Green Harvest

e [Music] there bre [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] gee this is really country around here does your uncle live here all the time mhm the government sent him out here years ago on some sort of a survey of bugs that prey on trees oh is is he a uh what do you call it an entomologist yes well he liked it so much that after retiring he built this place and stayed no I don't blame him oh you'll meet him tomorrow he's probably off somewhere chasing a bug I'd be off chasing a nice fat CH why didn't you tell me about this darling we've only been married nine days and don't think it hasn't been nice well by the way what does your uncle do with that movie projector oh he's always taking pictures mostly about trees you know I've learned a lot just being around him let's run one do you know how why sure turn the lights off you ready all [Applause] set oh look Sugar Pine aren't they magnificent they grow larger than any other kind of pine yeah they sure Pine too isn't it I of her white [Applause] p oh and there's some Ponder Roa ponds look at that isn't it a shame to cut down trees like that there ought to be a law against it I wonder why he took this funny looking top I think they tell the condition of the tree by looking at the branches and the needles you know when they're healthy and when they're ready to be cut yeah and when they get through cutting it it looks like this now they miss some anyway oh uh those are reserved seed trees they left them on purpose I doubt it that's what the loggers leave every time I see a thing like that don't say it don't say what what you started to say remember I've been coming to this country for years I love you very much darling but as far as the woods go you're a million years behind the times oh I am am I I've never been in this part of the country before but Woods are woods and I've loved them ever since I was that high well not enough of apparently to learn very much about them I'll bet you don't even know how the big forest fires get started lightning for one thing and smokers like you for another cigarettes and campfires now wait a minute I never started a fire in the woods in my life I'm only trying to make a point it's too bad they can't leave the woods alone that's all what's wrong with that everything why you couldn't have this house or or Life as we know it without fars products that's right but at the same time you ask Uncle Ray about it when he comes in tomorrow I certainly will and I bet he'll agree with me too but from a sportsman standpoint don't you realize that Timber and game go right along together sure leave the timber alone and there'll be plenty of game for everybody that isn't true why you couldn't have anything you couldn't have oh Jamie what's the matter well this is our honeymoon [Music] remember I'm sorry sorry it was my fault but let's promise not to quarrel again about trees or anything hm it's a promise I'll never say another word about it but when I think about what tojin to those uh uhuh okay hey if we're going to get up and go fishing early tomorrow morning we better turn in is it that light mhm I better close that window [Music] smell that pun let's leave the windows open it's a beautiful KN and I'm sleepy [Music] you stay there I'll make breakfast oh you're wonderful breakfast coming up [Music] hey are you all right yeah yeah I'm all right are you sure yes I'm sure hello there Uncle Ray well what kind of of a honeymoon is this oh Uncle Ray this is my husband how do you I'm afraid we kind of wrecking room that's all right was that cup a friend of yours no sir oh and I'm afraid we've just ruined your film it was old material I was going to throw it away well I wish you had because we had an argument about it oh uh if you two will clean up this mess and keep the animals out I'll make breakfast there now more coffee Uncle Ray no thank you my if I fuel up no of course not I'll do the dishes I'll help so just get in the way who you tell Uncle Ray about your uh ideas on trees you'll love it go away what does she mean by that well we had a little argument I said I thought it was a shame to cut down any tree see I like to fish and hunt and well it seems a shame that but Mayo say she said I was trying to burn up the woods well that's hardly likely but I know what she means you do I I wish you'd tell me I think I could show you easier than tell you I'm putting a film together right now I'd like to try it out on you oh Mayo hi how' you like to see a movie I haven't done the dishes Oh They'll wait all right can we run it now yes if you like just draw the curtains and sit down fine let's go what I'm trying to do with this picture is to settle arguments like yours it's surprising how wrong A lot of people are about our forests and their products he's talking about you shush how to run a tree farm farm is that a new idea to you certainly is go ahead I started off rer partly because I like to look at it and partly because it's suest something Eternal and permanent and that's the way you should think about our forest eternally green eternally useful but there's more than Beauty and Restless play of light and Shadow in our forest trees are living things Fighting For Life fighting their enemies they get sick and old and die they reach up with their leaves to breathe and feel the sun they must have food and water and like all living things they're if they're not harvested when they're mature they rot and go to waste enough lumber for millions of homes is going to waste every year just as you see it here we need the products of our forests and we need the forests so true conservation Begins by understanding that Timber is a crop not to use our Timber crops would be a terrific waste of Nature's Bounty so let's begin with that idea let's make a few comparisons it takes only one day to produce an egg but it takes all summer for corn beef 2 or 3 years four to eight years before a tree will bear fruit for Timber 25 to 100 years a farmer doesn't buy a new Farm each year he renews the land and manages it with scientific methods so begin to think of the forest as a farm where useful things are grown and harvested and grown again as a permanent useful