Project Gutenberg's Our National Forests, by Richard H. Douai Boerker
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Title: Our National Forests
A Short Popular Account of the Work of the United States
Forest Service on the National Forests
Author: Richard H. Douai Boerker
Release Date: March 23, 2013 [EBook #42391]
Language: English
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[Illustration: Figure 1. An observation point for finding forest fires.
Vigilance is the watchword on the National Forests. During 1916 forest
officers extinguished 5,655 forest fires. Photo by the author]
OUR
NATIONAL FORESTS
A SHORT POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE
WORK OF THE UNITED STATES FOREST
SERVICE ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS
BY
RICHARD H. DOUAI BOERKER, M.S.F., PH.D.
Arboriculturist, Department of Parks, City of New York.
With the United States Forest Service from 1910 to 1917.
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1918
_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1918
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Set up and electrotyped. Published, September, 1918
_Whom should this humble volume
seek to honor but the father and
mother whose unselfish devotion made
possible both my education and my
profession?_
The highest type of scientific writing is that which sets forth useful
scientific facts in language which is interesting and easily understood
by the millions who read.
L. A. MANN.
PREFACE
Forestry is a vast subject. It has to do with farm and forest, soil and
climate, man and beast. It affects hill and valley, mountain and plain.
It influences the life of cities, states, and nations. It deals not only
with the manifold problems of growing timber and forest by-products,
such as forage, naval stores, tanbark, and maple sugar, but it is
intimately related to the navigability of rivers and harbors, the flow
of streams, the erosion of hillsides, the destruction of fertile farm
lands, the devastation wrought by floods, the game and birds of the
forest, the public health, and national prosperity.
The practice of forestry has, therefore, become an important part in
the household economy of civilized nations. Every nation has learned,
through the misuse of its forest resources, that forest destruction is
followed by timber famines, floods, and erosion. Mills and factories
depending upon a regular stream flow must close down, or use other
means for securing their power, which usually are more expensive.
Floods, besides doing enormous damage, cover fertile bottom-lands with
gravel, bowlders, and débris, which ruins these lands beyond redemption.
The birds, fish, and game, which dwell in the forests, disappear with
them. Springs dry up and a luxurious, well-watered country becomes a
veritable desert. In short, the disappearance of the forests means the
disappearance of everything in civilization that is worth while.
These are the lessons that some of the world's greatest nations have
learned, in some cases through sad experience. The French people, after
neglecting their forests, following the French Revolution, paid the
penalty. France, through her reckless cutting in the mountain forests,
has suffered and is still suffering from devastating floods on the
Seine and other streams. Over one million acres were cut over in the
mountains, and the slash and young growth that was left was destroyed
by fire. As a result of this forest destruction the fertility of over
8,000,000 acres of tillable land was destroyed and the population of
eighteen departments was impoverished or driven out. Now, although over
$40,000,000 has been expended, only a very small part of the damage has
been repaired.
Our own country has learned from its own experiences and from the
experiences of nations like France. On a small scale we have endured the
same devastating floods. Forest fires in the United States have caused
an average annual loss of seventy human lives and from $25,000,000 to
$50,000,000 worth of timber. The indirect losses run close to a half
a billion a year. Like other nations, we have come to the conclusion
that forest conservation can be assured only through the public
ownership of forest resources. Other nations have bought or otherwise
acquired national, state, and municipal forests, to assure the people
a never-failing supply of timber. For this reason, mainly, our own
National Forests have been created and maintained.
The ever-increasing importance of the forestry movement in this country,
which brings with it an ever-increasing desire for information along
forestry lines, has led me to prepare this volume dealing with our
National Forests. To a large extent I write from my own experience,
having come in contact with the federal forestry movement for more
than ten years. My connection with the United States Forest Service
in various parts of the West has given me ample opportunity to study
every phase of the problem. I am attempting to chronicle a wonderful
accomplishment by a wonderful organization of altruistic Americans,--an
accomplishment of which every American has reason to feel proud.
Few people realize that the bringing under administration and protection
of these vast forests is one of the greatest achievements in the history
of forest conservation. To place 155,000,000 acres of inaccessible,
mountainous, forest land, scattered through our great western mountain
ranges and in eighteen Western States, under administration, to manage
these forests according to scientific forestry principles, to make them
yield a revenue of almost $3,500,000 annually, and to protect them from
the ravages of forest fires and reducing the huge annual loss to but a
small fraction of what it was before--these are some of the things that
have been accomplished by the United States Forest Service within the
last twenty years.
Not only is this a great achievement in itself, but few people realize
what the solution of the National Forest problem has meant to the
millions of people who live near them; what it has meant to bring
civilization to the great forested empire of Uncle Sam; what it has
meant to change from a condition of unrestricted, unregulated misuse
with respect to the public domain, to a policy of wise, regulated use,
based upon the principle of the greatest good to the greatest number in
the long run. In the early days before the Forest Service organization
became established, the people were said to have "shot-gun titles" to
timber or grazing lands on the public domain, and "might made right"
in the truest sense of the word. This crude condition of affairs gave
way to wise, conservative use under government control. Just as the
farmer each year sets aside a certain amount of his seed for next year's
planting, just so the stockman saves his calves and cows and lambs
for greater growth and each year sees a part of his herd maturing for
market, and just so the forester, under the new system, cuts only the
mature trees and allows the young timber to remain for greater growth
and greater value in the future, or, in the absence of young trees,
plants small trees to replace those removed.
The people of the West are convinced that a great work has been done
well and wisely. The people of the Eastern States will soon realize that
a similar forest policy, already inaugurated in the Appalachian and
White Mountains, will mean every bit as much to them.
If I succeed only in a small degree to make my reader appreciate the
great significance of the National Forest movement to our national
economy, I will feel amply repaid for the time spent in preparing this
brief statement. I am indebted to the Forest Service for many valuable
illustrations used with the text, and for data and other valuable
assistance. To all those who have aided in the preparation of this
volume, by reading the manuscript or otherwise, I extend my sincere
thanks. I am especially grateful to Mr. Herbert A. Smith and others of
the Washington office of the Forest Service for having critically read
the manuscript and for having offered valuable suggestions.
RICHARD H. DOUAI BOERKER.
New York, N. Y.,
July 7, 1918.
INTRODUCTION
FORESTRY AS A NATIONAL PROBLEM
The forest problem is, both locally and nationally, of vital
internal importance. Not only is wood--the chief product of the
forest--indispensable to our daily life, but the forest plays an
important rôle in regulating stream flow, thereby reducing the severity
of floods and preventing erosion. For these reasons the preservation of
forests ceases to be a problem of private or individual concern, but
forthwith becomes a governmental problem, or, at best, an enterprise
which should be jointly controlled by the National Government and the
individual States.
_Our Consumption of Wood._ It is often said that wood enters into our
daily life from the time we are born until we die--from the cradle to
the coffin. It is difficult to imagine a civilization without wood.
In our country in a single year we use 90,000,000 cords of firewood,
nearly 40,000,000,000 feet of lumber, 150,000,000 railroad ties, nearly
1,700,000,000 barrel staves, 445,000,000 board feet of veneer, over
135,000,000 sets of barrel headings, over 350,000,000 barrel hoops,
over 3,300,000 cords of native pulp wood, 170,000,000 cubic feet of
round mine timbers, nearly 1,500,000 cords of wood for distillation,
over 140,000 cords for excelsior, and nearly 3,500,000 telephone and
telegraph poles. In short, we take from our forests yearly, including
waste in logging and manufacture, more than twenty-two billion cubic
feet of wood valued at about $1,375,000,000. This is enough lumber to
construct seven board walks twenty-five feet wide from the earth to the
moon, a distance of about 240,000 miles, or a board walk one-third of a
mile wide completely around the earth at the equator. These figures give
a little idea of the enormous annual drainage upon the forests of the
United States and immediately suggest an important reason that led to
the establishment of our National Forests.
_The Lumber Industry._ Measured by the number of persons employed,
lumbering is the country's largest manufacturing industry. In its 48,000
saw mills it employs more than 600,000 men. Its investment in these
plants is over $1,000,000,000, and the investment in standing timber is
$1,500,000,000 more. This industry furnishes the railroads a traffic
income of over $200,000,000 annually. If we include in these statistics
also the derived wood products, we find that over 1,000,000 wage earners
are employed, and that the products and derived products are valued at
over $2,000,000,000 annually. Most certainly we are dealing with a very
large business enterprise.
_Our Future Lumber Supply._ You may ask, "What effect have the great
annual consumption of wood and these large business interests upon the
future supply of wood?" The most reliable statistics show that out of
5,200 billion feet of merchantable timber which we once possessed, only
2,900 billion feet are left. In other words, almost half of our original
supply of timber has been used. Besides, the present rate of cutting for
all purposes exceeds the annual growth of the forests. Even the annual
growth is considered by many experts of unknown quantity and quality,
to some extent offset by decay in virgin forests. The only logical
conclusion to draw from this condition of affairs, if the present rate
of consumption continues, is a timber shortage in so far as our most
valuable woods are concerned. In view of this it is fortunate that the
National Government began to control the lumber and forest situation
by the creation of National Forests and the institution of scientific
forestry practice.
_Forests and Stream Flow._ But the forests not only supply us with wood.
