While I have touched upon this topic before, I came across an interesting letter and how Red River was managing its forest. There are a number of institutions that search this site for all kinds of information, natural history being one. As public service, I bring this bit of information to the surface for future researchers.
On August 10, 1935, Clinton Walker wrote to his brother Archie, who resided in Minneapolis. Archie was stable figure in the Red River Lumber Company’s management, since the company had vast holdings there as well.
Clinton was involved in the initial timber acquisitions in California. In 1913, he resigned over a family dispute on the future operations. He came back into the fold during Red River’s financial crisis of the 1930s. Enough background and onwards to Clinton’s commentary.
”It is regrettable that the house of Walker has no forest man. Kenneth [Walker] covers the nearest, but he seems to be absorbed in the performance of log contracts; our annual fire and insect losses are staggering. A systematic annual light burning at the right season of the year would reduce an ultimately eliminate these sources of loss and the cost would be insignificant as compared to the loss and yearly fire hazard conditions in the forests. Burning by means of power burners on or dragged behind tractors could be done very cheaply and the prospective danger of injuring hollow hulled trees could be eliminated by following the burning with a few shovelers. For the entire period of the Walker family timber operation we have centered our attention exclusively to lumber operation. We are doing nothing but slash down that wonderful forest and letting the fire and beetles burn and eat us down year by year without raising a hand to afford protection from these annual staggering losses.”
