Appendix B. Newspaper Accounts

APPENDIX B

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS

LOCAL SCALER HAS GREAT RECORD

[The following article was published in the daily newspaper, The Shelton Daily Spokesman, Saturday, April 17, 1937, when William A. Davies first arrived at Shelton, Washington.]

William Albert Davies, a recent comer to Shelton, was recently given signal honors when admitted to Phi Beta Pi, National Honorary of the forestry college at the University of Washington. Davies, a junior in forestry, was the highest from a class of 300, and was the only one of that total to get straight "A" grades, having a total of six when only four are needed for placement on the honorary list.

Davies has worked his entire way through college, working during vacation periods as fire guard, assistant log scaler, and also as a reader at the university.

At the present time he is working as a scaler on the Simpson Logging Company booms under direction of Donald Ahi, thus getting practical experience with his already excellent theory. The young man is a brother of and makes his home with Mrs. J.C. Michael of Union.

O.S.C. FORESTRY STUDENTS LEARN ROAD CONSTRUCTION

[The following account was published in The Oregonian Sunday, March 20, 1955. Reported by Wes Grilley, Special Writer for The Oregonian.]

Ever wonder how a forest road is built? Seniors in forestry at Oregon State College get practical, first-hand experience in actual road building in one of the many courses which the forestry school offers.

This logging transportation course is open only to senior forest engineering majors or graduate students minoring in forest engineering. The students enrolled must have had courses in mathematics, surveying, soils, and physics.

During fall term, the students plan how they would log timber from a certain spot located in McDonald Forest, the college forestry laboratory located five miles from Corvallis. They measure the area and figure how many board feet of lumber will come from the standing timber.

The problem for winter term is figuring how to get the timber out of the forest and just where the road should be. After deciding its location, the students draw up complete plans for the road.

Economics of logging off a selected tract is studied during spring term. The class figures out how much the project will cost and what the profits will be.

Oregon State's outdoor forestry laboratory of 6,000 acres is the closest to the campus of any forestry school in the United States. Each year, the forestry department sells some timber to pay operating costs. This is figured on a sustained-yield harvest. In other words, it is figured that it will take 100 years for a tree to grow to full maturity.

BENTON COUNTY LUMBER OPERATORS COMMITTEE

GYPPO LOGGERS HAVE PLAYED IMPORTANT PART IN FORESTRY

By W.A. Davies

Head, Forest Engineering, O.S.C.

[This was published in The Corvallis Gazette Times, Corvallis, Oregon Wednesday, June 26, 1957.]

The gyppo logger, since his beginning in the 1920's, has become an important part of the state's leading industry. The term gyppo was originally assigned to loggers who did part of the logging job under contract, but was later applied to any small logging operation. As small independent loggers increased in number, the term persisted and has become a standard word in every logger's vocabulary.

While few gyppo loggers existed during the railroad logging days, they came into their own with the advent of logging trucks, after World War I. It was difficult for a small independent logger to own and operate a railroad, but when logging trucks were made available he could make use of the public roads. When the old Corvallis Logging Company railroad and other logging railroads gave way to trucks, gyppo loggers began to show up in Benton County.

The next big step in gyppo logging was the beginning of tractor or "cat" logging in the 1930's. Prior to this time, a logger needed a steam donkey to yard large Douglas-fir logs and could not economically log scattered timber or timber in small patches. The cost of setting up the high-lead cable system used with a steam donkey was too expensive. When the crawler tractor came along, however, the logger became mobile and was able to log scattered trees and to move from one timber stand to another without the expensive moving and rigging up costs. This development increased the number of gyppos in Benton County and elsewhere.

Salvage Operations

The third big development in gyppo logging occurred after World War II when the increase in lumber prices made it possible to utilize low grade and defective logs. Many gyppos were born during this period when much of the material left in the woods as unmerchantable prior to the war now became merchantable. There were thousands of acres of this type of material, and salvage logging began in earnest. Of course, the gyppo was best suited for this job.