For other reasons they deserve governmental consideration. The forests
in the mountains control our streams, vitally affect the industries
depending upon water power, reduce the severity of floods and erosion,
and in this way are intimately wrapped up with our great agricultural
interests. For this reason forestry is by nature less suited for private
enterprise. In agriculture and horticulture the influence of the farm
or the fruit crop rarely extends beyond the owner's fence. What I plant
in my field does not affect my neighbors; they share neither in my
success or failure. If by the use of poor methods I ruin the fertility
of my farm, this fact does not influence the fertility of my neighbor's
fields. But in forestry it is different. Unfortunately, just as the
sins of the fathers are visited upon their children, so the sins of the
mountains are visited upon the valleys.
[Illustration: Map showing the National Forest areas in the West,
the location of the proposed National Forests in the East, and the
area which the present National Forests would occupy if they were all
consolidated into one body in some of the well-known Eastern States.]
The mountainous slopes of the Appalachian ranges and the steep, broken,
granite ridges of the Rockies, the Sierras, and the Cascades are the
sites most suited in our country for forestry purposes. The Appalachian
ranges have been affected most by the reckless cutting of forests. When
these mountains were clothed with forests, the rivers ran bank full,
ships came to the harbors at low tide with ease, and factories and
cotton-mills ran steadily all year long. Since the destruction of these
forests the surrounding country has suffered from alternate floods and
droughts; great manufacturing centers have lost their steady supply of
water; harbors are filled with silt from the mountain sides; and fields,
once fertile, are covered with sand, gravel, and débris, deposited by
the ungovernable stream. These forests belonged to private individuals
who disposed of the timber and pocketed all the profits, while the
community below suffered all the loss. In other words, private ownership
is inadequate since private interest and private responsibility are not
sufficiently far-reaching and far-sighted.
_Forests and Erosion._ Erosion is one of the most serious dangers that
threaten our farms both by transporting fertile soil and by covering
the bottom-lands with sand, gravel, and débris. Since we are largely an
agricultural people, the importance of this problem will be readily
appreciated. Over 50 per cent. of our population is rural, and the
annual production of farm crops has a value of over $5,500,000,000.
Farm uplands are washed away or eroded by high water, and high water is
largely caused by the destruction of the forests on the mountain slopes.
With the forest cover removed, there is nothing to obstruct the flow of
water down the mountain sides. Raindrops beating on the bare soil make
it hard and compact so that most of the water runs off instead of being
absorbed by the subsoil, with the result that a heavy rain storm rushes
down through the valleys in a few days instead of a few weeks, tears out
the river banks, floods the lowlands, and deposits upon them the rocks
and gravel carried down from the mountains. The most effective means for
preventing the erosion and destruction of our farmlands is by the wise
use of the forests at the headwaters of the rivers.
[Illustration: Figure 2. A typical National Forest landscape in the high
mountains. Potosi Peak, 13,763 feet, from Yankee Boy Basin, Uncampahgre
National Forest, Ouray County, Colorado.]
_Forestry a Public Enterprise._ From what has been said it will be
seen that forestry is a national business rather than an individual's.
Moreover, it is of such a protracted nature, reaching continuously
into such long periods of time, demanding so many years of time and
patience to see the expected and promised results, that an individual
would not live to see the success of his labors. The individual becomes
easily discouraged and is especially affected by financial conditions.
The Government, on the other hand, having unlimited resources at its
command can more readily afford to wait for results. In fact every
consideration of national welfare urges the Government to carry it on;
it is a sure source of revenue, there is none less fluctuating, and it
is closely connected with the manifold industries of life. Its chief
product is wood, without which the human race, so far, has not succeeded
in managing its affairs, and which will therefore always have a sale
value.
THE EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF OUR NATIONAL FORESTS
_How the Government Obtained the National Forest Lands._ Probably the
first question that will occur to my reader concerning the National
Forests is, How did the Government acquire them? To answer this question
we have but to turn back the pages of history to the close of the
Revolutionary War. Following this war, our country started on its
career of continental conquest. This conquest was largely a peaceful
one because most of the western country was acquired by treaty or
purchase, thus: Louisiana Territory was purchased from France in 1803;
Texas applied for admission into the Union in 1845; Oregon Territory
was acquired by treaty from Great Britain in 1846; the present states
of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona were ceded to us
as a result of the Mexican War in 1848; and the Gadsden Purchase was
obtained from Mexico in 1853 and added to the territory of New Mexico.
Then also Alaska was finally purchased from Russia in 1867. These large
acquisitions, comprising together the western two thirds of the United
States, were gradually divided into territories. Later they became
States, and were opened up to settlement and development by means of
various land and mining laws and large railroad grants. The National
Forests are composed of the land most valuable for growing timber, that
has not been acquired in some way by private individuals, in the western
part of the United States.
_The Romance of the National Forest Region._ This vast expanse west of
the Mississippi River boasts of some of the wildest and most romantic
scenery on the North American continent, and it is in the heart of this
picturesque country that the National Forests are located. This is the
country in which Owen Wister, Harold Bell Wright, Stewart Edward White,
Jack London, Theodore Roosevelt, and other authors have gotten their
inspirations and laid their plots. To one who knows "The Virginian," or
"When a Man's a Man," or "The Winning of Barbara Worth," or "The Valley
of the Moon," nothing more need be said. To others I might say that my
pen picture of that country is a very poor and very inadequate method
of description. It is the land of the cow-puncher, the sheep-herder,
and the lumber-jack; a land of crude customs and manners, but, withal,
generous hospitality. It is the country of the elk and the mule-tail
deer, the mountain lion and the rattlesnake. Its grandeur makes you
love it; its vastness makes you fear it; yet there is an irresistible
charm, a magic lure, an indescribable something that stamps an indelible
impression upon the mind and that makes you want to go back there after
you have sworn an oath never to return.
This National Forest empire presents a great variety of scenery, of
forest, and of topography. The beautiful white pine forests of Idaho and
Montana, the steep pine- and spruce-clad granite slopes of the Colorado
Rockies, and the sun-parched mesas of the Southwest, with their open
park-like forests of yellow pine, all have their individual charm. And
after crossing the well-watered Cascades and Sierra Nevadas we find
forest scenery entirely different. The dense, luxuriant, giant-forests
of the coast region of Oregon and Washington, bathed in an almost
continual fog and rain, are without doubt the most wonderful forests in
the world. And lastly, California, so far as variety of forest scenery
is concerned, has absolutely no rival. The open oak groves of the great
valleys, the arid pine- and oak-covered foothills, the valuable sugar
pine and "big-tree" groves of the moist mountain slopes, and the dwarfed
pine and hemlock forests near the serrated crest of the Sierras, all
occur within a comparatively short distance of each other, and, in fact,
may be seen in less than a day on any one of the many National Forests
in these mountains.
_Famous Scenic Wonders Near the Forests._ Many of the beautiful
National Parks that have been created by Congress are either entirely or
partly surrounded by one or more of the National Forests. These parks
are a Mecca to which hundreds of thousands of our people make their
annual pilgrimage. Most of these parks are already famous for their
scenery, and, in consequence, the National Forests surrounding them
have received greater patronage and fame. The Glacier National Park in
Montana, the Yellowstone in Wyoming, the Rocky Mountain in Colorado, the
Mount Rainier in Washington, the Crater Lake in Oregon, the Wind Cave in
South Dakota, and the Lassen Peak Volcanic Park, the Yosemite, General
Grant, and Sequoia parks in California, are all situated in the heart of
the National Forest region.
The highest and best-known mountain peaks in the United States are
either located within or situated near the National Forests, as, for
example, Rainier and Olympus in Washington; Hood, Baker, St. Helens,
Jefferson, and Adams in Oregon; Shasta, Lassen, and Whitney in
California; and Pikes Peak in Colorado.
Then there are the National Monuments, of which there are eleven, all
situated within one or more of the National Forests. These were created
under an act of Congress for the preservation of objects of historic or
scientific interest. The largest monument, and no doubt the most famous,
is the Grand Canyon National Monument located in the Tusayan and Kaibab
National Forests in Arizona, comprising over 800,000 acres. The next
largest is the Mount Olympus Monument on the Olympic National Forest in
Washington, comprising almost 300,000 acres. Other well-known monuments
are the Cinder Cone and the Lassen Peak Monuments on the Lassen National
Forest in California, and the Cliff Dwellings on the Gila National
Forest in New Mexico.
_The Size and Extent of the National Forests._ With this brief
introduction of the nature of the country in which the National Forests
are located, the reader will be interested to know something of the size
of the Forests and their total area. The total area varies slightly
from time to time, due to the addition of lands that have been found
to have value for forestry purposes, or to the elimination of lands
found to be chiefly valuable for agricultural use. On June 30, 1917,
there were 147 National Forests with a total of 155,166,619 acres.
Thus the average National Forest comprises about one million acres
of government lands. The many private holdings scattered through the
Forests make the average gross area of each Forest much greater. These
Forests are located in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado,
Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Porto Rico, South Dakota,
Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Besides these Forests there have been
acquired or approved for purchase under the Weeks Law over 1,500,000
acres in the States of Georgia, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. These lands are
now under protection and will gradually be consolidated into National
Forests. More lands are constantly being acquired in the Eastern States
in accordance with the Weeks Law.
Few people have any conception of what a gigantic empire the National
Forest domain is. If consolidated into one large compact area, the 155
million acres of National Forests would cover an area larger than the
combined areas of thirteen well-known Eastern States, viz.: Maine,
Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and West
Virginia (see map). This area is also one fifth larger than the entire
area of France. We marvel sometimes at the ability of a ruler to rule
a country as large as France or Germany; why should we Americans not
marvel at the ability of the man who practically rules over our National
Forests, who keeps in perfect working order the great organization which
protects and administrates the Forests?
