TIMBER DAMAGE

There are approximately 33,500 acres of land in merchantable timber between the DeGray site and Little Missouri River which are flooded annually. These lands have on it approximately 100,000,000 board-feet of high-grade timber, mostly hardwood. In this area are two large hardwood mills: W. I. Wilkie Lumber Co. at Smithton, Ark., and Sparkman Hardwood Co., Sparkman, Ark. In addition to these mills, a number of mills, which before the war manufactured pine lumber, are now cutting hardwood in this area. Logs from this area are being shipped to Malvern, Little Rock, Memphis, and St. Louis.

At the present time these timbered lands are conservatively worth $20 an acre. If they were protected from floods, the value of this land would immediately increase from $10 to $15 an acre. The floods cause considerable damage to the timber in place resulting in great annual losses to the landowners. Besides this, there are also large losses to the mill operators due to the increased cost of logging, log spoilage, low production, etc.

DAMAGE TO LANDLORDS

The Arkansas Forestry Commission has stated that floods cause damage to the timber by submersion, siltation, abrasion, and water spots. In the report made to the War Department on the development of the Ouachita River and its tributaries in Arkansas, dated April 10, 1939, compiled under the direction of Carl E. Bailey, Governor, the Arkansas Forestry Commission made a full statement concerning these various types of damages.

In recent conference with Mr. Fred H. Lang, State forester, and Buster Denton, district forester, it has been determined that in the area under consideration, the following is a conservative estimate damage per acre of the annual damage per acre to the landowner:

Submersion__

Siltation_.

Abrasion--

Water spots

Reforestation....

Total per acre---

This means an annual damage to the landowners of $48,910.

DAMAGE TO TIMBER OPERATORS

All timber operators recognize that logging cost increases considerably in this area during the rainy season and this is especially true when floods occur. One operator estimates his logging cost increase 25 percent, another $7 per thousand, because of flood conditions.

In addition to this it is recognized that logs which are in the woods at the time the area is flooded will damage considerably due to stain and rot. A conservative estimate would be 30 percent, as many of the logs are considered a total loss in the woods.

In addition to the increased logging cost and loss of logs, the timber operator suffers damage because his equipment and facilities must stand idle or be operated on a part-time basis, whereas his fixed overhead continues.

It is estimated that the annual growth of the timber lands of this area is approximately 4,000,000 feet per year and that at least 1,000,000 feet per year is affected by the floods. Conservative estimate of the loss to the operator is as follows:

On this basis, the annual damage to the timber operators is $13,500.