100 Years of Federal Forestry Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 402

(Youth Conservation Corps, 0774 R 1142—11A)

At the start of a new century of American forestry, the Resources Planning Act of 1974 (see "Keeping Up With The Times, 1961-1975" on page 143.) will help set the pace for Forest Service planning; for management protection, and development of the National Forest System; for the Agency's research activities; and for programs of cooperation with the States, private forest landowners, and countries abroad. Under the Act, future national assessments and programs will become more and more intensive. The assessment of future supply and demand for renewable resources from the forests and associated rangelands in public and private ownership in this country will be updated in 1979 and every 10 years thereafter. The action programs will be updated in 1980 and every 5 years after that.

There will be increasing concern for maintenance of adequate raw material supplies needed by industry, but improved techniques, accelerated forest management and protection activities, stepped up treeplanting programs, and greater production from small woodlands will help to meet the demands.

Research will play a key role in achieving better utilization from available resources. For example, Forest Service researchers, in cooperation with other government agencies and private industry, are developing more efficient wood products for the construction industry. A new technique will enable far greater use of the wood in a tree than ever before. The process includes binding together with glue the usually wasted chips, bark, shavings, and sawdust, and combining them with solid wood to form a practical, durable building material.

What does the future hold for other resources and Forest Service activities?

There will be renewed emphasis, stemming from the Endangered Species Act of 1973, on wildlife habitat requirements on the National Forest System and on all forested lands.

Range grazing will contribute toward saving feed grains for other uses, and will produce high quality food protein from cattle thus raised. A minimum use of fossil fuel energy is required since livestock converts forage directly to food.

Recreation trends point to greater and greater use of the forest for all forms of outdoor recreation, particularly by families for weekend use.

In protecting the forests against fire, researchers are emphasizing fuel management. Work is already planned that should produce sizable reductions in resource losses and firefighting costs.

The never-ending battle against forest insects and diseases, which each year destroy more trees than wildfires do, will continue at an accelerated pace. Major research efforts will aim at finding new weapons and new methods to control such insect pests as the tussock moth, the gypsy moth, and the southern pine beetle, and such forest diseases as the rusts, root rots, and the mistletoes.

Computers will become more important in Forest Service work. By 1976, they were used for many purposes—for the usual administrative functions, for simplifying studies involving masses of statistics and information, for locating and laying out forest roads thus saving field work time and expenses, for determining exact manpower and equipment requirements for the control of active forest fires, and for simplifying the work of forest manager and researcher alike. Another new program is the planned Renewable Resources Technical Information System (RRTIS) which started to take shape within the Forest Service in 1972. RRTIS will enable the foresters and other scientists and engineers to keep track of, through computers, the technology that is basic to decisions and actions. Data bases will be accessible from remote terminals installed at various locations throughout the country. Storage and prompt retrieval of documents will be essential parts of the system.

1976-

"Perhaps the greatest challenge facing forestry today is the calendar—namely the arrival of the 21st century. My question is, will American forestry be ready to meet the 21st century?

"A major determinant of how well American Forestry prepares for the 21st century will be cooperation in resources management. This means cooperation among Federal, State, and private ownerships; cooperation across long standing professional barriers; and cooperation with new and different arrangements of people and organizations, a trend which is becoming more evident with each passing year. The interested general public is surprisingly knowledgeable about natural resources. Yet people still need to hear forestry's message—that sound forestry practices can provide both protection and use."