_The Topography and Climate of the National Forest Region._ The
difficulty of the work of this organization is at once apparent when
we find that these Forests are located in wild, rugged, mountainous
country, in most cases many miles from the railroad and human
habitations, such as towns and cities. This country is usually far above
sea level--the average being between 3,000 and 8,000 feet in altitude.
But there are large areas in the National Forests of Colorado that lie
above 10,000 feet elevation. Such country as this has a very severe
climate. The climate is usually too cold and the growing seasons too
short for the production of crops such as wheat, corn, oats, potatoes,
etc. Therefore, practically all of this land is what the forester calls
"absolute forest land," that is, it is better adapted for growing timber
crops than any other. Another important fact about the National Forests
is that they are located, for the most part, on steep mountain slopes
and at the headwaters of mountain streams. This makes them of vital
importance in regulating the stream flow of our western rivers. In fact
it is no exaggeration to say that all our large western rivers have
their origin on National Forest land.
WHY THE NATIONAL FORESTS WERE CREATED
Aside from the great economic reasons why a nation should possess
National Forests, there are local reasons which pertain to the welfare
of the home builder and home industries which are often of paramount
importance. The timber, the water, the pasture, the minerals, and all
other resources on the government lands in the West are for the use
of all the people. And only by a well-regulated policy of sale or
rental can these resources be disposed so as to give all individuals
an equal opportunity to enjoy them. These vast resources have been
estimated to have a value of over $2,000,000,000. But their value to
the local communities can hardly be overestimated. The welfare of every
community is dependent upon a cheap and plentiful supply of timber.
If lumber, fence posts, mine props, telephone poles, firewood, etc.,
must be brought in from distant markets, the prices are usually very
much higher. The regulation of the cut on each National Forest assures
a never-failing supply of timber to the home builder and to home
industries. Then also the permanence of the great live stock industry
is dependent upon a conservative use of vast areas of government range.
Local residents are protected from unfair competition. Lastly, the
protection by the Forest Service of the forest cover in the western
mountains assures a regular stream flow which is of vital importance for
power, irrigation, and domestic purposes.
[Illustration: Figure 3. The climate of most of the National Forests
is severe. This view was taken in the early summer and shows the high
mountains still covered with snow. Most of the National Forest lands are
therefore of small value for agriculture. Photo by Abbey.]
[Illustration: Figure 4. On many high mountains on the National Forests
snow banks persist throughout the summer. This view was taken in the
latter part of August. Lassen National Forest, California. Photo by the
author.]
Perhaps the most comprehensive statement upon the purposes of the
National Forests and the methods and general policy of administering
them is to be found in a letter by the Secretary of Agriculture to the
Forester, dated February 1, 1905, when the Forests were turned over
to the Department of Agriculture:
"In the administration of the forest reserves it must be
clearly borne in mind that all land is to be devoted to its
most productive use for the permanent good of the whole people,
and not for the temporary benefit of individuals or companies.
All the resources of the forest reserves are for _use_, and
this use must be brought about in a thoroughly prompt and
businesslike manner, under such restrictions only as will insure
the permanence of these resources. The vital importance of
forest reserves to the great industries of the Western States
will be largely increased in the near future by the continued
steady advance in settlement and development. The permanence
of the resources of the reserves is therefore indispensable to
continued prosperity, and the policy of this Department for
their protection and use will invariably be guided by this fact,
bearing in mind that the _conservative use_ of these resources
in no way conflicts with their permanent value.
"You will see to it that the water, wood, and forage of the
reserves are conserved and wisely used for the benefit of the
home builder first of all, upon whom depends the best permanent
use of lands and resources alike. The continued prosperity of
the agricultural, lumbering, mining, and live-stock interests
is directly dependent upon a permanent and accessible supply
of water, wood, and forage, as well as upon the present and
future use of these resources under businesslike regulations,
enforced with promptness, effectiveness, and common sense. In
the management of each reserve local questions will be decided
upon local grounds; the dominant industry will be considered
first, but with as little restriction to minor industries as
may be possible; sudden changes in industrial conditions will
be avoided by gradual adjustment after due notice, and where
conflicting interests must be reconciled the question will
always be decided from the standpoint of the greatest good of
the greatest number in the long run."
HOW THE NATIONAL FOREST POLICY HAS BENEFITED THE PEOPLE
This general policy, which was laid down by the Secretary of
Agriculture, has been followed out, with the result that a great many
benefits have been derived by the nation as a whole, by the individual
States in which the National Forests are located, and, lastly, by the
local communities and users of the Forests.
_The Remaining Timber Resources Were Saved._ First of all the timber,
the forage, and the water-power on the public domain has been reserved
for the whole people and not for a privileged few. Before the Forest
Reserve policy went into effect, the most valuable timber was being
withdrawn from government ownership by the misuse of the public land
laws, whose purpose and intent were fraudulently evaded. Many claims
were initiated apparently for the purpose of establishing a homestead
but in reality for the purposes of securing the timber on the land
and later to dispose of it to some large timber holder. Every citizen
is allowed to exercise his homestead right. Big timber operators
would secure the services of many dummy locators, pay the expenses of
locating, improving, and perfecting the patent, and then buy the claim
from these dummies for small sums. A large timber holder in California
secured his hundreds of thousands of acres of timber land in this way.
By instructing these men where to locate their claims he was able to
secure more or less solid blocks of timber made up originally of 160
acre patches. These patches, which originally were bought by the lumber
barons for from $500 to $800 a claim, now have a value of from $8,000
to as high as $20,000. The people of the United States have lost the
difference.
It is difficult to say where or how this wholesale misuse of the public
land laws would have ended if it had not been for the inauguration
of the National Forest policy. Since the Government has taken full
charge of its forest domain, this misuse has stopped. In fact many of
the fraudulent claims located years ago are being investigated, and
if they are found to have been initiated with intent to defraud the
Government, the land and the timber is returned to the National Forest
in which it is located. To-day the National Forests contain about one
fifth of the standing timber in the United States, an amount which will
undoubtedly have a great effect upon the supply of timber available for
future generations, especially since under present lumbering methods the
privately owned timber lands are being practically destroyed, while the
National Forests are actually being improved by scientific management.
Four fifths of the standing timber is privately owned, and this is
usually of much higher quality than the publicly owned timber.
[Illustration: Figure 5. The Big Trees. "Mother of the Forest" in the
background. North Calaveras Grove, California.]
_The Use of Forage and Water Resources Was Regulated._ The forage and
water resources of the public domain have been subject to similar abuse.
Before the National Forest policy was put into effect the large ranges
of the West were used indiscriminately by all. The range was subject
to considerable abuse because it was used very early in the spring
before the forage was mature, or too late in the fall, which prevented
the forage from ripening its seed and reproducing for the next season.
Not the small, local stockmen, however, but the large sheep and cattle
companies, many controlled by foreign capital, benefited by this
condition of affairs. These "big men," as they were called, illegally
fenced and monopolized large areas, varying in size from townships
to entire counties. What chance would a local rancher with fifty or
sixty cattle have against a million-dollar outfit with perhaps 40,000
to 50,000 cattle? He was merely swallowed up, so to speak, and had no
chance whatever to get his small share. "Might made right" in those
days, and it is said that if a man held any title or equity on the range
it was a "shotgun" title. Also, the sheep and cattle men had innumerable
disputes about the use of the range which in many cases resulted in
bloodshed. If a sheep man arrived first on the range in the spring with
his large bands of sheep, he simply took the feed. The Government owned
the land and the forage but it had no organization in the field to
regulate the use of it. It was indeed a chaotic condition of affairs and
ended only after the inauguration of the present policy of leasing the
lands under the permit system. These permits are issued and charged for
upon a per capita basis.
The conservative and regulated use of the grazing lands under Forest
Service supervision has resulted in better growth and better weights
on stock and more actual profit. There are ample data that show that
the National Forests produce some of the best lambs that are put upon
the market. Data secured from the Modoc National Forest, California,
in 1910, show that lambs brought 50 cents per head more and weighed
an average of 10 pounds more than lambs produced outside the Forest.
Weights taken of 10,000 head showed an average of 72 pounds for National
Forest lambs, while outside the Forest average weights on 3,000 lambs
showed only 62 pounds. The regulation of the length of the grazing
season, the introduction of better methods of handling sheep, and the
prevention of over-grazing are some of the Forest Service methods that
produce better lambs.
Then also under the old system the valuable water-power sites were being
rapidly eliminated from government ownership by large corporations who
secured valuable property for a song. The National Forests, however,
still contain about one-third of the potential water-power resources
of the United States and over 40 per cent. of the estimated power
resources of the Western States. And this vast wealth will not pass from
the ownership of the United States but will be leased under long-term
leases from which the Government will receive yearly a fair rental.
_The Forests Were Protected from Fire and Trespass._ But not only
have these large timber, forage, and power resources been put under
administration for the use of the people. The protection of the National
Forests, which goes hand in hand with their administration, means a
great deal to the local communities, the States, and the nation as
a whole. Until about twenty years ago the forests upon our public
lands--the timber of the Rocky Mountains from Montana to New Mexico
and of the Pacific Coast ranges from northern Washington to southern
California--seemed destined to be destroyed by fire and reckless,
illegal cutting. Nothing whatever was being done to protect them from
fire or trespass. They were simply left to burn. When the people living
near the public domain wanted any house logs, fence posts, or firewood,
they went into the public domain and took them. The best trees were
usually taken first. In California, especially, there was a common
practice of cutting down the finest sugar pine trees and cutting and
splitting them into shakes to make a roof covering. Then, too, much
government timber was stolen by lumber companies operating in the
vicinity of valuable government timber. After the land had been stripped
of everything of value a fire was started in the slashing, which among
other things burned the stumps and thus practically obliterated all
evidence of trespass. Had this destruction continued there would to-day
have been little timber left in the West, and the development of the
country which demands timber all the time, and not only at certain
intervals, would have been retarded, if not stopped altogether.
