Out 50 Years in Lumber Business

Percivql I. (Perc) Merithew

Percival I. (Perc) Merithelv, general purchasing agent and lumber buyer for E. K. \\'ood Lumber Company, Los Angeles, rounded out a half century of service in the industry last rnonth.

Perc entered the lumber business March l, 1903, when he joined the Southwestern Lumber Company, rvhich rvas then located at 316 Commercial Street and under the management of L. W. Blinn. Frank Bortels, asssitant manager at the time, was instrumental in starting Perc on his career as a general office clerk in the lumber business.

A few years later Southwestern merged rvith Nofziger Brothers and Perc spent the next 13 years with the ner,l' company known as Consolidated Lumber Company in various capacities in the Los Angeles office, and also at the docks in Wilmington. During the regime of E. U. Wheelock, Perc was appointed assistant manager and remained in this position until he joined E. K. Wood Lumber Companv January l, 1916.

In 1918 U. G. Richmards, manager, E. K. Wood, sent Perc to Phoenix as resident sales representative for Arizona ar.rd for the next ten years he covered the southll'est territory for his company. When he returned to the Los Angeles office in 1929 he was appointed wholesale sales manager for the firm and in this capacity also handled the purchasing of lumber.

During the war years Perc was sent to San Francisco as joint representative for five major lumber companies in the procurement offices of the United States Engineers handling material allocation and stock pile yards for the government. When this situation was set-up, and later dissolved, he returnecl to the E. K. Wood Lumber Companv and rvas assigned to directing compliance rvith governmental rvar time controls and regulations.

Perc and his rvife Helen reside in Arcadia and he is highly regarded as a civic leader of his community. At this time he is back on one of his old jobs, that of lumber buyer, and his many friends in the lumber industry throughout Southern California u'ish him rvell. ['ifty years of continuous service *'ithin the industry and thirty-seven rvith E. K. Wood Lumber Company is an outstanding record and The California Lumber trIer.chant extends congratulations.

Long-Bell Announces Personnel Changes

Announcement Nas rnade in Kansas City on April 15 bv officials of The Long-Bell Lumber Companv of the retirement of three vice presidents of the company and the promotion of four men to administrative posts. The changes took place immediately. Long-Bell, a leader in the lumber industry for 78 vears, operates manufacturing plants in the south and on the Pacific coast, and maintains sales offices throughout the countrv.

Retiring as officers of the compan)' are R. P. Combs. Kansas Citl', rvho has been a vice president and chairman of the companv's finance committee; J. H. Kenesson, vicepresident and general manager of the Longview Division. and vice president and general manager of The Gardiner Lumber Companv. rvholly-orrned subsidiarl'; and R. F. Morse. vice president in charge of Timber and Loggrng for the Long-Bell and Gardiner Lumber Companies. All three rvill become members of the company's advisory committee.

Theo A. Deal, rvho has been assistant general manager of the Longvierv Division, becomes general manager of the division; and A. J. I\Iyers, Gardiner, Oregon, assistant general manager of The Gardiner Lumber Company, steps up to the position of general manager.

Ali J. Sandoz. chief forester of the Longvierv Division, has been named I\{anager of Northrvest Timber Departrnent and takes over l\forse's duties pertaining to acquisition of timber and timber lands in Washington and Oregon. Vern C. Hanson becomes log buyer for the Longvierv Division, u'hich rvas also a part of llorse's duties.

Spruce Loggers Wage All-Out \(/ar on Beetles

By Hanl"y Mors.

(In this, the first of a series of four articles, \Ir. Ilorse of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, M'estern Pine Association forest engineer for the Montana-Idaho-8. \\'ashington district, tells hou' a deadly beetle perils spruce forests of the region.)

Inland Empire loggers today are right in the thick of the greatest bug hunt and timber salvage job in the region's historv.

They are racing against time-and a hungry multitude of tree-killing insects-to save billions of feet of green, living timber and at the same time harvest for man's use trees already killed or doomed to death by a silent horde of beetles.

At stake in the mighty struggle are the Engehnann spruce stands of Western Montana and Northern Idal-ro, estimated at l2l billion board feet-enough sawtimber to ernplov everv lumberjack in the region about 10 years.

The loggers are battling a terrible outbreak of spruce bark beetles that started in 1950. They are doing this conservation job in the best rvay known, by hauling the bugs out of the ll'oocls on logging trucks, along u'ith the logs from stricket.t trees.

Emergency spruce logging has been the order of the da.v" in the region since last summer when tlte full impact of the beetle infestation came to light in the far-flung Iclaho-Ilontana forest empire. Today most of the forest industries have side-tracked their regular plans in order to cotrcentrate logging an<l rnanufacturing facilities on the spruce problenr. The spruce harvest has been stepped up almost six-fold, an<l tnttst be sped up to new record-breaking levels this vear and next if an ttnbearable loss is to be avoided.

Managers of the public forests and olvners of private tintberlands are tearned up in the dramatic fight to save the bulk of the spruce stands from the vicious little insects.

To understand the situation it is necessary to go back to November 26 and 27, 1949, when a violent rvindstorm felled many trees in the high country. Trees toppel thus do not always die right au'ay. Having still a feu' roots in the soil, thcv stay green a while. But in their weakened condition, they are prime beetle bait. The bugs, ever-present in the forest, seetn to gang up on such trees. There they thrive and build up large farnilies in a short u'hile. These emerge and deplov to attack other trees, windthrown or standing. They multiply incred- ibly fast u'hen conditions favor them as the,v did the past three vears. By last summer a vast epidemic rvas raging, literally scourging some spruce forests like a fire.

Of course, not all spruce stands are, heavilv infested-r'et. If they rvere, this ruould be a straight salvage job, for the trees can't survive attack by great numbers of beetles.

Information no\\ at hand indicates that from three to 16 per cent of spruce trees in and near seven Irational forests are infested. In some stands more than 50 per cent of the trees are infested. Such trees are usually alreadl' dead or d-ving. It is to save the others that control by logging is undertaken.

The job norv facing the region is not just logging, but building roads to the high, remote spmce areas so that loggers can get the bug-killed trees out of the rvoods in tirne.

The timber industr-v is building roads as fast as trretr and equipment and knorv-horr permit. At least 150 miles of spruce roads have been built in the past year. Iiut five times that rnanv miles must be built this year to give the control plan a chance. The loggers admit the.v can't build that much road in so short a time and still keep on logging. So there's only one \\'a.\' to get the roads built-b1- contracting the jobs to construction firrns. Funds for such a progranr-€stimated to cost $10 nrillions-have been asked from Corrgress.

Spearheading he bark beetle fight is a "task force" made up of men from the forest industry', the U. S. Forest Service and the U. S. Rureau of Entomologl' and Plant Quarantine, rvith state forestrl' departments cooperatittg.

Jim Kirby Clarifies Position

"The \[a'r' I issue of The California l-urrrber ]lerchant carried a stor-y* u'ith reference to our moving to the Petroleum Bldg.. and some of the lumber people in Southern California nrisinterpreted the meaning of third paragraph." said Jim Kirby.

-Jim Kirbv \\'holesale Lumber, Inc. does not represent C. D. Johnson Lumber Corp. in this area exclusir-elv. but the Kirbv organization is the onll' representati\-e of Beit D. Campbell & Co. in Southern California; and tlter- ship C. D. Johnson products along rvith lumber from other mills. continued Kirbv. Jim Kirbl'\\-holesale Luurber. Irrc. handles products from various lumber manufacturers in Northern California and Southern Oregon. and is shipping all species of \\-est Coast Lumber Products.

Insect Screen Cloth