Charles Hawk, now Ripley County Sheriff; second man is unidentified; District Ranger Frank Kopecky; District Ranger, at the time of the planting, Harley Thomas; Camp Commander Bill Kolbert, hotel owner; and Camp Foreman Randolph Barrett, later with the Missouri Conservation Department. (F—488382)

1 (top). In 1952, on the Chipola Experimental Forest, Florida, researchers studied different methods of site preparation for planting slash and longleaf pine seedlings. Various mechanical treatments of the soil and chemical control of the undesirable plant growth present were used as part of the experimentation. (F—483907) 2 (bottom). Prescribed burning was used in 1958 in stands of loblolly pine in the Santee Experimental Forest, South Carolina, to reduce the amount of fuel present. (Prescribed burning remains a common practice in forests and woodlands of the South where the grass and other undergrowth, commonly termed the "rough," can accumulate to dangerous fire potential limits.) (F—489082)

The Cooperative State and Private Forestry activities of the Forest Service grew in numbers and variety after World War II. Reforestation programs became major joint cooperative efforts. 1 (top left). Forest Service crew planting Ponderosa pine on the Escudilla Mountain, Arizona, burn of June 1951. The reforestation work was taking place in August 1957. (F—482968) 2 (bottom). Trees on the slope, row crops in the valley—an example of good land use. The farmers who owned this land cooperated with the YLT Project in planting 80,000 trees over several years (Mississippi 1954). (F—476613) 3 (top right). The Yazoo-Little Tallahatchie (YLT) Flood Prevention project in Mississippi, a cooperative activity of the Forest Service, served as an excellent educational effort over the years in bringing about improved land use. In one 1954 project, Boy Scouts planted trees on severely eroded land in northern Mississippi. They were brought to the site from Memphis, Tennessee, as part of the conservation program of private concerns and State and Federal agencies, including the Forest Service. (F—476612)

Fast-growing pines in the South contribute to a major pulp and paper industry which utilizes, in many instances, processes developed by Forest Service scientists at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. 1 (top left). Pulpwood en route to a plant in Jones County, Mississippi (1948). (F—451320) 2 (bottom). Unloading at a pulpmill in Kingsport, Tennesee (1957). (F—486278) 3 (top right). Chips en route to first step in the sulfate papermaking process in Jefferson County, Arkansas (1960). (F—497021)

On the National Forests, timber is managed on a sustained yield basis to produce a continuous supply of raw material to help meet the Nation's economic demands. These public forest properties represent a vital reservoir of trees destined for commercial use as well as for watershed protection, for recreational purposes, and for wildlife areas. 1 (top). Typical managed timber stands in the South during this period included shortleaf pine in South Carolina (1957) . . . (F—486648) 2 (bottom left). Longleaf pine in Georgia (1947) . . . (F—351079) 3 (bottom right). Mixed hardwoods in eastern Arkansas (1960) . . . (F—498335)

1. A virgin stand of Delta hardwoods (redgum) in Mississippi (1948). (F—451408)

1 (top left). In forestry terminology, this is "clearcutting by staggered settings" in old-growth Douglas-fir on the Willamette National Forest, Oregon, in 1953. This logging method is considered desirable for the continued production of this and certain other species. It is designed to obtain full crop utilization and to provide for regenerating the cutover area with seed from the adjacent trees, artificial seeding, or planting. Through the years, clearcutting has aroused considerable opposition, largely from those who decry the temporary disrupted appearance of the cutover area before new tree growth becomes established. (F—478288) 2 (top right). An area on the Willamette National Forest being clearcut in 1957. (F—483403) 3 (bottom left). The same area 10 years later is covered with a healthy stand of Douglas-fir. (F—517971) 4 (middle right). Skidding logs on the Willamette National Forest, Oregon. (F—515858)

1 (top). This large Sitka spruce was ready for harvesting. Note the springboard used by the "faller" as a place to work from above the butt swell of the tree (South Tongass National Forest, Alaska, 1957). (F—485165) 2 (bottom left). Forest thinnings make fine Christmas trees (Olympic National Forest, Washington, 1950). (F—463486) 3 (bottom right). The St. Regis Paper Company drivers worked from dawn to dusk an entire day to break up a log jam that had about 1-1/2 million board feet of logs tied up in Machias River (Washington County, Maine, April 1951). (F—465406)

(F—478147)

(F—399405)

". . . Farm woodland and other small private forests hold the key to this Nation's future timber supply. These lands, generally in poor condition, are the greatest potential source of wood fiber. Producing more wood on these lands requires concerted effort by State and Federal foresters, forest industries, and the landowners."