[Illustration: Figure 6. A scene on one of the famous National Parks.
Upper Lake, Glacier National Park, Northern Rockies, Montana.]
How terrible the forest fires were in this western country is well
illustrated by what an old California settler once told me, and what I
have heard repeatedly in many Western States. He said: "In the years
before the Forest Service took over the care and protection of the
forests around here, the mountains within view of my ranch were not
visible for many months at a time, being almost continually enveloped
in smoke from the big forest fires that were raging in the forests all
summer without ever being under control. They started in the spring as
soon as it became dry and were not suppressed until the late fall rains
and snows put them out." But he added with great enthusiasm, "Since
the Service has taken charge the sky around here is as clear as crystal
all summer. I never see any forest fires, not even smoke, because the
Rangers seem to get to them before they get to be of any size." Such
testimony as this speaks volumes for the efficiency of the present
system of protecting the Forests from fire.
_The Watershed Cover Was Preserved._ The destruction of the forest cover
on the watersheds feeding thousands of streams which rise in the western
mountains would have had its bad effect on stream flow--low water
during the long dry periods, and destructive floods after heavy rains.
This condition of affairs would have meant disaster to the systems of
irrigation by which most of the western farmers raise their crops. It
would also have seriously impeded and in many cases prevented electric
power development, to say nothing of affecting the domestic water of
many of our large western cities whose drinking water comes from the
streams rising in the National Forests. The protection of these valuable
watersheds by the Forest Service from fire and destructive lumbering is
of such vital importance to the welfare of the nation that it has been
made one of the main reasons for establishing National Forests.
_Civilization Brought to the Mountains._ What the National Forest
movement has done for settling and building up the Western States
can hardly be overestimated. It has brought civilization into
the wilderness. Roads, trails, telephone lines, and other modern
conveniences have been brought to remote corners of the mountains. It
has encouraged the settlement of the country by calling attention to
the agricultural lands within the National Forests. More important than
that, it has assured the West permanent towns, permanent civilization,
and not a temporary, careless, shiftless civilization which vanishes
with the exploitation of resources, as it did under the old régime.
The improvements on the National Forests have benefited not only the
Forest officers for the administration of the Forests. They have helped
immensely the local population. The pleasure resorts as well as the
business of the Forests have been made more accessible. New trails have
opened up new and hitherto inaccessible country, where fishing, hunting,
and trapping are ideal. All the old and new roads and trails have been
well marked with sign boards giving the tourist detailed information
about distances between the various points of interest. Roads have
opened up new regions to automobiles and to the horse and wagon. In 1916
it was estimated that more than 2,000,000 people visited the National
Forests for recreation and pleasure. They came in automobiles, in
horse and wagon, on horseback, on mules, on burros, and in all sorts
of made-to-order contrivances, and the writer has even seen those
that could not afford anything better, pack their camp outfits in a
wheelbarrow and push it before them in their effort to leave the hot,
dusty valleys below, and go to the refreshing and invigorating Forests
of Uncle Sam. In addition to the large numbers of tourists that visit
the National Forests every year, over 100,000 persons or companies use
the National Forests. Of these a little more than half are paid users,
who are charged a fair fee for timber, grazing, or other privileges and
a little less than half enjoy free use privileges.
_Agricultural Lands Opened to Settlement._ The settlement of the
agricultural lands in the National Forests is a matter that has received
special attention at the hands of the Forest Service in late years. Land
more valuable for agriculture than for timber growing was excluded
from the National Forests before the boundaries were drawn, so far as
this was possible. Small tracts of agricultural land within the Forests
which could not be excluded are opened to settlement under the Forest
Homestead Act of June 11, 1906. The amount of land, however, that is
more valuable for agriculture than for timber is trifling, because the
greater part of the valuable land was already settled before the Forests
were created. The few small patches that are left inside of the National
Forest boundaries are rapidly being classified and opened to entry
for homesteads. Much of the land apparently adapted for agricultural
purposes has a severe climate because it lies at high altitudes and it
is often remote from roads, schools, villages, and markets. Therefore
the chance offered the prospective settler in the immediate vicinity of
the Forests is far better than in the Forests themselves. The Forest
Service is doing everything it can to encourage homesteaders on the
National Forests; it wants them because they help to report fires, help
to fight fires, and in many other ways assist the Forest officers.
_Permanent and Not Temporary Civilization Resulted._ Only those people
who have been brought up near a large lumbering center can appreciate
what it means when a town vanishes; when all that is left of a thriving
town of 5,000 or more souls is empty streets, empty houses, and heaps of
tin cans. In the days of the Golden Age of lumbering in Michigan many
towns flourished in the midst of the forests. These towns had thrifty,
busy people, with schools, churches, banks, and other conveniences.
These people were engaged in exploiting the forests. The beautiful white
pine forests were converted into boards at the rate of thousands of feet
every day. When these magnificent forests were laid low, the lumbermen
left to seek virgin timber elsewhere. They left behind them empty towns
and barren lands; only a few charred stumps remained to show where the
forests once stood. But this is not an incident peculiar to the Golden
Age of lumbering in Michigan. Even to-day this very thing is happening.
The town of Crossfork, Potter County, Pennsylvania, had a population
of over 2,500 souls in 1909. When the nearby timber was exhausted,
practically the whole town was abandoned. In 1913 it had a population of
50.
In direct contrast to this short-sighted policy of the State of Michigan
(and many others also) is the National Forest policy, which provides
for a future supply of forest products as well as a present supply;
which provides for work and homes and schools and churches for future
generations as well as for the present; which provides for a permanent
industry and not one that vanishes with the exploitation of the
resources of a region as snow vanishes under the warm rays of a spring
day. Lumbering even to-day is merely the removal of every vestige of
timber that has any sale value. But forestry, which is practiced on
the National Forests, removes only the mature trees, leaving the young
growth to be cut at some future time. Lumbering has been and is to-day
forest destruction; forestry is forest conservation under a system
of wise use. Lumbering is followed usually by fire, and often by an
entire impoverishment of the region in which it is carried on because
it destroys both the mature tree and the young growth; under a system
of forestry, cutting is followed by young, green forests which are
protected from fire for the benefit of future generations. Such a system
leaves the region and the industry in a permanent, good condition. The
county under the old system receives no more taxes after its wealth is
gone; but each county will receive taxes or money in lieu of taxes
every year as long as the National Forests shall endure.
[Illustration: Figure 7. The remains of the old boiler house. The
town once had a sawmill, planning mill, lath mill, besides modern
conveniences. All these are now gone after the forests have been cut.
Lemiston, Montmorency County, Michigan.]
[Illustration: Figure 8. Deserted houses, abandoned after the sawmill
left. These are the remains of what was once a prosperous town.
Lemiston, Montmorency County, Michigan.]
_Financial Returns._ All the benefits of which I have spoken are without
doubt great assets to the local community, to the State, and to the
nation as a whole. They are great contributions to the welfare of our
country even though they cannot be measured in dollars and cents. This
brings us then to the financial aspect of the National Forest movement.
Even though the fundamental purpose of the National Forests was in no
sense a financial one, it is interesting to look into the finances of
this great forestry enterprise.
The total regular appropriation for salaries, general expenses, and
improvements for the fiscal year 1918 is $5,712,275. For 1917 it was
slightly less than this: $5,574,735. The receipts from the sale or
rental of National Forest resources in the fiscal year 1917 reached
$3,457,028.41. From these figures it will be seen that the expenditures
exceed the receipts by between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 a year,
depending partly on the severity of the fire season and partly on the
activity of the general lumber market. When we consider that this is
really a newly established business scarcely twenty years old; that
large expenditure have been made and must necessarily be made every
year for equipment and improvements before the resources could even be
used; and that an efficient organization had to be built up to handle
the business, we must confess that the receipts are really a wonderful
showing.
When the Forest Reserves were taken over by the Government it could not
be expected that they would yield a revenue at the very outset, nor
could it be expected that even in the long space of twenty-five years
they could be made self-supporting. The reasons for this are many.
They are located for the most part in rugged, inaccessible mountains.
In the case of almost every Forest a great deal of money had to be
expended for roads, trails, telephone lines, fences, bridges, ranger
stations and other cabins, lookout structures, fire lines, and many
other improvements before the resources could even be used. Many of
the resources were practically locked up; there were no roads by which
to get them out of the wilderness. During the fiscal year 1916 alone
there were built 227 miles of roads, 1,975 miles of trails, 2,124 miles
of telephone lines, 89 miles of fire lines, 81 lookout structures,
40 bridges, 222 miles of fences, 545 dwellings, barns, and other
structures, and many other improvements. Up to date there have been
constructed over 3,000 miles of roads, over 25,000 miles of trails,
about 23,000 miles of telephone lines, 860 miles of firebreaks, about
360 forest fire lookout cabins and towers, and many other improvements.
Their total value is estimated at $7,000,000. And these vast
improvements are but a small percentage of the improvements which will
be necessary to be able to put these Forests to their highest use.
