Timber harvest and sales on Indian reservations set records in the fiscal year which ended June 30, the Bureau of Indian Affairs announced today.
Annual receipts from stumpage sales totaled $14.3 million, nearly $2 million over the previous fiscal year. The volume harvested was approximately 848 million board-feet, an increase of 100 million board-feet over fiscal 1965, the Bureau said.
An additional 100 million board-feet was cut by Indians under free permits for fuel and home and farm use.
The Bureau estimated that the timber cut created 6,000 year-long jobs in the woods and in sawmills, plywood plants and other wood industries located on or near Indian reservations. Increasing numbers of these jobs are being filled by Indians, the Bureau said.
Indian tribally-owned sawmills are located on the Fort Apache, Ariz., Navajo and Jicarilla, N. Mex., and Blackfeet, Mont., Reservations. The Indian owned Red Lake Mill in Minnesota, which burned in December, after 40 years of operation, is being rebuilt with Bureau assistance and should be completed this fall.
In the last five years, the volume of timber cut has increased 375 million board-feet and stumpage receipts have increased by $6.2 million, the Bureau's report stated. This year's increase included most Indian forested areas, except in California, where the cut has remained about the same for several years.
All Indian forests are managed in, accordance with sustained-yield principles in order to maintain the productive capacity of the lands and to assure an even flow of the harvests.
Indian forest resources contribute directly to economic stability and reservation improvement by providing income from stumpage receipts, the advantage of increased employment opportunities and, on an increasing number of reservations, 1e profits and benefits of the processing industries, the Bureau said.
