WSP06362

• File Number: 8210.470
• Description: Pacific Southwest Interagency Committee
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 11/1/1971
• Author: PSIAC
• Title: Pacific Southwest Analytical Summary Report on Water and Land Resources based on Framework Studies of Four Regions - November 1971
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

002700

poorly stocked, and some 60 million acres of
hardwood and pinon-juniper have little commercial
value under current harvest and market techniques.
The conifer forests contain many trees that will not
yield a conventional saw log.
Forest land managers face an impediment to a
balanced resource management program in the
continuing pressures of conflicting uses. Forest land is
in demand for homesites, for single-purpose
recreation development and for conversion to pasture
or range as well as for wood production. Some is - or
will be - dedicated to wildlife refuge, wilderness or
watershed uses. Following such dedication other uses
would be restricted.
The most intense demand on the forest area is for
wood products, and the largest foreseeable segment
of demand will be lumber and plywood for new
housing. Forest lands produced, in terms of industrial
output, 1.2 billion cubic feet of wood in 1965. The
land base has the capacity to produce 2.7 billion
cubic feet from the stump. Projected production of
1.7 billion cubic feet is expected to come from 35
million forest acres as compared with 33.4 million in
1965. The acreage increase will take place mostly in
California through replanting.

land Management

This Land Management section of the report
covers all lands in the Pacific Southwest from the
standpoints of protecting them and ensuring
production from them. Emphasis is placed upon
production in the first three subsections - Timber
Production, Range Forage Production, and Crop
Production. Recognition is given, however, to the fact
that production measures generally effect some
degree of land protection. The fourth subsection -
Watershed Management - deals with all lands.

TIMBER PRODUCTION

Status - Timber

The forest land that produces timber often
accommodates grazing and recreation uses and is
occupied by wildlife. The 121 million acres of forest
land also serves in intercepting some 80 percent of
the precipitation in the Pacific Southwest. Timber
harvest is prohibited on those lands designated as
wilderness or primitive area as is any use which would
weaken the wilderness concept.
About 33.3 million acres are used for continuous
commercial wood production. This acreage represents
less than 30 percent of the area classed as forest land
and 10 percent of the total land area.
Most forest land is federally owned or held by
large wood products and lumber corporations.
Traditional agency investment levels have restricted
the management of public forest lands to solving
critical problems and performing custodial functions.
Some large owners manage on a sustained-yield basis
but small owners seldom are able to do so.
In 1965 total wood production of 1.2 billion cubic
feet was less than half the productive potential of
the land.

Needs and Problems - Timber

Insects, disease, and fire destroy nearly half the
timber grown in the Pacific Southwest. In a single
decade, spruce beetles destroyed 775 million cubic
feet of Colorado's timber, and California's average
annual ioss of timberland by fire is 33,000 acres.
Further losses from these problems are reflected in
wildlife, recreation, and watershed values.
Much of the forest area is inaccessible, much is

Plan Response - Timber

Both production of timber and protection of
forest land are served by measures that reduce erosion
and sediment production, suppress and prevent
wildfires and provide management of tree stands.
These are included in the land management program.
Excluded, however, are measures specifically for
recreation development, fish and wildlife habitat
improvement and similar forest-related subjects that
are discussed elsewhere.
By combinations of forestry practices, the base
plan provides for acceleration of forest management
to reach an optimal level of all forest resource output.
The plan includes provision for public access and use;
regeneration by planting and seeding for
sustained-yield harvest; protection from fire, insects,
disease, and other destructive agents; and forest stand
improvement through thinning and release to select
the highest quality trees available.

Acreages projected for treatment in the interest of
wood production are:

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