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Schroder
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PostFri Nov 29, 2019 5:37 pm 
My great-uncle, a younger brother of my grandfather, was born near Bergen, Norway in 1887. When he was 16, he decided to immigrate to Minnesota and join his older sister’s family on a farm. He later ended up with a farm of his own in eastern Montana, which we only visited once when I was a child. I didn’t know much about him other than he served in the army during WWI, which induced visions of him fighting in the trenches of Europe. As I was recently going through my parents papers, I found out that he served in the 20th Spruce Squadron. Wanting to find out where he fought, I discovered an interesting story. Europe had a great demand for Sitka Spruce lumber to build airplanes. They needed about 10 million board feet a month but the Northwest mills were only producing about 2 million. The military took over the timber industry here by creating the Spruce Production Division of the Army Signal Corps and by the war’s end had almost 29,000 soldiers cutting trees and working in sawmills. They stationed the workers initially at Fort Vancouver and then transferred squadrons to other areas as needed, eventually in 60 camps throughout the Northwest. They built new sawmills at Vancouver (1 million board feet a day), Coquille, Toledo, and Port Angeles. They also built 13 railroads with 130 miles of track to the sawmills. “The network of roads and railroads that the division had built allowed for future development of the forests, which facilitated the growth of the lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest for the remainder of the 20th century.” The effort also created a labor union, the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, which continued for 20 years after the war. My relative was stationed at Waldport, Oregon.
Wikipedia article on the Spruce Production Division The U.S. Army Spruce Squadrons in the First World War The Army in the Woods - Records Recount Work of World War I Soldiers In Harvesting Spruce Trees for Airplanes (pdf) A side note to this - In the late 1990's I was hired by the government of Scotland to work with their forest products industry and develop a long-term plan utilizing their Sitka Spruce. The forests of Scotland were almost completely harvested during WWI for timbers in the trenches and they replanted with Sitka Spruce seed from the Pacific Northwest.

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thuja
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PostSat Nov 30, 2019 9:47 pm 
Part of the reason for the government's involvement in the logging business was because the IWW was organizing among the loggers at the time and the IWW was strongly against US involvement in the war. In addition to all the usual anti-IWW hysteria, there was concern/fear that they would hamper US involvement in the war if they got too strong.

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PostSun Dec 01, 2019 1:32 am 
I recall mention of the "Spruce Corps" in Carsten Lien's "Olympic Battleground - the Power Politics of Timber Preservation".

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Dick B
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PostSun Dec 01, 2019 1:48 pm 
When in forestry school at U Dub we were told that access to NW spruce was what prompted Boeing to set up shop in the Puget Sound area. Spruce being the main component in airframe construction after WW1. Anyone have any history regarding Boeing in the early years?

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reststep
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PostSun Dec 01, 2019 4:13 pm 
Interesting information Schroder Thanks for posting. The Spruce Corp or Spruce Production Division of the Army Signal Corps is what brought Herb Crisler to this area.

"The mountains are calling and I must go." - John Muir
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Seventy2002
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PostSun Dec 01, 2019 5:05 pm 
Dick B wrote:
we were told that access to NW spruce was what prompted Boeing to set up shop in the Puget Sound area
The wood came before the airplanes. Boeing made lots of $$$ in the timber business, starting in Hoquiam, in 1902. He moved to Seattle in 1908, several years before he got the flying bug. A short biography of William Boeing

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Schroder
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PostSun Dec 01, 2019 5:21 pm 
reststep wrote:
The Spruce Corp or Spruce Production Division of the Army Signal Corps is what brought Herb Crisler to this area.
Remnants of the Pysht camp, where Herb Crisler was stationed, are still there.

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mike
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PostSun Dec 01, 2019 6:35 pm 
Schroder wrote:
The forests of Scotland were almost completely harvested during WWI for timbers in the trenches and they replanted with Sitka Spruce seed from the Pacific Northwest.
Not only sitka spruce. They are planting other species from the PacNW as well, e.g. lodgepole pine. Also doug fir but not commercially so much anymore. Some of the tallest trees in the UK are doug firs planted from seeds brought back by David Douglas.
candidate for tallest in UK. planted from seed by D.D.
candidate for tallest in UK. planted from seed by D.D.
doug firs planted about the same time
doug firs planted about the same time

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treeswarper
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PostTue Dec 03, 2019 9:36 am 
I remember reading about this somewhere. Also that the availability of cheap power and nearby aluminum plants were why Boeing ended up in the PNW. The transport of seeds to other countries is interesting. I learned in a forestry class that Doug-fir seeds were smuggled into South Africa. They had to be smuggled because otherwise the seeds had to go through some kind of pest control routine that ruined the seeds. So, is the Sitka Spruce in Scotland doing well? I'm thinking I read somewhere that there is now an effort underway to replace it with native trees.

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Schroder
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PostWed Dec 04, 2019 11:51 am 
treeswarper wrote:
So, is the Sitka Spruce in Scotland doing well?
It thrives there in a climate much like B.C.. It's the most predominate harvest-able species.

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Dusty Trale
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PostWed Dec 04, 2019 2:46 pm 
A good book to read about the Spruce Division during WW1 is, "Soldiers in the Woods, The U.S. Army's Spruce Division in World War One", by Rod Crossley. The book was published by Timber Times in 2014 in Portland. It has lots of info, photos and maps in WA and OR. The War Dept. approved the creation of the Spruce Productive Division on Oct. 17, 1917 and disbanded April 7, 1919.

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nordique
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PostSat Dec 07, 2019 5:21 pm 
Thanks for all the great historical information!

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Bernardo
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PostSun Dec 08, 2019 12:59 am 
Interesting to think about the ramifications of European battles on serene forests so far away.

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hatchetation
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PostMon Dec 09, 2019 1:28 pm 
This is super interesting. Another reference: Williams, Gerald W. "The Spruce Production Division." Forest History Today (1999): 3.

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Sculpin
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PostThu Dec 12, 2019 9:54 am 
Bernardo wrote:
Interesting to think about the ramifications of European battles on serene forests so far away.
Yep. And nearly all the cascara was grubbed out for the laxative properties of the bark. All those troops in trenches eating C rations and pilot biscuits would tend to get stopped up.

Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir
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