Excerpt from Price Projections for Selected Grades of Douglas-Fir, Coast Hem-Fir, Inland Hem-Fir, and Ponderosa Pine LumberSilviculturists have long been concerned about the quality and value of timber produced in managed stands. The prevailing perception among most forest management policy makers, however, seems to be that premiums for quality and costs of managing for quality are such that volume production is the overriding consideration. This, in combi nation with cash flow problems in the solid wood products industry in the Pacific North west during the 19803, has resulted in many stands being managed on relatively short rotations (50 to 70 years) with relatively wide initial spacing (less than 300 trees per acre) to achieve rapid volume production and reduce management costs.Over the past 20 years, the quantity of high-quality lumber has declined dramatically and the real price of high-quality lumber has increased dramatically. This has occurred in spite of a sharp decline in real prices for wood products since the late 19703. Real prices for lumber are expected to return to their long-term upward trend. These long term price increases may increase the difference, or premium, between grades. Because it is the difference in value between high-quality and low-quality logs that determines how much can be spent to improve quality, this effect alone tends to increase the amount spent to produce high-quality wood. These projections indeed show that the prices of higher grades will tend to increase more than the prices of lower grades. Even current price premiums seem sufficient to justify consideration of wood quality in the selection of management regimes, with high-quality lumber currently priced at three to five times the price for average quality construction lumber.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.