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PWP Offers Midwestern Ties

Pacific Wood Preserving Cos. is now distributing in the West hardwood railroad ties manufactured in the Midwest.

Ties will be manufactured at Thompson Industries' South Russellville, Ar., creosote treating plant and shipped by rail or truck for sale to customers in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

"This is another way we have found to bring high quality, competi- tively priced products to our customers," said Ken Laughlin, PWP's v.p. of sales. "Timber prices on the East Coast. combined with some unique low-cost manufacturing advantages that Thompson Industries has, will allow us to compete more competitively and aggressively on the West Coast."

Thompson retains ownership of the ties and will invoice customers. PWP will act as Thompson's exclusive representative, quoting tie prices. serving West Coast customers, and stocking treated ties at its Silver Springs, Nv., and Sheridan, Or., plants.

Under the deal. PWP will continue to produce and sell its own railroad ties at its Eloy, Az., treating plant.

Sierra Nevadas Get New Plan

Changes are in store for the management of the Sierra Nevada, Ca. woodlands. The U.S. Forest Service suggested the changes as a way to reduce damage caused by wildfire and protect old-growth forests. The revisions were made after the Southern California wildfires last year.

The "Forests with a Future" plan calls for logging only selected trees only up to 30 inches in diameter, and removing trees that are prone to fires.

According to Jack Blackwell, the chief forester for the Pacific Southwest region of the Forest Service, the changes would reduce the acres burned by severe wildfires by more than 30 percent and protect forest communities from destructive blazes, and doubling the acreage of oldgrowth forests.

Proposals in the plan include reducing the chance of devastating fires, increasing logging to 330 million bd. ft. o[ green timber per year. protecting medium-sized and all large, old trees, and increasing regulation flexibility.

Revisions to the old plan of managing the l1 million acres of forest were made because the original plan was "too restrictive," said Blackwell.

"The rules were incredibly complex," he said. "They were just impossible in terms of effective fire suppression, and there is tremendous danger in these densely crowded forests."

Palco Watersheds Monitored

Authorities are closely watching Palco (Pacific Lumber Co.), Scotia, Ca.. as it resumes logging in environmentally sensitive areas of Humboldt County, Ca.

Palco is under new state control board-imposed guidelines for timber harvesting in the Freshwater and Elk Creek watersheds. Logging was stopped after critics questioned the operations, which they feared would exacerbate sediment problems, mostly because the harvesting involves clearcutting l5 to 20-acre patches.

Palco, which owns about 65Vo of the Elk River watershed and about 427o of the Freshwater watershed, resumed logging Jan. I with plans to leave three to five trees an acre, as well as two large downed logs per acre for wildlife habitat.

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