Richard E. McArdle (1952-1962)

1 (top left). Richard E. McArdle, Chief of the Forest Service, 1952-62. Forage in the National Forest System has always been an essential crop maintained for harvest each year, under paid permit, by thousands of head of livestock. This constitutes an important contribution to the Nation's food basket as well as to the local ranchers, farmers, and communities. Countless wild creatures also depend upon public rangelands for their food. (Drawing by Rudolph Wendelin) 2 (top right). These lambs in prime condition and averaging 95 lbs. each after a summer in the high mountain meadows of the Targhee National Forest, Idaho, were on their way to market in Los Angeles (1951). (F—468318) 3 (bottom right). Navajo Indian boys herding sheep in the Kaibab National Forest, Arizona. The round sack contained a watermelon (1946). (F—443989)

1 (top left). Muddy Meadows, in the shadow of Mount Adams, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington (circa 1950). (F—456976) 2 (middle left). Sparks Lake Meadow, South Sister Mountain in the background, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon (1959). (F—492765) 3 (bottom left). A key range management research study in the late 1940's and early 1950's helped determine methods to restore rundown land to grass production, and the proper range management practices to follow after restoration. Much of this work was done in the Manitou Park Experimental Range on the Pike National Forest, Colorado (1951 photo). (F—468429) 4 (top right). Forest Service programs and activities are carried out with the cooperation of State fish and game agencies. Here, in 1959, a Game Warden of the North Carolina State Wildlife Resources Commission is shown stocking fish in the Davidson River on the Pisgah National Forest. (F—492578)

1. National Forest road in Hocking County, Ohio. (F—502972)

It takes a vast transportation system of forest roads and trails in the National Forests to provide access for recreation, hunting and fishing, timber management and harvest operations, as well as for grazing, mining, control of fires, insects and diseases, and forest administration generally. 1 (top). Snow clearing on a National Forest road (Angels Crest Highway, Angeles National Forest, California, November 1946). (F—443046) 2 (middle left). Through the years, road and trail construction has been a major Forest Service engineering effort (Ochoco National Forest, Oregon, 1951). (F—468934) 3 (bottom left). The camera teed off in 1960 on this unusual special use area (open to the public) in the cool mountains of the Sitgreaves National Forest, Arizona. (F—494337) 4 (bottom right). Various special uses have been permitted in the National Forest System, providing public benefits while conforming to multiple-use principles in the management of these public properties (Heart's Content Observatory, Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania, 1958). (F—488948)

From a humble, but daring, experimental start in the Chelan (now Okanogan) National Forest, Washington, in 1938. Forest Service smokejumping activities progressed rapidly in the early 1940's and thereafter into a full-fledged segment of the total forest fire-control program. The smokejumping program has grown from just a few crews of relatively untrained men jumping to fires from Ford Tri-motor and Travelair planes to today's hundreds of well-trained jumpers in modern aircraft playing a major role in battling forest fires. Through 1975, nearly 129,000 jumps had been made throughout the country for Forest Service smokejumpers with only one jump-related fatality. 1. They call this a "featherbed landing." The jumper lowers himself to the ground by rope (Montana 1944). (F—444871)

1 (top). Proud Smokejumpers, "Class of '53," included future Astronaut Stewart Roosa as a member of the group (top row, fourth from left). (F—523668) 2 (middle left). In September 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower honored the Smokejumpers by dedicating the Forest Service Aerial Fire Depot, just west of Missoula, Montana. (F—523667) 3 (bottom right). One man has jumped clear, the other is just outside the door (Okanogan National Forest, Washington, 1957). (F—483050)

Aircraft have played many roles in helping the Forest Service meet its responsibilities and goals, and the use of aircraft assumes increasing importance as time goes on. 1 (top left). Transporting an injured man in the Bitterroot National Forest, Idaho, 1958. (F—496536) 2 (top right). Laying firehose from the air (Angeles National Forest, California, 1959). (F—493232) 3 (bottom). The Wheeler Springs Fire on the Los Padres National Forest in 1948 was the largest fire of the year in the National Forests of California. It burned more than 25,000 acres of National Forest and private land, destroyed 22 homes in Ojai, caused one death, and ran up damage and suppression costs in excess of $400,000. Helicopters scouted the fire, transported men to the fire line, and brought hot food to the firefighters. (F—451599)

1 (top left). By the late 1950's, air tankers were routinely dropping fire retardants (borate slurry in this instance) to slow down or extinguish forest fires (Angeles National Forest, California, 1958). (F—506137) 2 (bottom). Insect control from the air—B-18's helped in the Spruce Budworm control job in the Boise National Forest, Idaho (1955). (F—482299)

1 (top left). Fire is no respecter of time. When fuel and weather conditions are right, it will burn day or night (Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado, 1953). (F—469565) 2 (middle left). Fire makes no distinction between single homes, as in the Siskiyou National Forest, Oregon (1953) . . . (F—474577) 3 (bottom). And groups of homes, as in the Maine Forest Fires of 1947, which burned over 240,000 acres, took 16 lives, destroyed 800 homes, and left 2,500 people homeless. There was a great loss of timber and other forest resources; property damage was estimated to exceed $32 million. As a result of these disastrous fires, an International Commission, the Northwest Forest Fire Protection Commission, came into being. This was a cooperative effort of the Forest Service, the State Forestry Departments, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick calling for coordinated action to avoid a similar future holocaust. (American Forestry Association) 4 (top right). Fire crowning at the Bear Forest Fire in the San Bernardino National Forest, California. (F—521109)