Not only must enormous sums be spent for improvements. The huge sums
which are spent for the protection of the great resources bring no
tangible return in dollars and cents; yet the fire protection system
prevents the destruction of millions of dollars' worth of timber every
year. Then again, when government timber lands are cut over, only
the mature trees are taken; the smaller trees, although they have a
commercial value, are left on the ground to mature because they will
have a still greater value in from forty to fifty years. This is merely
foregoing a small present revenue for a larger future one. Also many
National Forests have on them large areas of steep mountain slopes
where not a stick of timber is allowed to be cut. These areas are
maintained intact for watershed protection. In fact many of the Forests
of southern California are maintained solely for this purpose. These
Forests are covered almost entirely by a low bush-like growth called
"chaparral," which has no value either as timber or as browse, but which
has great value to preserve an equable stream flow for domestic use,
irrigation, and water power.
But there are still other reasons why the cash receipts from the
National Forests are not as large as they might be. In addition to the
cash receipts the equivalent of a large revenue is foregone every year
through the various forms of free use and the sale of timber to settlers
at cost instead of at its actual cash value. During the fiscal year
1917 approximately $150,000 worth of timber was given to settlers free
of cost. About 40,000 people were served under this policy. Also much
timber is sold at cost to settlers for domestic use. In this way over
4,400 persons received many millions of feet of timber whose cost value
was about $20,000, but whose sale value was much greater. The privilege
of grazing a small number of stock free of charge is granted to settlers
living on or near the Forests. The stock thus grazed amounts to about
125,000 animals every year. The Forests are also put to many special
uses for which no charge is made although their administration involves
some expense. Strict accounting should credit the fair value of such
uses to the receipts from the National Forests, for it is in effect
income which instead of being put into the treasury is made available
for the benefit of the people.
From what has been said it will be seen that a large part of the
benefits derived from the systematic administration of the National
Forests cannot be measured in dollars and cents. These benefits are
in effect privileges extended to the people who in return assist in
the protection of the Forests from fire and thus more than repay the
Government for what they receive. Even under the rather unfavorable
revenue producing conditions mentioned above, it is interesting to note
that in 1917 the receipts of thirty-two National Forests exceeded their
total expenditures. On fifteen others the receipts exceeded the cost of
protection and administration. In other words, one-third of the National
Forests are practically self-supporting.
_The New Eastern National Forests._ The great success with which the
National Forest policy was launched in the Western States was largely
responsible for the inauguration of a similar policy in the Appalachian
and White Mountains. The main purpose for which these forests are to be
acquired is to preserve a steady stream flow for water-power navigation
and domestic use, and to lessen the damage caused by floods and erosion.
These forests are of vital influence in controlling the flow of the
Merrimac, Connecticut, Androscoggin, Potomac, James, Santee, Savannah,
Tennessee, and Monongahela rivers. Some years ago the Merrimac drove
mills worth over $100,000,000, which employed over 80,000 people. Upon
these, it is said, 350,000 were dependent for support. In the Carolinas
and Georgia alone the cotton mills operated by water-power turn out an
annual product valued at almost $100,000,000. In these mills 60,000
people are employed, upon whom 250,000 are dependent for support. These
mills utilize 106,000 horsepower. The forests which control these waters
are therefore of great pecuniary value.
The Act of March 1, 1911, commonly known as the Weeks Law, made the
acquisition of forest lands in the Appalachian and White Mountains
possible. Up to June 30, 1917, over 1,500,000 acres have been approved
for purchase by the National Forest Reservation Commission. The Forest
Service has been designated as the bureau to examine and value such
lands as may be offered for purchase. The original appropriation was
$2,000,000 per year for five and one-half years, beginning the last half
of the fiscal year 1911. The Agricultural Appropriation Bill for the
fiscal year 1913 made the appropriation for 1912 and subsequent years
available until expended. A further appropriation of $3,000,000 was
provided later for the same purpose, to be expended during the fiscal
years 1917 and 1918. Under Section 2 of the same law coöperative fire
protection with the States was provided for. This section of the law
provided that the Forest Service should maintain a coöperative system
of forest fire protection with those States which have a law providing
for a system of fire protection for state and private forest lands upon
the watersheds of navigable streams. In no case was the amount to be
expended by the Forest Service to exceed the amount appropriated by
the State for the same purpose in any given fiscal year. The original
appropriation was $200,000 and subsequent appropriations have been for
$100,000 annually. Twenty-one States are coöperating with the Forest
Service in this way.
By the passage of the Weeks Bill, Congress has voiced the sentiment that
the forest fire problem, _even on private land_, is not only no longer
a private problem, is not even exclusively a state problem, but a joint
problem and duty to be borne by the State and nation. Forest fires are
now rightfully looked upon as a public enemy rather than a private
menace. This is a big step in the right direction, and it is hoped that
this same principle will be applied in the not too distant future to all
other matters dealing with private timber lands. If the protection of
these private timber lands is a public and not a private problem, then
certainly their management for continuity is a public problem. A timber
owner should not be allowed to cut his timber without the consent of the
Government, and the Government should see to it that he leaves the young
growth as a basis for a future crop or provides a new growth of timber
by planting young trees.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE vii
INTRODUCTION xiii
Forestry as a National Problem xiii
Our consumption of wood xiii
The lumber industry xiv
Our future lumber supply xv
Forests and stream flow xvi
Forests and erosion xvii
Forestry a public enterprise xviii
The Extent and Character of Our National Forests xix
How the Government obtained the National Forest lands xix
The romance of the National Forest region xx
Famous scenic wonders near the Forests xxii
The size and extent of the National Forests xxiv
The topography and climate of the National Forest
region xxvi
Why the National Forests were Created xxvii
How the National Forest Policy has Benefited the People xxx
The remaining timber resources were saved xxx
The use of forage and water resources was regulated xxxii
The Forests were protected from fire and trespass xxxv
The watershed cover was preserved xxxvii
Civilization brought to the mountains xxxviii
Agricultural lands opened to settlement xxxix
Permanent and not temporary civilization resulted xl
Financial returns xliii
The new eastern National Forests xlvii
I THE CREATION AND ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS 1
Economic Conditions Which Led to Forest Conservation 1
Prodigality leads finally to conservation 1
The march of forest destruction 2
Our lumber and water supply imperiled 5
The First Steps in Federal Forest Conservation 6
The upbuilding of the West 6
The Lake States first to act 7
The first federal steps 8
The Act of August 16, 1876 9
Further work under the Act 11
The First Forest Reserves Established March 30, 1891 12
The situation before 1891 12
The need of the forest policy 13
The Act of March 3, 1891 14
An Anomalous Condition--Forest Reserves Without Forest
Administration 14
The Need of Administration on the Reserves 14
More Reserves created 16
The Administration of the Reserves Under the General
Land Office 16
The Act of June 4, 1897 16
The Division of Forestry in 1898 18
The Bureau of Forestry 19
The Consolidation of the Forestry Work in the Department
of Agriculture in 1905 19
The Act of February 1, 1905 19
Early forestry education and literature 20
Changes in the Forest Service personnel 21
More National Forests created 21
The growth of the Forest Service 22
Recent modifications in the organization 23
The Present Organization of the Forest Service 24
The administrative districts 24
The Washington office 26
The district offices 28
II THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS 30
Personnel 31
Duties of forest officers 31
The Forest Supervisor 32
The Forest Assistant 34
The Forest Ranger 35
The Forest Clerk 38
Forest Service Meetings 39
How the Forest Service Appropriation is Allotted to the
National Forests 40
Forest Service expenses 40
The agricultural appropriation bill 42
The ranger's protection and improvement plans 42
The Supervisor's plans 43
Approval of plans by the District Forester 44
The district fiscal agent 45
Tax money paid to the states 46
The Equipment and Supplies for the National Forests 47
The property auditor and property clerk 47
Blank forms 48
Supplies 48
National Forest Improvements 49
The need of improvements 49
Transportation facilities 50
Communication facilities 53
Grazing improvements 56
Protection improvements 57
Appropriations for improvement work 58
The Classification and Consolidation of National Forest
Lands 61
Land classification 61
The consolidation of National Forest lands 63
How Young Forests are Planted to Replace Those Destroyed
by Fire 64
Reforestation and the timber supply 64
Reforestation and water supply 65
Government reforestation policy 67
Methods of reforestation 70
Direct seeding work on the National Forests 72
Planting on the National Forests 78
The Organization and Scope of Forest Experiments and
Investigations 83
The need of scientific experiments 83
The science of growing timber 84
Dendrological studies 86
Seed studies 87
Nursery studies 88
Forestation experiments 89
Studies of forest influences 89
Meteorological observations 91
Forest management studies 92
Forest protection studies 94
Protection from grazing damage 95
Protection from insects and diseases 96
Tree studies 97
Grazing investigations 98
Investigations dealing with poisonous plants and
predatory animals 102
National Forest utilization experiments 104
Forest Products Laboratory experiments 108
Industrial investigations 116
III THE PROTECTION OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS 120
Protection from Fire 120
Forest Fire danger on the National Forests 120
Importance of fire protection 121
Causes of forest fires on the National Forests 124
Behavior of forest fires 126
Losses by forest fires on the National Forests 126
The forest fire problem stated 128
Fire prevention 129
Fire suppression 133
How forest fire funds are distributed 134
Forest fire history 136
Relation of forest fires to the weather 137
Improvements and equipment for protection 138
Forest fire maps and charts 139
Forest fire organization 140
How fires are located 142
The fire fighting organization 144
Forest fire coöperation 146
Fighting forest fires 147
Protection Against Trespass, Forest Insects, Erosion,
and Other Agencies 150
Trespass 150
Forest insects 154
Tree diseases 159
Water supply 162
Public health 167
Violation of game laws 168
IV THE SALE AND RENTAL OF NATIONAL FOREST RESOURCES 170
The Sale and Disposal of National Forest Timber 170
Government Timber Sale Policy 171
Annual yield and cut 172
Timber reconnoissance 174
Logging the timber 176
The first step in purchasing government timber 180
Procedure in an advertised sale 180
Timber sale contract clauses 182
Special contract clauses 184
When the operation may begin 186
Marking the timber for cutting 186
Scaling, measuring, and stamping 188
Disposal of slash 190
Payment for timber 192
Stumpage rates 193
Cutting period 194
Readjustment of Stumpage rates 194
Refunds 194
The Disposal of timber to Homestead Settlers and Under
Free Use 195
Sales to homestead settlers and farmers 195
Free Use 195
Timber Settlement and Administrative Use 198
The Rental of National Forest Range Lands 200
Importance of the live-stock industry 200
Permits issued in 1917 201
Kinds of range, grazing seasons, and methods
handling stock 202
Grazing districts and grazing units 205
Who are entitled to grazing privileges 207
Grazing permits 211
Grazing fees 214
Stock associations 215
Protective and maximum limits 216
Prohibition of grazing 218
Protection of grazing interests 219
Special Uses 220
Claims and Settlement 223
The National Forest Homestead Act 224
The mining laws 229
Coal-land laws 230
Administrative Use of National Forest Lands 230
Water Power, Telephone, Telegraph, and Power
Transmission Lines 230
APPENDIX 233
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1. An observation point for finding forest fires.
