Forest mensuration, the art of measuring the contents and growth of trees and forest stands, is of fundamental importance. The principles and methods of timber estimating, the actual measurement of standing timber, log rules, the making of stem analyses to show the increase of a tree in diameter, height, and volume, the construction of tables of current and mean annual growth per acre and per tree, and the methods of using the information thus formulated,—all these are necessarily of keen interest to the man who later on will have to apply his knowledge in the practical management of woods.
FOREST SERVICE MEN MAKING FRESH MEASUREMENTS IN THE MISSOURI SWAMPS
Forest Management:
Forest management is concerned with the principles involved in planning the handling of forests. Questions of the valuation of forests form a most essential part of it,—such questions as the cost of growing timber crops, the value of land for that purpose, the value of young timber, the valuation of damage to the forest, and the legal status of the damage and the remedy.
Business principles are as necessary in the management of forests as in the management of mills or farms. These business principles work out in different forms of forest policy adapted to the needs of different kinds of owners, such as lumbermen and the Government. What the young Forester has learned about growth and yield, about timber estimates and forest statistics, and many other matters, all finds its application in forest management. He must also consider the methods and principles for regulating the cut of timber, or for securing sustained annual yields. All this forms the basis for the preparation of working plans for the utilization of forests under American economic and silvicultural conditions, not only without injury, but with benefit, to their continued productiveness.
The subjects of forest surveying and working plans are intimately related. Maps are indispensable in the practical work of making a forest working plan. Topographic mapping, timber estimating, forest description, and the location of logging roads, trails, and fire lines, together with Silvics and a knowledge of growth and yield—these and many other subjects enter into the making of a practical working plan to harvest a forest crop and secure a second growth of timber. The student should get all the practice he can in marking timber for cutting under such a plan.
The young Forester must make himself familiar with the administration of the National Forests. He must know how the business of the forest is handled, how it is protected against fire, how the timber is sold, how claims and entries are dealt with under the public land laws, how land in the National Forests is used to make homes, how trespass is controlled, how the livestock industry on the National Forests is fostered and regulated, and how the extremely valuable watersheds they contain are safeguarded and improved.
The Practice of Forestry: