Survey of old growth Douglas-fir stands in the Big Belt Mountains of Montana

Watershed protection is continually increasing in importance since the Big Belt Ifountains of Montana are part of the Mssouri River drainage.Located within this mountain area are Holter, Hauser and Canyon Ferry dams.These reservoirs and accompanying power plants furnish irrigation v/ater for the Helena Valley as well as electric power for the Butte, Great Falls, and Helena areas.Today even a larger reservoir and power site is being developed at Canyon Ferry.When water values are the greatest resource forest land produces, logging should be regulated to the end that a stable permanent water supply is maintained on the watershed area.Since watershedprotection in the Big Belt Ifountains is increasing in importance, an expanding timber use must leave the watershed values intact.Timber utilization is also necessaiy for development preservation of our wood-using industries.THithout utilization, a harvest, forestry cannot be practiced.Under the present economic system, forestry on public lands can only be practiced by private enter prise doing the harvesting job.The best way to encourage private enterprise to do the job of harvesting is to assure a continuous backlog of crop material or sustained yield.^ The practice of forestry, however, is not the end but a means to an end.The end product is the welfare of the community and na tion.Boom and bust industries do not contribute to permanent community or national v/elfare.It is the job of foresters to es tablish and maintain timber production on a sound sustained basis consistent with highest principles of watershed management.It is the purpose of this report to lay the necessary foundation for sound management plans for old growth, even-aged, Douglas-fir, the principal timber stand of the BLg Belt Mountains.This is not a final report but the start towards a greater study.Much work needs to be done before we will know all the answers.Specifically, this report compiles by site classes for old-growth, even-aged Douglas-fir, stand and stock tables on an acre basis; defect tables; volume tables; resume of past cutting practices in the area; prob lem of natural regeneration; and soil types.It deals with a general area description and history as well as the influences which affect the stand.Work in the management of this timber type by the writer began in 1940.Field work of collecting sind assembling data did not begin, however, until 1942.Stand and stock data were secured from Forest Service timber surveys.Only the data of pure, even-aged Bouglasfir stands were selected.Every effort was made to use oxily veri fied data.This considerably cut down the number of samples used in the study, but the results are more reliable.Check scaling was done in connection with the data used and check scales are part of official government records.Compression failure and other cull All specialized forestry torms, such as 'sustained yield' in this paper are used as defined by: Soc.