Vigilance is the watchword on the National Forests. During
During 1916 forest officers extinguished 5,655 forest
fires. Photo by the author _Frontispiece_
FACING
PAGE
Figure 2. A typical National Forest landscape in the
high mountains. Potosi Peak, 13,763 feet, from Yankee Boy
Basin, Uncompahgre National Forest, Ouray County, Colorado xviii
Figure 3. The climate of most of the National Forests
is severe. This view was taken in the early summer and
shows the high mountains still covered with snow. Most of
the National Forest lands are therefore of small value for
agriculture. Photo by Abbey xxviii
Figure 4. On many high mountains on the National
Forests snow banks persist throughout the summer. This
view was taken in the latter part of August. Lassen
National Forest, California. Photo by the author xxviii
Figure 5. The Big Trees. "Mother of the Forest" in the
background. North Calaveras Grove, California xxxii
Figure 6. A scene on one of the famous National Parks.
Upper Lake, Glacier National Park, Northern Rockies,
Montana xxxvi
Figure 7. The remains of the old boiler house. The
town once had a sawmill, planing mill, lath mill, besides
modern conveniences. All these are now gone after the
forests have been cut. Lemiston, Montmorency County,
Michigan xlii
Figure 8. Deserted houses, abandoned after the sawmill
left. These are the remains of what was once a prosperous
town. Lemiston, Montmorency County, Michigan xlii
Figure 9. Forest officers in front of the Forest
Supervisor's summer headquarters. Note the many telephone
wires that lead from the office. This is 50 miles from the
railroad. Lassen National Forest, California 32
Figure 10. Scene in front of the Forest Supervisor's
headquarters. Sheep leaving the National Forest summer
range in the fall to go to winter range in the valley.
Lassen National Forest, California 32
Figure 11. Forest officers and lumberjacks burning
the slash resulting from a timber sale. The snow on the
ground makes the burning less dangerous. Washakie National
Forest, Wyoming. Photo by the author 38
Figure 12. Forest officers at a winter timber-cruising
camp repairing snow shoes. Besides cruising the timber,
these men make a logging map of the government lands, to
show how the timber can best be taken out. Lassen National
Forest, California. Photo by the author 38
Figure 13. A forest fire lookout tower on Leek Springs
Mountain, Eldorado National Forest, California 50
Figure 14. A typical Forest Ranger's headquarters.
Idlewood Ranger Station, Arapaho National Forest, Colorado 52
Figure 15. A typical view of the National Forest
country in Montana. Forest Service trail up Squaw Peak
Patrol Station, Cabinet National Forest 54
Figure 16. Forest Rangers repairing a bridge over a
mountain stream. Arapaho National Forest, Colorado 56
Figure 17. A forest fire lookout station on the top
of Lassen Peak, elevation 10,400 feet, Lassen National
Forest, California. The cabin was first erected complete
in a carpenter's shop in Red Bluff, about 50 miles away.
It was then taken to pieces and packed to the foot of
Lassen Peak. On the last two miles of its journey it
was packed piece by piece on forest officers' backs
and finally reassembled on the topmost pinnacle of the
mountain. Photo by the author 58
Figure 18. Forest officers and laborers building a
wagon road through trap rock. Payette National Forest,
Idaho 58
Figure 19. Drying pine cones preparatory to extracting
the seed. Near Plumas National Forest, California 66
Figure 20. Extracting tree seed from the cones. The
dried cones are shaken around until the seeds drop out
through the wire mesh which forms the sides of the machine 66
Figure 21. Preparing the ground with a spring-tooth
harrow for the broadcast sowing of tree seeds. Battlement
National Forest, Colorado. This view was taken at
approximately 10,000 feet elevation. Photo by the author 70
Figure 22. A local settler delivering a load of
Lodgepole pine cones at the seed extractory, for which he
receives 45 cents per bushel. Forest officers receiving
them, Arapaho National Forest, Colorado 70
Figure 23. In a forest nursery a trough is often used
for sowing seeds in drills. The seed scattered along the
sides of the trough rattles into position at the bottom
and is more even than when distributed by the ordinary
worker at the bottom of the trough. Pike National Forest,
Colorado 72
Figure 24. Uncle Sam grows the little trees by the
millions. These will soon cover some of the bare hillsides
on the National Forests of the West 72
Figure 25. One of the largest Forest Service nurseries
where the young trees are given the utmost care before
they are large and strong enough to endure the rigorous
climate of the National Forests. McCloud Nursery, Shasta
National Forest, California 76
Figure 26. A view of seed sowing with a corn planter.
San Isabel National Forest, Colorado 78
Figure 27. Sowing seed along contour lines on the
slopes. Pike National Forest, Colorado 78
Figure 28. A planting crew at work setting out small
trees. The man ahead digs the hole, and the man behind
plants the tree. Wasatch National Forest, Utah 82
Figure 29. At the Fort Valley Forest Experiment
Station, Coconino National Forest, Arizona. A typical
meteorological station. Forest officer measuring
precipitation. Note the shelter which contains
thermometers and also the electrically equipped
instruments to record the direction and velocity of the
wind 90
Figure 30. Forest officer ascertaining the amount of
evaporation from a free water surface. Fort Valley Forest
Experiment Station, Flagstaff, Arizona 90
Figure 31. Forest Ranger with his pack horses
traveling over his district. Meadow Creek, foot of Mt.
Wilson, Montezuma National Forest, Colorado 102
Figure 32. A plank of Incense cedar affected by a
disease known as "pin rot." By cutting the cedar timber
when it is mature this can be largely avoided. Lassen
National Forest, California. Photo by the author 114
Figure 33. The western pine forests will some day
be a great source for naval stores. By distilling
the crude resin of the Jeffrey pine a light volatile
oil--abietene--is secured which has great healing and
curative properties. Lassen National Forest, California.
Photo by the author 114
Figure 34. A forest fire lookout station at the summit
of Mt. Eddy. Mt. Shasta in the background. California 124
Figure 35. A forest fire lookout station on the
summit of Brokeoff Mountain, elevation 9,500 feet. Lassen
National Forest, California. Photo by the author 128
Figure 36. Turner Mountain lookout station, Lassen
National Forest, California. This is a 10 ft. by 10 ft.
cabin with a stove and with folding bed, table, and
chairs. The forest officer stationed here watches for
forest fires day and night throughout the fire season.
Photo by the author 128
Figure 37. A fire line cut through the low bush-like
growth of "Chaparral" on the Angeles National Forest,
California. This "Chaparral" is of great value for
regulating stream flow. The streams are used for water
power, domestic purposes, and for irrigating many of the
largest lemon and orange groves of southern California 132
Figure 38. A forest officers' temporary camp while
fighting forest fires. Near Oregon National Forest, Oregon 132
Figure 39. Putting out a ground fire. Even if the fire
does not burn the standing timber, it kills the young
trees and so weakens the larger ones that they are easily
blown over. Wallowa National Forest, Oregon 136
Figure 40. Forest officers ready to leave a tool
box for a forest fire in the vicinity. Such tool boxes
as these are stationed at convenient places on National
Forests ready for any emergency. Arapaho National Forest,
Colorado 136
Figure 41. A forest fire on the Wasatch National
Forest, Utah. Forest officers trying to stop a forest fire
by cutting a fire line. Note the valuable growth of young
trees which they are trying to save at the right 140
Figure 42. A forest fire running in dense underbrush
on one of the National Forests in Oregon 144
Figure 43. Men in a dense forest with heavy
undergrowth clearing away brush to stop the fire as it is
running down hill. Crater National Forest, Oregon 144
Figure 44. Fire in a Lodgepole pine forest in
Colorado. Arapaho National Forest, Colorado 148
Figure 45. A mountain fire in "Chaparral" five hours
after it started. Pasadena, California 148
Figure 46. A few years ago this was a green, luxuriant
forest. Picture taken after the great fires of August 20,
1910, on the Coeur d'Alene National Forest near Wallace,
Idaho 152
Figure 47. The first evidence of insect attack are
the reddish brown pitch tubes on the bark. Lodgepole pine
infested by the mountain pine beetle. Lassen National
Forest, California. Photo by the author 156
Figure 48. The last stage of an insect-attacked tree.
