Forest For The Future (1977)

[Music] Forest is a provoc. talkative word for almost everyone. It has a personal definition. The forest is a place where nature lives to be glimpsed or to be sought and captured. For some people, it is a place to share in pursuit of exercise or unexpected beauty. The forest is a place of discovery, the first taste of a special sweetness, and it is adventure, the challenge of following an unfamiliar trail. For some people, the forest is a living museum, a heritage from the past to be left unchanged. For us, it is also a living resource of the future. We are West Feo. We make paper, packaging, and chemicals. And we own and manage forests in South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, the Ohio Mississippi Valley, and Brazil. Pine and hardwood. More than a million acres in all. These woodlands ensure that we can meet the needs of our customers and provide rewarding experiences for all who visit here in the years ahead. This is the forest for the future. [Music] Better forests begin with better trees. We select pine cutings from superior trees in the wild and graft them to rootstock in our seed orchards. In just a few years, they produce mature seedbearing trees. West Veco was a pioneer in genetic tree improvement. Our first generation seed orchard was started more than 20 years ago, but the research still goes on. Outstanding strains of southern pine are pollinated artificially for controlled crosses. We're looking for faster growing trees with good fiber characteristics and resistance to disease, insects, and fire damage. The improved seeds are harvested in the orchard and planted in our seedling nursery. West Veco accounts for the planting of about 25 million seedlings a year. The ones harvested here in our South Carolina nursery include several genetic strains designed to be superior in the soil and climate conditions where they will grow from the coastal plane to colder Pedmont slopes. Packed in waterproof bags and stored in refrigerated vans, the seedlings are shipped to their destinations. On prepared sites, they are planted by machine. The small beginnings of an improved forest. [Music] Forest management depends on knowledgeable people. We have about 185 professional foresters, including our firstline managers who supervise our woodlands throughout the growing cycle. Their work includes measuring tree heights and growth rates and assessing the overall condition of selected stands. This kind of information collected at regular intervals becomes part of the accurate current inventory we maintain for every block of timber we manage. The total inventory is stored in a central computer. Accurate information is essential in planning a continuous supply of fiber for our mills. Foresters in each woodland submit cutting budgets of areas to be thinned or cropped for 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years ahead. These budgets form the basis of the company's master supply plan. Another source of accurate information is surveying. Our woodlands have thousands of miles of boundary lines. Our crews have to measure and maintain every mile. [Music] By the time they finish, it will be time to start again. Forest management requires patience. Our plans extend more than half a century ahead. But to realize our future, we work at it every day. By the time our fast growing pine plantations are about 12 years old, they're ready to be thinned. A mechanized shear first cuts corridors through the stand. Then it moves to either side and cuts wherever possible the imperfect and slow growing trees. [Music] The shear can gather several trees at a time. In the thinning about 30% of the plantation will be cut. The remaining trees with more room to grow will mature quickly. Almost all of our logging operations are mechanized to move the wood efficiently and economically. These lodgs from the thinning cut will be chipped to make wood pulp for paper. [Music] Under most circumstances, fire in the forest is a tragic event. Wildfire burns more than trees. It also destroys the habitat of wildlife. but carried out professionally under controlled conditions. Prescribed burning is actually beneficial to pine forests. When weather conditions are favorable, a line is plowed on the downwind side of the area to keep the fire from getting out of control. When the fire is started, it will back cleanly and slowly from this line into the wind. Prescribed fire helps reduce the chance of wildfire by burning the dry brush on the ground. [Music] This underbrush is competition for the desired pine species. Removing it improves their growth. Fire also releases nutrients into the soil. And when the tender new growth appears, the wildlife habitat will be improved. Prescribed burning is good pine management. [Music] We manage different kinds of forests, but we manage them all intensively. Through such management, our lands and forest industry lands in general now grow one and a half to two times as much wood as other privatelyowned lands. And we're also moving more rapidly toward reaching our growth potential. That's why we have a cooperative forest management program to extend our technology to other land owners. We advise them about the best ways to manage their own timberlands. We may suggest removal of undesirable trees or a general thinning for improved growth. We are committed to vigorous, productive woodlands capable of supplying forest products for as long as we need them. Well-managed private lands add productive acreage and help to make up for the loss of forests to other land uses. [Music] Our wood fiber comes from our own lands and from private land owners. But not all of the wood goes directly to the paper mill. Saw timber is the best end use for large logs and brings the highest economic return. We sell such logs to sawmills and contract with them for their trim waste. 