Jim Girard: The Man Who Knew Trees
Big Blackfoot Timber Sale
1907-1910
Exhibit Chapters
Exhibit Chapters
50-Million Board Feet
In 1907, there were 151 million acres of forest reserves in the United States. The same year Congress renamed America’s forest reserves “national forests” and approved what would be the largest sale of timber at the time.
Trees were one of the nation’s largest national resources. To give you an idea, lumber consumption per capita in 1900 was 82 cubic feet; compare that to 1970 when it was 30 cubic feet.
The Big Blackfoot Timber sale was one of the first sales of timber on national forest land – an estimated 50-million board feet were sold to the Big Blackfoot Milling Company and a majority of that timber came from land just east of Seeley Lake, Montana on the Lolo National Forest.
Map of Seeley Lake area with plots and section markings.
A Forest Service sale administrator stands beside a western larch stump and butt, during the Big Blackfoot Timber Sale in 1908. (Photo by W.J. Lubken)
Big Blackfoot Milling Company
In 1898, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company formed a subsidiary for lumber called the Big Blackfoot Milling Company to log timber for their Montana mines and the Northern Pacific Railroad. They had permits to cut timber for this purpose, but also used those permits to cut timber for resale throughout the state.
The Big Blackfoot Milling Company bought enormous tracts of private land to log in northwestern Montana, but their purchase of timber at Seeley Lake in 1905 was the first stumpage sale with the Forest Service. In the beginning it was a rocky partnership.
The Forest Service hoped to curb the practice of unlimited deforestation.
Logging companies like the Big Blackfoot Milling Company had been cutting unencumbered on private lands for years. When they encroached on public timber reserves, it was of little concern. The Forest Service hoped to curb the practice of unlimited deforestation and instill sustained-yield forest management.
A Forest Service sale administrator stands beside a western larch stump and butt, during the Big Blackfoot Timber Sale in 1908. (Photo by W.J. Lubken)
What is a stand?
A tree stand is the woody vegetation forming a forest. It may consist of one species of tree or several mixed together. Stands are subdivided into simple stands (one layer canopy) and complex stands (arranged in layers because more than one species forms the canopy). There are several age categories of stands too including: young trees, saplings, middle-aged, ripening, mature, and over-mature.
How do you calculate board footage?
A timber cruiser will conduct a cruise through a forest, stopping at sample points to take measurements. The forester takes two measurements – the tree diameter and height. From that they can determine how much lumber is in a tree, and thereby predict how much wood is in a particular forested area.
The New Science of Managing Timber
Having a government agency involved in timber production was a difficult change for the industry and managing the sale of timber was a relatively new science. For example, rather than clearcutting the land, as had been the standard practice, the Forest Service marked individual trees by stamping them with a special hammer leaving an imprint with the mark of “U.S.”
USFS Timber Estimate and Forest Description for the area east of Seeley Lake.
These logs were then cut by hand using a crosscut saw, measured (scaled) to determine the amount to be paid and skidded to the lakeshore or riverbanks with horses. They were then floated 70-miles downstream in the Clearwater and Blackfoot Rivers to the Big Blackfoot Milling Company sawmill in Bonner, Montana. Sinker logs can still be found along the banks of Seeley and Salmon Lakes and the riverbanks today.
The new practice of scaling, the measuring of wood to determine its price, was a big concern between the lumber company and the Forest Service – both had differing opinions of what was considered merchantable wood. In an effort to resolve their issues, the Forest Service brought in Jim Girard to replace the employee in charge of the timber sale in 1908.
Girard fine tuned the timber production process and smoothed over the relationship between the two entities.
Girard had become a legendary timber cruiser and was known for his scaling ability. He’d developed new methods and procedures for scaling, including a points system that is still used today. Girard was able to fine tune the timber production process and as a former employee of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, smooth over the relationship between the Big Blackfoot Milling Company and U.S. Forest Service.
Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the Forest Service, took a personal interest in the timber sale. Pinchot’s early experiences in the Seeley Lake region influenced his land ethic and helped shape Forest Service policies to this day.
USFS Timber Estimate and Forest Description for the area east of Seeley Lake.
More Chapters in this Exhibit
Jim Girard: The Man Who Knew Trees
Jim Girard was a timber faller and timber cruiser who became a legend in the U.S. Forest Service for his innovative and accurate timber measuring techniques. His point system to measure tree size is still used today. Learn more about his life here.
Jim Girard Memorial Grove
In 1953, the U.S. Forest Service dedicated a 60-acre old growth grove of Western Larch, also known as tamaracks, near Seeley Lake, Montana as a memorial to James W. Girard. Girard had a fondness for the Western Larch and his grove is special, in that many of the trees are 600 years or older.
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