Oregon's Huge Timber Supply

"The Forest Products Industry of Oregon" is the name of a new 36-page pamphlet published in Portland, Oregon, and giving a practical and understandable description of the forest industry of Oregon, and its future.

The book was published by a grouping of Portland businessmen in cooperation with Lewis and Clark College and Reed College, of Portland. Twenty men merged their efforts to bring out the facts contained in the book.

The book says that the virgin timber of Oregon would last 54 years at present rate of cutting (about 8.3 billion board feet annually) without making any allowance for

An Editorial

tree growth, and that the present rate of tree growth in both the Pine and Fir areas of the state is 3.3 billion feet a year.

The book says that continuation of present trends in forest management makes it reasonable to expect to increase the annual growth to more than 9 billion feet a year, and that it would be possible with maximum effort to grow about 16 billion feet a year in Oregon.

The present low tree growth is due largely to the lack of access roads to huge stands of old and ripe and overripe timber on government lands. On these there is no annual growth. When adequate roads are provided these old stands will be cut and rapid second growth of young

(Continued from Preceding Page) 74 - car capacity and can load and unload 12 simultaneously. cars timber provided for.

According to Jerry Wright, the greater portion of materials produced at Merced are moving to the eastern and southern markets. With the appointment of Sierra Redwood Company to handle sales in California it is expected distribution in the west will show a steady increase during the summer and fall months, he declared.

The J. F. Pritchard Company maintains a running inventory at Merced in excess of 2 million feet of uppers and runs over 3 million feet in custom milling in addition to its other products.

This company is considered one of the leading manrfacturers and distributors of Redwood products in the country, as these Photos indicate.

The facts and figures in this book make it reasonable to suppose that a balance between cutting and growing on Oregon forest lands is not too many years away.

Fresno Building Sets Record

Fresno, Calif.-May 1954 was a record-breaking month here in new building volume at $4,395,361, as compared with $4,149,625 in April 1955 and $2,825,669 in May 1954. The total for this year's first five months was $14,529,255, compared to $9,095,051 in the same period last year. The total value of construction permits in 1954 was $22,142,650. The May figures this year showed a total of $1,990,500 for single-family dwellings.