Part B, Working Papers, February 1974 - Special Collections - US ...

The use of Rome ploughs to clear roadside forests is a successor toother roadside forest clearing operations undertaken in the decades of theForties. Many of the forests damaged by the bombing and shelling of the1960's undoubtedly contain within the trees, fragments of shells and bombsthat are the residues of the earlier warfare.The extent of the impact of war activity upon forests and their utilizationis a function of the character of the forest at the time of impact.Accordingly, studies of past war-forest interactions, particularly in otherregions of the world, are of little value in dealing with the present case.In the past, assessment of war damage to forests and forestry has usuallybeen made after the cessation of hostilities when access to the forest wasreadily available and where field studies and experimental observation werefeasible. The NAS Committee was given the task of undertaking an impactstudy while military action continued, where forests understudy were stillbeing contested militarily, and where access to the forests on the groundwas very limited indeed. This imposed very severe and obvious restrictionsupon the investigators and their investigations. On the other hand, earlystudy has the advantage of permitting some observations before the passageof time obscures the evidence of impact. Accordingly, the study was pursuedwith a full awareness of the limitations imposed upon it but with every effortmade to take advantage of early observations no matter how limited they mightbe.To be specific, this impact study was based upon aerial photographicevidence of the status of the inland forests as of the winter of 1972-73in terms of the treatment of those forests with defoliants during the periodfrom mid-1965 through early 1971.The study team developed its inquiry in1-4