The tree is dead and the dry bark is falling off. Lassen
National Forest, California. Photo by the author 156
Figure 49. Wrecked farm buildings due to flood of May
21, 1901, Nolichucky River, near Erwin, Tenn. This is one
result of denuding the Appalachian Mountains of their
forest cover 162
Figure 50. When steep hillsides are stripped of
their forest growth, erosion results. Erosion has been
especially serious in the Appalachian Mountains. View
taken in Madison County, North Carolina 162
Figure 51. A fertile corn-field covered with sand,
gravel and débris brought down from the mountains by
floods. These farm lands are ruined beyond redemption.
This could have been prevented by preserving the forests
on the watershed of this river 166
Figure 52. A view towards Mt. Adams and the headwaters
of Lewis River. Council Lake in the foreground. National
forest lands lie at the headwaters of practically every
large western river. This means that the water supply for
the western people used for domestic use, water power,
and irrigation is being protected from pollution and
destruction. View taken on the Rainier National Forest,
Washington 172
Figure 53. A large storage reservoir used to irrigate
the ranches in the valley below. Elevation 10,500 feet.
Battlement National Forest, Colorado. Photo by the author 176
Figure 54. A sheep herder's camp used temporarily by
Forest Service timber cruisers. Elevation about 10,000
feet. Battlement National Forest, Colorado. Photo by
author. 176
Figure 55. View taken in the Coast Range mountains
of California where Sugar pine and Douglas fir and the
principal trees. Klamath National Forest, California.
Photo by the author 180
Figure 56. A typical mountain scene in the California
Coast Range. On these steep slopes a forest cover is of
vital importance. Klamath National Forest, California.
Photo by the author 180
Figure 57. A forest officer at work on a high mountain
peak making a plane-table survey and timber estimate of
National Forest lands. Photo by the author 182
Figure 58. A government timber cruiser's summer camp.
These cruisers get a fairly accurate estimate of Uncle
Sam's timber resources at a cost of from 2 to 5 cents an
acre. Photo by the author 182
Figure 59. Forest officers moving camp while engaged
in winter reconnoissance work. All food, beds, and
clothing are packed on "Alaska" sleds and drawn by the men
themselves. Photo by the author 184
Figure 60. A winter reconnoissance camp showing
snow-shoes, skis, "Alaska" sleds, and bull hide used to
repair the webbing on the snow-shoes. Lassen National
Forest, California. Photo by the author 184
Figure 61. A group of giant redwoods. Santa Cruz
County, California 186
Figure 62. A big Sugar pine tree about six feet in
diameter. This is the most valuable timber species in
California. Photo by the author 188
Figure 63. A Western Yellow pine forest in California.
These trees are from four to six feet in diameter and
from 150 to 200 feet high. Note the Forest Service timber
cruiser measuring the tree at the left. Photo by the
author. 188
Figure 64. Logging in California. Powerful steam
engines pull the logs from the woods to the railroad and
load them on flat cars. Photo by the author 190
Figure 65. The loaded flat cars reach the sawmill
where the logs are unloaded and sawn into lumber. During
the fiscal year 1917 timber sales on the National Forests
brought into the National Treasury almost $1,700,000.00.
Photo by the author 190
Figure 66. Scene in Montana. Forest officers
constructing a telephone line through the Flathead
National Forest 192
Figure 67. Forest Ranger, accompanied by a lumberman,
marking National Forest timber for cutting in a timber
sale. Coconino National Forest, Arizona 192
Figure 68. An excellent illustration showing the
difference between unrestricted logging as practiced by
lumbermen, and conservative logging as practiced by the
Forest Service. In the foreground is the unrestricted
logging which strips the soil of every stick of timber
both large and small; in the background is the Forest
Service logging area which preserves the young growth to
insure a future supply of timber for the West. Bitterroot
National Forest, Montana 194
Figure 69. View showing the Forest Service method of
piling the brush and débris after logging, and also how
stump heights are kept down to prevent waste. New Mexico 196
Figure 70. A tie-cutting operation on a National
Forest. These piles of railroad ties are being inspected,
stamped, and counted by Forest rangers. From this point
the ties are "skidded" to the banks of a stream to be
floated to the shipping point. Near Evanston, Wyoming 196
Figure 71. Brush piles on a cut-over area before
burning. Forest Service methods aim to clean up the forest
after logging so that forest fires have less inflammable
material to feed on. Bitterroot National Forest, Montana 198
Figure 72. At a time of the year when there is least
danger from fire the brush piles are burned. Missoula
National Forest, Montana 198
Figure 73. Counting sheep as they leave the corral.
Sheep and cattle are pastured on the National Forests at
so many cents per head, hence they must be counted before
they enter in the spring. Wasatch National Forest, Utah 208
Figure 74. Logging National Forest timber. Santa Fe
National Forest, New Mexico 208
Figure 75. Sheep grazing on the Montezuma National
Forest at the foot of Mt. Wilson, Colorado. Over 7,500,000
sheep and goats grazed on the National Forests during the
fiscal year 1917 216
Figure 76. Grazing cattle on a National Forest in
Colorado. Permits were issued during 1917 to graze over
2,000,000 cattle, horses, and swine on the National
Forests 216
Figure 77. North Clear Creek Falls, Rio Grande
National Forest, Colorado. The National Forests contain
about one-third of all the potential water-power resources
of the United States 230
Figure 78. The power plant of the Colorado Power
Company, on the Grand River, Holy Cross National Forest,
Colorado. Every fiscal year there is a substantial
increase in water power development on the National
Forests 230
Figure 79. This is only one of the thousands of
streams in the National Forests of the West capable of
generating electric power. It has been estimated that over
40 per cent. of the water resources of the Western States
are included in the National Forests. Photo by the author 232
Figure 80. View in the famous orange belt of San
Bernardino County, California. These orchards depend
absolutely upon irrigation. The watersheds from which
the necessary water comes are in the National Forests
and are protected by the Forest Service. Some of the
smaller watersheds in these mountains are said to irrigate
orchards valued at $10,000,000 232
OUR NATIONAL FORESTS
CHAPTER I
THE CREATION AND ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS WHICH LED TO FOREST CONSERVATION
In order that the reader may fully appreciate the gigantic task that
has been accomplished in bringing the National Forest administration
and organization to its present state of development, it is necessary
to briefly sketch the conditions that led up to the inauguration of the
Federal Forest Policy before we stop to consider that policy and the
establishment and organization of National Forests.
_Prodigality Leads Finally to Conservation._ Every great movement,
which has for its object the betterment of the lot of mankind, lags far
behind the times. There must be an actual economic need before a new
movement can be expected to take root and flourish. Forest conservation
had no place in the household economy of nations that had forests in
superabundance. Their forests were used with prodigality. It seems to be
a great human failing to use natural resources lavishly when the supply
is apparently unlimited, and to practice frugality only when the end of
a resource is in sight. Thus we find in the pages of forestry history
that all nations have begun to husband their forest resources only after
having felt the pinch of want. In our country history repeats itself and
our federal policy of forest conservation properly begins at the time
that the national conscience was awakened to the realization that if we
did not practice economy with our forest resources we would some day be
without an adequate supply of timber and forage, and be confronted with
other dangers and calamities that follow the destruction of forests.
_The March of Forest Destruction._ When the London Company settled at
Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 it found that unlimited pine and hardwood
forests confronted it on every side. Nor did these early settlers ever
find a way out of this forested wilderness except by clearings made with
the ax. When the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Cape Cod in 1620 they found
similar forests stretching in all directions from their town-site. After
the Atlantic seaboard became pretty well settled the home-builders began
moving westward through New York, Pennsylvania, and what is now Ohio.
Still nothing but unbroken, virgin forests were encountered. Westward to
the Mississippi civilization advanced and still forests reigned supreme.
Then the Middle West, the Rocky Mountain region, and finally the Pacific
Coast regions were settled. During 140 years civilization has spread
from coast to coast and of that vast wilderness of forest there is left
only a remnant here and there. The giant pines that sheltered De Soto
and his thousand followers on their ill-fated expedition in 1541 to
the Mississippi River have long since disappeared. Along the Allegheny
and Appalachian ranges the vast forests that once harbored the hostile
Narragansetts and Iroquois are now but a memory. The giant oak, ash, and
cypress forests of the Mississippi Valley are rapidly being decimated
by the big sawmills that work night and day to outdo each other. In
the north the dense and magnificent forests of white pine that greeted
Father Marquette, when he planted his missionary station at Sault Ste.
Marie in 1668, have been laid low. Unproductive wastes, sandy barrens,
and useless underbrush now greet the eye. In fact the pine forests which
covered the greater part of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota have been
leveled by the woodman's ax. The army of lumbermen has moved now to the
Coast to again turn virgin timberlands into unproductive wastes.
Thus forest destruction has followed civilization. Statistics show
very vividly how gradually one large lumbering center after another
has become exhausted, often leaving behind desolation and business
depression. In these large centers thriving towns sprang up only to
disappear again after the removal of the forest wealth. In 1850 about 55
per cent, of the annual cut of lumber came from the New England States;
even as late as 1865 New York furnished more lumber than any State in
the Union. By 1890 Michigan had reached the zenith of its production and
in that year the Lake States furnished 36 per cent. of the lumber cut.
By 1909 the Southern States had increased their cut to over 50 per cent.
of the total of the country. In 1913 the cut of the State of Washington
was the largest ever recorded for that State or for any other State,
even outdoing Michigan during its Golden Age. In 1915 about 20 per cent.
of the cut came from the Coast but the South still furnished almost 50
per cent.