50% of our fiber now comes from wood waste, usually in the form of chips. [Music] We also grow or purchase pulp wood where it's most economical and deliver it to the paper mill. [Music] Here the wood will become chips and then pulp and finally products, paper, packaging and chemicals. [Music] [Applause] The appetite of our mills for wood, both hardwood and pine grows as demand by our customers increases. As part of our plan for growth, we intend to increase the productivity of our woodlands and to add additional acres so that eventually we'll be able to supply between 50 and 75% of our fiber from our own lands. [Music] Good roads are essential for moving wood from our woodlands to the mills. We now maintain 1,700 miles of roads and bridges, and we're building new ones every year. To support the traffic of heavy machines and trucks, and to safeguard the forest environment, construction of main roads equals or exceeds federal standards. The terrain poses special problems. We have to protect the hillsides in West Virginia and prevent flooding in the coastal plane of South Carolina. We also maintain about a,000 m of canals here for drainage. To reduce erosion, especially in mountain sites, we replant road sides. This machine sprays a combination of grass seed, fertilizer, and mulch so that it clings to the bare slope. When the grass comes out, it holds the soil and offers both food and cover to small animals. Good drainage and well-built bridges protect both slopes and streams. The health of our waterways is another responsibility of forest management. We monitor streams regularly to make sure that silt from roads or waste from logging operations have not impaired the quality of the water. With portable equipment, we can make chemical tests to verify purity or determine the causes of any change. Fishermen drive on our roads. Native fish live in our streams. Our management is beneficial to both. When we harvest trees, we are concerned about the impact on the environment. [Music] We know that the sites we harvest are the sites where our next forest will grow. This stand of hardwood trees in West Virginia is being clearcut. That is, all the trees are being harvested at once. [Music] Clear cutting actually improves the chances for new growth, especially with the logging techniques we use to protect the soil and vegetation of these steep mountain slopes. [Music] Steel cables lift the logs above the forest floor, leaving soil and small plants virtually undisturbed. Our management program calls for clear cutting small blocks, 40 acres or less, and leaving large areas around them uncut. This reduces the impact of logging operations and still provides us with the fiber we need. We get more usable fiber from logs with a modern technique called whole tree chipping. A portable chipper is set up at the logging site. It swallows trees whole and turns them instantly into chips. Advances in paper making chemistry permit the entire tree to be used. None of the valuable wood resources wasted. And it's more economical to move chips to the mill than to move logs. [Music] Appalachian hardwoods are self-regenerating. The new growth is already here and clear cutting has opened up the area to light and air. This block was clear-cut 3 years ago. Nature has reforested abundantly and desirable species are coming back strong. Our goal is to have a mix of healthy stands of different ages for a continuing supply of the raw materials we need to make our products. We achieve the same result in a different way with pine trees. After a pine clear cut, we restore the site and replant it with seedlings. On some soils, helicopters are used to spread fertilizer in pellet form. Within months, the seedlings are hidden by the new growth, which covers the restored clearcut. Waste from the clearcut piled in wind rows provides excellent cover for wildlife and large hardwood trees have been left for drainage and for roosting sites for birds. In 3 years, the pines have outgrown the competition and stand taller than a man. In four years, they average about 12 ft in height. 8-year-old stands look like this. Here in South Carolina, they'll be ready to harvest at 25 to 30 years of age. [Music] Part of our plant improvement program is a search for better, faster growing hardwood varieties, especially sycamore and cottonwood. West Veco pioneered the use of hardwood chips in making paper. And today we are grafting superior sycamore cutings to rootstock in our seed orchard. The trees that will grow from grafts like this will be identified and graded for performance until eventually we produce a stock of improved sycamore seeds for superior forests. Near the Mississippi River in western Kentucky, we've been growing hardwoods on plantations for several years. Cottonwoods are planted in rows from cutings between November and March. Each cutting is simply a length of dormant stem which in this rich soil will sprout and flourish. By late spring, young trees are being cultivated like a garden. In fact, plantation sites are cultivated as many as seven times the first year to keep down weeds. These sycamores started as seedlings a little more than a year ago. Growing crops of fiber is ideal management, but it's possible only on farmland sites like these. In their third growing season, these cottonwoods have reached an average height of 30 ft. [Applause] They begin to look like a forest. [Music] 100 ft tall at age 10. This cottonwood stand will be ready for harvesting in two more years. Other plantations are growing to take its place. Each year on company lands, we plant more trees than we harvest. [Music] Wildfire is the destroyer. We can only hope to catch it early. It's coming from Jedird. Our spotter planes help by finding and plotting a new blaze. [Music] The race against wildfire depends on good communications, the teamwork of good people, and the equipment to bring it under control. [Music] We have ground equipment for firefighting and even an air force in our southern woodlands. The bombers are our most effective equipment. They carry water mixed with a retardant. The fire boss coordinates the force with the help of accurate map and information from people already on the scene. [Music] The bomber makes its run at the head of the fire, knocking it down. But our resources on the ground, men and equipment will finally put the fire out. Our people are on 24-hour alert during the fire season. [Music] The wind machine helps to keep the fire from advancing by wetting down the woodland ahead of the flames. The fire plow is the workhorse of our firefighting effort. It plows a trench through the plantation from which backfires can be set. [Music] Men and equipment can contain a wildfire, but never without cost. And the cost is spread over a long period of time. Wildfire in a young plantation like this can destroy 8 or 10 years of good management. We manage our growing woodlands for multiple use, for the production of fiber and for other dividends. [Music] We manage for clean streams and we set aside parts of our forests for the pleasure of the people who visit them. Our Edestto Nature Trail in South Carolina preserves a natural forest on the site of a centuries old plantation. [Music] It provides a variety of experiences for a variety of visitors. We are stewards of the land we own. And part of our responsibility is to maintain habitat for wildlife, for endangered species like the southern bald eagle and for game animals. [Music] The forest is our renewable resource. We're improving its productivity with intensive, responsible management to provide a source of wood fiber for all the paper, packaging, and chemicals our customers will need in five or 10 or 50 years from now. For West Veco, the forest is for the future. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music]