John R. McGuire (1972- )

1 (top left). John R. McGuire, Chief of the Forest Service, 1972- . (Drawing by Rudolph Wendelin) 2 (bottom). Old-growth redwood with typical undergrowth of dense ferns in California. (F—493555)

100 Years of Federal Forestry Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 402 The Look Ahead, 1976- (continued) 1976- In today's research lies much of the anticipated progress of American forestry in the tomorrow ahead. Out of the Forest Service's planning and development efforts have already emerged these few exciting, photographed glimpses of new technologies, new fields of exploration, and new improvements for the public benefit in the days to come. 1. Harvesting by helicopter in inaccessible areas or steep terrain, for more efficient, more economical logging through reductions in road construction, in erosion, and in other damage to the land and remaining trees. (F—521782) 1. Douglas-fir in Oregon. (F—489660) 1. The Shigometer—a unique and practical instrument the significance of which could be enormous for those who grow and use timber. The Shigometer detects decay in its early stages in living trees and in utility poles, decay not readily evident except after it has caused external damage. This device can save time, expense, and the frequent failure involved in extensive late treatment, or damage that results from no treatment at all. The instrument is named for one of its principal originators, Alex Shigo, plant pathologist with the Northwestern Forest Experiment Station, Durham, New Hampshire. (Forest Service Northeastern Forest Experiment Station) 1. Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina. (F—504016) A new world of surveying opens up for the Forest Service with use of the laser beam—the results of a 5-year joint venture between Forest Service engineers and scientists of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 1 (top). & 2 (bottom). The Laser Range Pole Transmitter system and the Lower Range Pole Receiver theodolite subsystem work this way: The transmitter beams a laser signal vertically in the air at one point (property corner) and the receiver at an adjacent property corner picks up the laser signal and projects a true, direct line between the two corners. The equipment promises to reduce boundary survey time significantly. (F—523665, F—523666) 1. American elm in Kansas. This tree species is now severely threatened with extinction by the Dutch elm disease. (F—368430) 1 (top right). & 2 (bottom). A leader in the race to meet America's needs in the future is the Forest Products Laboratory, where the search goes on to find new ways to use available timber more efficiently, to find uses for the less desirable trees, to improve milling and other processing practices, and to develop new products. (Forest Products Laboratory, M 143 403, Forest Products Laboratory, M 143 402) 1 (top). Bark of Engelemann spruce (Colorado). (F—438101) Have termites, which cost American home owners hundreds of millions of dollars every year, finally met their match? Possibly so, in the form of specially implanted "irresistible wood" that has proven fatal to termites. The wood block bait is infected with a brown-rot fungus attractive to termites, sterilized to kill the active fungus, then impregnated with a small amount of slow-acting poison which must be eaten by the termites to cause death. The termites are lured to the bait from as far away as 3 feet. Still in its research stages in 1975 (approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for research only), this wafer-bait system holds great promise for alleviating the soil-dwelling termite problems the world over. A U.S. Navy facility on Sand Island in the Midway Islands was one of the 1975 "proving grounds" for the FPL study in termite control. 1 (top). A detailed look at termites. (Forest Products Laboratory) 2 (middle). & 3 (bottom). Apparently environmentally safe and inexpensive, the wood block system is easy to use. The research program on the Midway atoll involved treating approximately 350 acres to protect 250 structures of various sizes and types, including housing. Fourteen men helped entomologists Glen Esenther (FPL) and Raymond Bell (Southern Forest Experiment Station, Gulfport, Mississippi), co-developers of the bait system, treat the entire area in the equivalent of one 40-hour week. (Forest Products Laboratory, M 118 548; Forest Products Laboratory, M 143 306—15A) 1. San Isabel National Forest, Colorado. (F—484364) 1 (top left), 2 (top right), & 3 (bottom). For many uses, there will never be a substitute for wood. And no sophisticated instrument, no modern technology is likely to replace the "ground troops," those who work with shovel, axe, and hose in the final stages of bringing a forest fire under control. Forestry will always require the human touch, foresters to provide person-to-person contacts, and personal handling of the thousands of tasks associated with accomplishing the business of forestry. There is, however, a powerful electronic force that cannot be denied, a force that many foresters have eagerly sought and happily used since the beginning—the computer. The Forest Service already is deeply committed to the use of computers. This use and dependence will increase with the scheduled national assessments and expanding action programs of the future. (F—505907, F—505902, F—517497) <<< Previous <<< Contents>>> Next >>> aib-402/sec6.htm Last Updated: 12-May-2008