The Douglas Fir Logger Looks at Selective Logging

Abstract The following paper, first presented in substance before the Pacific Logging Congress at Vancouver, B. C., in October, 1935, stirred deep interest at that time amongst foresters who heard it. The extraordinary lengths to which the term "selective logging" has been stretched in the current usage of the region is revealed in an analysis which to foresters elsewhere is a bit breath-taking. But the writer, a trained forester as well as an experienced industrial logger, is not writing with tongue in cheek. While almost any cutting practice may, on one ground or another, claim to be "selective," a sound fundamental idea is abroad, on which, however, much careful work must be done before the idea will be translated into sound, definite, and practically useful woods practices.