industry now let's see what it takes to run a tree farm fire is one of the things you'll have to fight forest fire is a terrible thing I've seen them that's right and that that's why the lumber industry the states and the US Forest Service are all trying to fight carelessness in the woods and to provide the Fire Equipment that's so essential this has brought about very close cooperation between the public Forest agencies and the individual Forest [Music] owners fires are so terribly destructive in spite of everything yet done the loss through forest fires is still between 30 and 45 Millions each year what you're looking at here is a small part of the Great tilok Fire of 1933 it burned 270,000 acres in 20 [Music] hours 50 or even 100 years may be lost before an area burned as badly as this can recover naturally you can see why your tree farm will have to be equipped with towers and firew Wars it means constant daily vigilance throughout the dangerous dry seasons it not only means Lookout Towers like this one and fire wardens it means a telephone system accurate maps and somewhere nearby an army of firefighters with good equipment I've seen those Towers but I never realized just how important they are it must be a lonely job it' be a wonderful view he's not looking at the view he's looking for smoke when he sees it he CES it quickly with a special instrument called [Music] analid as soon as he gets his bearing he reports the location by telephone or radio to headquarters meanwhile another Observer cited and reported the same smoke this information is plotted on the map and the fire is located quickly and then the battle is on [Music] repeated fires kill the seed trees and the land remains unproductive unless it's artificially replanted transplanting by hand is slow and expensive but way to keep the land productive there you can see rows of trees that were planted on an old burn from Lumber Company Cooperative nurseries like this one come millions of seedlings each year of course a far more practical method is to prevent fires and a plans so nature will do the replanting most of these scenes you're looking at were logged over this fur region area was logged 25 years ago the logs were hauled out over that old railroad Trestle it'll have to be rebuilt when we go back there to log again perhaps 70 years from now 70 years oh yes that's not [Music] unusual over there you can see the seed block which was left 25 years ago gee a tree farmer deals in lifetimes that's right it takes good judgment and the most practical scientific kind of planning before you can harvest the next crop you're going to have to protect it for a long time fire isn't the only enemy as a good tree farmer you'll have to fight insects and bugs and diseases well here's what bugs can do these are infested trees in the Ponderosa Pine country what kind of Western pine beetles they feed on the inner bark and cut through the Campion the formation of cells that caused the tree to grow it also accounts for the annual growth ring when the insects Circle a tree they cut a s FL and the tree dies there see those little tunnels that's what kills the tree it's starting to realize that insects and disease will do half again as much damage in any any one year as fire will now here's a tree attacked by blister rust pine beetles have wings and can fly several miles but the spores of the blister rust are like tiny specks of dust which are carried by the wind sometimes over 100 miles you can see where it's been attacking a tree because of the bright orange color once it gets well established the tree dies the progress of the disease is followed on study plots like this the different color Stakes show the different years of rust attack on the trees experts in the United States Bureau of emology and plant quarantine are working to learn more effective preventive measures fire insects and disease are all Forest Enemies but old age is another when you start to run a tree farm you have to start thinking in Long cycles for example you must plan for Block cutting in stands of fur where most of the trees Tre are the same age planting harvests of ponder Roa and Sugar Pine takes into consideration that these trees are all mixed up from a year old to 500 that calls for selective cutting here's a good view of a cutover Ponder Roa Pine Forest after you get through the selective logging this is what it looks like [Music] you can hardly tell at this distance that the loggers have been through here good judgment and good forestry keep an endless supply of useful Timber coming out of the woods production is continuous you'll be interested in the way trees are selected and marked with trees of mixed ages you want to take out the old ones and give the young fellas a chance to grow so a crew of experts go through the woods and squirt a white sea on each tree to be cut it must be high enough to be visible above snow in winter and above brush in summer this is all part of an industrial reforestation and the methods are carefully worked out to prevent harvesting the old trees before they die and still keep an adequate reserve of growing trees for each area over in the white pine country of Idaho the trees are carefully counted on tally whackers there are four of them one for the white pine Reserve next reserve the trees to be cut and the trees under 12 in to be left the marker who is the boss of the crew frequently consults a map of the district so the information he gathers can be related to a particular area in the white pine they use an axe to blaze the trees and then Market CT for cut wondered how they check the growth rate of a tree it's not done with our guess work the checking is done with an increment bore which is an augur with a hollow center it pulls a sample of the core out of the tree this particular plan was released years ago what do you mean released I mean released from too much competition for Light and Water by other trees it's done by cutting the old trees as you see but the old stumps nearby now let's see what release meant to this tree rings close together at the heart show that the trees were too thick and were closing in on the young tree shutting off light and sunshine then the area