The Search for Forest Facts: A History of the Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, 1926–2000 Chapter 3: 1926–1932, Forestry Research Comes of Age in California By the time the California Forest Experiment Station (CFES) was established in the latter half of 1926, forestry research in the United States had gone through many decades of change. In a lecture before a forestry school class at the University of California, Berkeley, S.B. Show, head of California’s District 5 Branch of Research, spelled out to the students the historical developments in forestry research in California, and the problems he foresaw for the future. Forestry Research in America According to Show, the earliest forestry research followed traditional lines, such Just after World War I, as forest growth investigations, tree studies, and so on. These were valuable there was a shift from academically, but had no practical value. The creation of forest reserves and then planting research national forests with many kinds of concerns made evident the almost complete and purely ecological lack of knowledge of necessary basic facts for administering them. Timber cut- studies toward ting, fire protection, grazing, and other forest management problems in these early solutions to more years under the General Land Office (GLO) and then the Forest Service after practical concerns. 1905 had to be organized and administered using judgment and hunches—not scientific research. Recognition of the need for reliable information led to making silvicultural investigations one of the chief duties of forest assistants. The men were inadequately trained for this special work, and investigations were still along traditional lines. Projects were poorly selected. This system, according to Show, gave some results of value, but was still uncertain and cumbersome. The need for specialists soon became evident. To answer this need, the Forest Service organized experiment stations, starting in 1908. This program was originally built around planting research and fundamental ecological studies to determine the causes of forest types. Research was generally regarded as something apart from administra- tion, which, in Show’s opinion, caused many of their forest management decisions to be based on conjecture. Then just after World War I, there was a shift from planting research and purely ecological studies toward solutions to more practical concerns. In the early 1920s, Forest Service administration began to fully recognize that research should be directed toward problems of immediate importance, such as how to handle cutting on timberlands so that new and superior crops would be obtained promptly; how to develop plans for managing forest properties involving a knowledge of sites, yields, rotations, etc.; how to develop tables and methods of measuring timber, both for general use and in research work itself; and how to 105 GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PSW-GTR-233 protect old and young forests against fire, disease, and insects. In his concluding remarks, Show encouraged students in their pursuit of forestry, stating that both the Forest Service and industry were in need of more reliable information that currently was impossible to secure by existing research personnel (Show 1924b). California’s Forestry State of Affairs: 1926 In 1926, the situation in California was ripe for research, especially regarding problems in forest, forage, fire, and water management. The lumber industry at this time was at its peak of postwar prosperity. Prices were relatively high, many new mills were starting up, and the state’s lumber production was at its highest level to date. Prospects seemed bright for the early realization of what was then being called “industrial” forestry. In California’s pine region, the introduction of the caterpillar tractor meant that cheaper logs could be provided to industry with less damage to the forest than the donkey engine logging practices of the past1 (fig. 27). Nevertheless, the need for increased silvicultural research was urgent because of increased logging in the state’s pine forests. There were still some 11 million acres of uncut pine timber left in California, but the future rate of growth, and thus the profit of tree growing, depended on proper maintenance of these sites, something to which private lumber companies had given little or no thought. Forestry research was needed to give public and private sources the ability to increase stocking, and to control the composition of the forest that succeeded this cutting. On the other hand, in California’s redwood region, the timber industry was busy launching the largest program of industrial forest planting ever undertaken in the United States. In fact, by 1927, owners of redwood forests in California were planting more land in California than was being planted on the national forests of California, Oregon, Washington combined. However, this commercial reforestation to assure a future redwood (See “Scientific and Common Names” section) lumber supply had pro- ceeded on a slender foundation of knowledge. The need for silvicultural and forest management investigations in the redwood region was acute. For 2 years, Forest Service silvicultural research in that region had been especially wanting, mainly because of the absence of national forests there, and secondarily because the urgent need in the pine region, where national forests existed, took up Forest Service time, staff, and research dollars (Greeley 1927, USDA FS 1932b). 1 In 1923, Duncan Dunning made an intensive field study of these steam-powered machines, which pulled or yarded, felled, and limbed trees from the stump to the deck. His study described the excessive damage to residual trees and the future productivity of the site. Thereafter, Dunning, along with S.B. Show, passionately opposed the use of these high-speed logging machines (Conners 2006). 106 The Search for Forest Facts: A History of the Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, 1926–2000 U.S. ForestU.S. Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station Figure 27—Early tractor with cleated tracks hauling logs. The use of tractors dramatically improved the efficiency of logging operations. Research needs in other forestry areas—range management, fire protection and prevention, and watershed protection and development—had long been acute in California prior to 1926 as well. California’s District 5 Office of Grazing had applied the Forest Service’s research findings at the Jornada and Great Basin Sta- tions to the state’s national forests, but accomplishments in grazing research on the forests had been mainly a byproduct, both in work and in thinking, of these find- ings. California needed technical personnel familiar with grazing research to grasp the regional grazing picture and to form a state management program. In the field of forest fire research, there was great pressure from Californians for improved pro- tection. The challenge was to provide adequate organization and equipment to meet the state’s needs. The statistical fire research contributed by Show and Edward Kotok in the early 1920s marked some progress, but there was no organized fire research underway in the state. Nor had research into forest watersheds fared any better, despite a widespread general public interest in water management. In south- ern California, widespread water development activities, such as the San Gabriel project for the city of Los Angeles and the Boulder Dam project, were designed to provide urban and agricultural water needs in that part of the state. There, con- cerned counties and municipalities desired erosion-streamflow studies by the Forest 107 GENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PSW-GTR-233 Service to help conserve and protect water and watersheds.2 In the northern half of the state, because water was more readily available, pressure for water management studies was less compelling, beyond a scattered number of advocates who were unorganized in their demands (USDA FS 1932b). All of the above—forest, range, fire, and water problems—as well as others, became, at least in part, subjects for research for the newly established CFES. This chapter will recount the history of CFES research on these issues during its first 5 years of service, but before exploring this account, some background history on national events that affected Forest Service research policy and organization in general is necessary. A National Forest Research Program: 1926 By 1926, Department of Agriculture agency representatives, such as the Forest Service, Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), and Bureau of Entomology (BE), as well as state forestry departments, universities, and agricultural experiment stations, had given input to a special committee on forest research of the Society of Ameri- can Foresters (SAF).3 Their task was to answer one basic question: “Is forest re- search necessary?” Two years earlier, in November 1924, Chief Forester William B. Greeley had challenged the SAF with this question in a keynote address before the organization. During his speech, Greeley also asked other critical questions: “What is the outstanding importance and urgency of the forest problem in the United States?” and “What is the basic place of research in the solution of that problem?” Responding to Greeley’s challenges, the SAF appointed a three-man committee,4 2 In 1927, the Forest Service became extremely sensitive to the issue of forests and flood control because the Mississippi River flood disaster of that year called into question the adequacy of the Nation’s public program of forestry. The Forest Service realized that such floods could not be controlled solely through reforestation, but on the other hand, forests did aid in the regulation of streams because they held the soil in place and held back rain and snow water more effectively than any other form of vegetative cover (Greeley 1927). 3 The SAF is the national scientific and educational organization representing the forestry profession in the United States. Founded in 1900 by Gifford Pinchot, it is the largest profes- sional society for foresters in the world.