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The controversy concerning the U.S. Forest Service timber sales indicates need for a reconsideration of policy objectives and procedures. There have been conflicts regarding many details of the sales and related procedures but the basic cause is the relationship between federal timber and private industrial development. Distinctly new alternatives for selling public timber may be possible within the coming decade, however, which would alter this relationship. This paper evaluates alternative timber sale procedures in terms of multiple policy objectives. The Forest Service is charged with management of national forest timber resources and sale of these resources to private processors. Particularly acute sale problems exist on 42 national forests in California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington because of a long-term imbalance between processing capacity and allowable timber harvest in a region with high stumpage values.

The article presents information about the deletion of timber in the United States. One fourth of the land area in the United States is well adapted to the growing of timber stands. These stands supply one of the most important raw materials for the U.S. industry. The forest-products industry as a whole is the country's fifth largest industry; the pulp and paper industry, completely dependent on pulpwood, is the country's sixth largest industry. Practically all of the other basic industries are to some extent dependent on wood supplies. The United States was extremely fortunate in having abundant stands of old virgin forests during the early period of her development. It was a simple matter to procure timber from a new area when local supplies were exhausted. In this manner first the forests of the New England states were cut over, then those of the Lake states, those of the South and, finally, now, those of the West and Northwest.

Discusses several issues affecting forest management and timber supply in the United States. Sources of forest policy; Discussion on the impact of policy changes on timber production; Origin and examples of public pressures affecting annual harvest of timber from national forests; Arguments of preservationists.

Comments on an article about public pressures and values affecting forest management and timber supply in the United States. Effects of the criticism made by preservationists against industrial forest landowners; Discussion on legislative issues; Problems that log export trade faces.

Discusses the issues concerning the competing uses at the extensive margin for timber production and outdoor recreation services in national forests in the United States. Background on forest policy and timber management legislative bills; Issues concerning outdoor recreation resource and the wilderness; Topics for research that might help focus productive attention on public resource management.