was logged and the big trees cut more Sunshine was let in and the Rings grew wider meaning the tree was growing much faster than before here you see what I mean in this cross-section of a tree for 15 years since its release this Pine has been growing taller and thicker and stronger doubling the growth of preceding 30 or 40 years it's a good example of what happens if you cut the old trees when they're ripe and give a younger tree a chance I don't follow you oh wait a moment I'll stop the film and show you look here this is a cross-section of a tree when the tree is under very heavy competition the Rings are very narrow but here when it had a chance it grew big wide Rings oh now I see what you're talking about I see the rest of the picture very much in White Pine they usually leave 30 to 40% by volume to provide a second crop which in turn will help nature recede for a third crop the markers look at the base and at the top and combine the science of Forestry with practical judgment though they may say a tree scales up pretty good meaning it will pay its way out of the woods still it may be left uncut oh then that's what you mean by selective cutting yes and these healthy rapidly growing young Reserve trees show how well it works in the fur country the problem is different if you leave scattered trees for seed they're apt to blow down in a few years and if you leave enough so they won't blow down there's too much shade for the young Furs the new growth is apt to be Hemlock when what you're trying to get is more Douglas fur it's quite a problem there that's what Jamie said burned him up certainly looks terrible well this area was cut in blocks about a year ago and if you didn't know forestry you naturally feel it looked pretty hopeless but look right next to this is a restocked area that was logged the same way about 8 or 10 years earlier how does a corn field look after it's been harvested looks worn out and all through if you don't know the next summer given the bear it'll be green and productive again same thing is true of every other crop the only difference is the length of time nature takes to do it so let's go back to the fur country this was logged some years ago and Nature's cycle is moving right along on schedule at first glance you don't see any trees but let's take a closer look underneath all this underbrush and ferns is a thriving New Growth if we clean it up thoroughly we find still more trees growing inch by inch reaching up for the sun all this is part of the industrial reforest plan [Music] harvesting the old crop was managed so the new crop would be well established carefully protected from fire these seed blocks are left standing healthy trees to produce ample seed for the nearby logged area is this kind of thinking and planning and cooperation that ensures the use of our forest without abuse so the growing timber crop shall be a continuous Perpetual operation and here's the proof of the pudding a second growth fur Forest 50 years old the old Timber was harvested half a century ago as you watch these Camp scenes it's interesting to know that some are permanent and others move on and don't return to the same spot for a generation or perhaps three generations [Music] timber forest products are important to everybody and naturally no people are more interested in growing trees than the lumber man wouldn't you be if your living and your children's living depended on [Music] it now here's part of a logging operation this is Pine the cats haul them into the tracks where big Jammer look the flat cars [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] railroads hundreds of miles of them in the mountainous country always seem to me to be marvelous engineering Feats but whether the logs move out by train or by truck whatever form of transportation is used it takes big equipment big thinking long range planning ahead to operate our giant tree [Music] farms here's where the assembly line The Sawmill was the first industry to take the work to the worker by conveyor at waste height [Applause] la [Music] [Applause] it's a big industry it's getting bigger all the time lumbermen spend millions of dollars a year fighting fires and bugs studying better methods of aiding reforestation improving old and developing New Forest Products large busy Laboratories are maintained like this one where scientists are at work the tree farmers are determined to use every possible part of the tree naturally they don't want to waste anything that can be made into a profitable product Jamie here's something that'll interest you in the National course of events in operating a tree farm the harvesting of old growth and the subsequent development of the new growth provide conditions on which game thrives far better than it does in Old Timber Just watch this I wish you'd take a good long look at these forests Pine and fur all second growth all of these areas have been logged over these are tree farms farms and I'm glad to say there are millions of Acres of private tree farms just as carefully protected and just as well managed as the ones you see here we can enjoy them for themselves and for their products to the benefit of all mankind that's what you'll be doing if you're on a tree farm and that's how you'll feel about the trees you'll grow and protect and keep on growing continuous production and Perpetual green Harvest isn't that Crater Lake yes beautiful isn't it and you know scenes like this make me think we're blessed with so much natural beauty we have so much that it is certainly worth the care and effort to be able to enjoy these things forever and the wonderful part of it is that we can enjoy our forest and their products forever what do you think of tree farming I had no idea that Timber is a CR and as manage like every other CRP that's exactly what it is and that's why you don't have to worry about Forest Products they'll be here for your children and your children's children and the better job we all do in operating tree farms and protecting our forests the more Wildlife population there'll be for you Sportsman I'll shake on that and I think I owe someone an apology uhhuh a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]