In controlling forest fires and putting them "dead out," there will always be need for the "ground troops." 1 (top left). Building a fireline (Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee, 1952). (F—471196) 2 (bottom left). Mopup operation using a fog nozzle (Lolo National Forest, Montana, 1953). (F—471680) 3 (top right). Power saws made it easier to fell trees along the fireline (Lolo National Forest, Montana, 1953). (F—473678) 4 (bottom right). The Forest Service has employed American Indian firefighting crews for many years to help battle wildfires in the West and elsewhere. Several Indian reservations have set up training programs and firefighting organizations where skills and endurance necessary for good firefighting crews are developed. This Santo Domingo, New Mexico, firefighter was busy on the Sitgreaves National Forest, Arizona, in 1956. (F—522358)

1 (top). It was in 1950 when 4-year-old Judy Bell, daughter of a New Mexico Game Warden, helped nurse back to health a badly burned brown bear cub, after he was rescued from a forest fire on the Lincoln National Forest near Capitan, New Mexico. The cub was destined to attain fame as the living symbol of Smokey Bear. (Forest Service Cooperative Fire Protection) 2 (bottom). On the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Theodore Roosevelt, May 8, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented a golden Smokey Bear statuette to Judy Bell in recognition of the "fine cooperation the children of America have given forest fire prevention." (N—25468)

1 (top). Smokey Bear's fame and reputation grew, and with it intensified forest fire prevention efforts on radio, television, in films, and in the Nation's newspapers and magazines. Popular country singer Eddy Arnold added his talents to the nationwide program in 1955. (Forest Service Cooperative Fire Protection) 2 (bottom left). It was 5 years after Smokey Bear initially appeared in poster form (1945) that the living symbol of Smokey Bear from New Mexico took up residence in the Washington, D.C., National Zoological Gardens. One of his visitors in 1950 was cowboy star Hopalong Cassidy (Bill Boyd), shown here with Assistant Forest Service Chief Chris Granger and the little bear. (Forest Service Cooperative Fire Protection) 3 (bottom right). A favorite use of Smokey Bear has been in the forest, along the forest roads and highways (Nicolet National Forest, Wisconsin, 1960). (F—495764)

The 5-year program, "Operation Outdoors," launched in 1957, represented the Forest Service response to a growing public need for improved and expanded recreation facilities in the National Forests. These public forests offer a great deal—beauty, space, timeless interest. 1 (top left). An unusual shot of the George Washington profile on the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota (1957). (F—494929) 2 (top center). Weaver's Needle, in right background, dominates the desolation of the Superstition Wilderness Area, Tonto National Forest, Arizona (circa 1960). (F—522112) 3 (top right). A magnificent stand of white pine and hemlock at the Laurels Recreation Area, Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee (1951). (F—469300) 4 (bottom). Auke Lake upstages the Mendenhall Glacier in the North Tongass National Forest, near Juneau, Alaska (1956). (F—486775)

1 (top left). Upper Mesa Falls, Targhee National Forest, Idaho (July 1958). (F—489773) 2 (bottom). That's a rain squall to the east, viewed from the base of Mt. Withington Fire Tower (elevation 10,297 feet), Cibola National Forest, New Mexico (August 1960). (F—497795)

1 (top left). The Sierra Crest and the Palisade Glaciers (southernmost glaciers in the United States) are an inspiring sight when viewed across Summit Lake. Peaks in the Crest are all close to 14,000 feet high (Inyo National Forest, California, July 1958). (F—487498) 2 (bottom). Buck Mountain Lookout (elevation 4,768 feet) and the Blue River Lookout and McRae Creek Drainages in the Willamette National Forest, Oregon (1960). (F—505566)

Something for everyone—for the sightseers, strollers, hikers, and riders . . . 1 (top left). Famed mining town of the last century, Silverton, Colorado, had become practically a ghost town by 1957. It has since experienced a considerable revival as a tourist town. McComber Mountain, in the background, is one of the many 12,000- to 13,000-foot peaks that surround the town (San Juan National Forest, Colorado). (F—484582) 2 (bottom left). The Sosbee Cove stand of yellow poplar in the Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, was set aside by the Forest Service as a memorial to Forest Ranger Arthur Woody (1957, see page 104). (F—499683) 3 (top right). High Sierra Wilderness hikers admired this view of the Palisade Glaciers (Inyo National Forest, California, 1958). (F—487504) 4 (bottom right). Packing into the Pecos Wilderness Area, Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico (1957). (F—492916)

. . . for the outdoor cooks, swimmers and sun bathers, old shavers, and the hunters. 1 (top left). This mule deer dressed out at 210 pounds (Roosevelt National Forest, Colorado, October 1950). (F—465693) 2 (top right). Steak and roasting ears, Jefferson National Forest, Virginia (1958). (F—487159) 3 (bottom). Sun and water at Lake Russell, named for Georgia's venerable statesman, the late Senator Richard Russell, Chattahoochee National Forest (1959). (F—494721)

1. A chore, not regularly done, during the 10-day American Forestry Association Trail Riders Canoe Trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Superior National Forest, Minnesota (1948). (F—451830)