Although it is not as easy for a gyppo to buy timber as it was in past years, it looks as though he will continue to be an important part of the logging and lumbering industry. His future lies in doing the logging job for the timber owner who doesn't want to take on the ulcers and headaches of doing it for himself. Even the larger timber owning companies are employing gyppos to log the small isolated areas, to do the relogging and log the thinnings from young stands. One large company in a neighboring county hires gyppos to do all of its logging, and has as many as 12 of these operations going on at one time. Many Benton County timber owners have found that it is best to turn the tough shows over to gyppos.

For many years to come, the gyppos will be sending logs over Alsea mountain and over other roads throughout the county. They are a tough and ingenious group and will tie into the roughest logging shows, and with brute force and a supply of haywire, will get the job done.

MCDONALD FOREST PROVIDES OUTDOOR LAB FOR O.S.U. WILDLIFE AND FORESTRY STUDENTS

Kathy Keniston

Barometer Writer

[This was published in The Daily Barometer, the O.S. U. daily publication, on May 1, 1970, a few years before the retirement of Professor Davies from the School of Forestry.]

While some students daydream of chucking the books and trekking off to enjoy nature, other students visit the forest several hours each week as part of their study program. The excursions are an important laboratory experience for forestry students at the university. Their "lab" is the 6,800-acre McDonald Forest, about six miles north of Corvallis.

The main purpose of McDonald Forest is to provide an outdoor laboratory where university foresters can apply their technical know-how, according to William A. Davies, Professor of Forest Engineering and Manager of the Forest. The experience saves students the cost of attending a summer camp, and leaves their summers free for paid practical work experience.

Oregon State University is one of a very few schools in the U.S. that has such a nearby forest, Davies adds. It's a 10- to 15-minute ride for the students, in the School of Forestry's orange trucks, from the campus to the forest.

Community interest in McDonald Forest was renewed recently when forestry students arranged and conducted free bus tours through the forest last Saturday and Sunday, in observance of Earth Week. Foresters explained the ecology of Douglas-fir, Oregon's most important tree; clearcutting and alternative methods of harvesting; planting and seeding; herbicides; wildlife management; and stand management through thinnings, pruning, fertilization and irrigation. The tour focused on an example of man's attempt to improve his environment both economically and aesthetically.

The forest was started in 1925 with the purchase of 80 acres of land approved by the State Board of Regents. Students and alumni purchased a small tract to connect this with Highway 99W. In 1930 Mrs. Marv J.L. McDonald, widow of a prominent San Francisco lumberman, donated the first of many gifts for additional purchases, and in 1932 the school forest was officially named McDonald Forest. 181 acres were set aside for the Peavy Arboretum, where plantings of native and foreign tree species are maintained. More than 4,000 additional acres of forest near McDonald Forest are owned by the School of Forestry.

At time of purchase, much of the land was in need of improvement. In recent years, through its contract forester, the school has thinned and pruned 20,000 to 100,000 trees annually, cleared brush and planted the released areas, felled snags, sold merchantable timber, and built and improved roads for logging and other management purposes. The present timber stand is about 90 million board feet with an estimated annual cut of about two million board feet.

The forest is mostly young growth Douglas-fir with some 250-year-old veteran firs, and some very old oaks. Other species are grand fir, western yew, a few western red cedar, and hemlock, along with such hardwoods as Oregon ash, red alder, bigleaf maple, vine maple, wild

cherry, and madrone.

The forest is of interest to fish-and-wildlife students because it is the home of black- tailed deer, bobcats, raccoons, brush rabbits, nutria, mice, blue grouse, buzzards, hawks, owls, song birds, cutthroat trout, and many other sylvan animals. On opening day of deer season last year, almost 1 ,000 hunters roamed the forest. The university sponsors the deer hunt each fall to help keep the deer population compatible with the growing trees.

The public is not allowed to drive in McDonald Forest, says Davies, because the roads are not safe for public travel, and because many valuable research plots must be protected. Vandalism and litter along the edge of the forest have been a problem, he adds.

Part of the forest is reserved from timber cutting to preserve certain conditions desirable for class instruction. Davies noted that McDonald Forest is "better for study than a perfect forest because of the different conditions and problems." Research foresters and graduate students have an opportunity to study a wide variety of forestry problems because of the varied conditions of the forest, ranging from bare land to mature timber.