_Our Lumber and Water Supply Imperiled._ In our prodigal use of our
forest resources we have become the most lavish users of wood in the
world. While the annual consumption per capita for France is about 25
cubic feet, and that of Germany about 40 cubic feet, our per capita
consumption is in the neighborhood of 250 cubic feet. And the most
terrible thing about our reckless methods has been that we have wasted
by crude lumbering methods and we have let great forest fires consume
many times as much lumber as we have used. There have been vast public
and private losses through unnecessary forest fires which not only
consumed millions of dollars' worth of timber every year, but which
also cost the lives of thousands of settlers. Then, as every one knows,
by being grossly negligent with our forests, our rivers have visited
their wrath upon the unfortunate people in the valleys. Many streams
have become raging torrents in the spring and only chains of stagnant
pools in the summer, thus destroying their value for water power and
irrigation. Cotton mills, which formerly used water power all the year
round, now must depend upon more expensive steam power generated by coal
to keep their mills running in times of water shortage, while during
high water there is the great danger that the entire factory might be
swept away.
THE FIRST STEPS IN FEDERAL FOREST CONSERVATION.
Gradually the national conscience became awakened to the need of a more
rational use of our forest resources. But it was not until after the
Civil War that the first steps were taken. As was to be expected, the
States in which forest destruction had reached its worst stages were the
first to attempt to mend their ways, thus leading the way along which
the Federal Government was soon to follow.
_The Upbuilding of the West._ The decade following the Civil War is
marked by the construction of some of our great trans-continental
railroads and the consequent development of the great western country.
In fact between 1865 and 1875 the railroad mileage of the United States
doubled. The first trans-continental railroad, the Union Pacific, was
completed in 1869. Others soon followed. To encourage construction and
settlement vast tracts of land were granted to the railroad companies
by the Government, and with the land much valuable timber passed from
government ownership. After the construction of the railroads towns
and villages sprang up like mushrooms. As was to be expected with this
increased development the destruction of our forests received an added
impetus. The Lake States, then the center of the lumber industry, began
to take alarm at the rapidity with which their hillsides were being
denuded. Destructive lumbering, usually followed by devastating forest
fires, was fast decimating the virgin pine forests. The young growth
that had escaped the lumberman's ax fell a prey to forest fires which
soon took the form of annual conflagrations. As the population increased
the new sections of the country were settled, and as manufacturing
operations were extended timber was getting higher in price.
_The Lake States First to Act._ The first attempt to remedy the
situation was made by the State of Wisconsin. In 1867 the Wisconsin
legislature suggested a committee who should report upon the
destruction of Wisconsin's forests. The next year Michigan took a
similar step and in 1869 the Maine legislature began to look into their
waning supply by appointing a committee to estimate the standing timber
of the State. As early as this observations and calculations upon the
rate of consumption of lumber pointed to a not far distant wood famine.
_The First Federal Steps._ The first step taken by the federal
authorities was at the urgent request of the Statistician of the
Department of Agriculture in 1870. At that time lands were recognized as
being either "improved" or "unimproved" farm lands. He recommended that
the category of "unimproved farm lands" be subdivided into "woodlands"
and "other unimproved lands." By thus dividing off woodlands from other
unimproved farm lands more attention was concentrated upon the former.
This attention was manifested in the investigations that followed
shortly in which it was estimated that 39 per cent. of the area of the
country was in woodland. This was the first and most logical step toward
taking an inventory of our forest resources.
Another early attempt to assist in forest conservation was an attempt
to reforest the treeless plains of our Western States. On March 3, 1873,
the Timber Culture Act was passed by Congress by which the planting to
timber of 40 acres of land in the treeless territories conferred the
title to 160 acres of public domain. At first this act seemed to work
out as intended but it did not take very many years before it proved
a dismal failure. Settlers had no knowledge of planting trees; the
restrictions of the act could not be enforced, and the act was open to
other abuses. The act was finally repealed in 1891. Many similar laws
for encouraging the planting of timber were passed by the legislatures
of some of the Middle Western States, but all met with little success.
In 1874 Nebraska inaugurated Arbor Day. By this act of the legislature
the second Wednesday in April of each year was set aside for planting
trees. Other States have followed the example of Nebraska, so that
to-day almost every State provides one day in the year for planting
trees. Thus Arbor Day has become practically a national institution.
_The Act of August 16, 1876._ The first constructive piece of
legislation enacted by the Congress of the United States was the Act
of August 16, 1876. This was the first of a series of Acts passed by
Congress which, although occurring many years apart in some cases,
put forest conservation upon a firm basis. Under the first act the
Commissioner of Agriculture was directed:
"To appoint some man of approved attainments who is
practically well acquainted with methods of statistical inquiry
and who has evinced an intimate acquaintance with questions
relating to the national wants in regard to timber, to prosecute
investigations and inquiries with the view of ascertaining the
annual amount of consumption, importation, and exportation of
timber and other forest products; the probable supply for future
wants; the means best adapted to their preservation and renewal;
the influence of forests upon climate and the means that have
been successfully applied in foreign countries, or that may
be deemed applicable in this country for the preservation and
restoration or planting of forests, and to report upon the same
to the Commissioner of Agriculture, to be by him in a separate
report transmitted to Congress."
Dr. Franklin B. Hough, an active, untiring, and intelligent scholar, was
the first man to be appointed by this act. As Commissioner of Forestry
he prepared the first report and submitted it to Congress. The next
year, in 1877, Congress granted its first appropriation of $6,000, "for
the purpose of obtaining other facts and information preparatory to
establishing a Division of Forestry."
_Further Work Under the Act._ The office of Commissioner of Forestry
gradually enlarged the scope of its duties and functions. Five years
later, due to the ever-increasing importance of the subject, a distinct
division, the Division of Forestry, was established in the Department
of Agriculture. The duties and powers of this Division were "to devote
itself exclusively to such investigations of the subject as would
tend to the fullest development of the resources of the country in
that respect, to discover the best methods of managing and preserving
our waning forests and to maintain in all its bearings the universal
interest involved in that industry."
In 1881 an agent of the Department was sent to Europe to study the work
of forestry there. In 1882 the American Forestry Congress was organized.
This organization had for its object the discussion and dissemination of
the important facts of forestry, and while strictly a private body, had
a considerable influence in later years in educating the people to the
needs of forestry and in helping to establish a rational forest policy
in the United States. Its first meeting took place in Cincinnati. At a
second meeting held the same year in Montreal the name was changed to
the American Forestry Association and since then has been the center
of all private efforts to advance the forestry movement. In 1898 this
association began the publication of a propagandist journal which is now
called _American Forestry_. In 1884 the duty of making experiments with
timber was added to the functions of the Division. The next year the
collecting and distribution of valuable economic tree seeds was begun.
In 1886 the study of the biology of some of our important timber trees
was taken up, while in the following year silvicultural problems first
engaged the attention of the Division.
THE FIRST FOREST RESERVES ESTABLISHED MARCH 30, 1891
_The Situation Before 1891._ Before 1891 the Division of Forestry was
simply a bureau of information. In general the information supplied
was of a twofold nature. It was technical in so far as it related
to the management of private woodlands and statistical in so far as
the knowledge of the conditions of our forest resources induced the
application of forestry principles. Up to that date Congress had
neither appropriated enough money for efficient outdoor work nor did
she attempt to put any government woodlands under the control of the
Division. Therefore there had been no management because there were no
forests to manage. This one-sided development of the forestry work of
the Division was greatly impeding a rational development of the forest
conservation movement.
_The Need of a Forest Policy._ The need for a well-defined forest
policy with respect to the government forest lands now began to be
felt. Railroad land grants, the Homestead Act, Preëmption claims, and
the Timber and Stone Act were taking much valuable timberland out of
government ownership. People secured claims under these acts merely
for the timber that was on them. The purposes of the laws and acts
of Congress were being fraudulently evaded. Also the Government had
restrictive and protective laws in regard to its lands, but it could not
enforce them on account of lack of appropriations with which to maintain
an administrative and protective organization. The time was now ripe for
an executive policy to manage the woodlands that still remained in the
possession of the Government before it was too late to save what was
left.
_The Act of March 3, 1891._ The Division of Forestry was designed by
the nature of its duties to be more than a bureau of information.
The existence of a governmental department to promulgate forestry
principles while the Government itself had made no provision to apply
such principles to its own permanent timberlands was an incongruity that
suggested further legislative action. This was in part supplied by the
law of March 3, 1891, which conferred upon the President the power to
establish Forest Reservations. The first exercise of power under this
act was the presidential proclamation creating the Yellowstone Park
Timber Land Reserve under President Harrison on March 30, 1891. This
was probably the wisest step yet taken in the development of a National
Forest policy; but, unfortunately, the act left the Division simply a
bureau of information as it was before.
AN ANOMALOUS CONDITION--FOREST RESERVES WITHOUT FOREST ADMINISTRATION
_The Need of Administration on the Reserves._ At first thought it
will be seen that this piece of legislation must necessarily remain
inoperative unless it were followed by the establishment of a proper
administration of the Reserves based upon sound forestry principles.
Furthermore, the law withdrew from public use all such lands that might
be acquired under it. It was now easy for the Government to acquire
lands; the question that next presented itself was how to protect and
regulate the use of these new acquisitions. Forest protection cannot be
secured without forest rangers and forest guards; nor forest management
without technical foresters. The very reasons for establishing the
Reserves would point to the absolute need of a system of managing them.
These reasons were briefly:
"to prevent annual conflagrations; to prevent useless
destruction of life and property by fires, etc.; to provide
benefit and revenue from the sale of forest products, fuels,
and timbers; to administer this resource for future benefit; to
increase the stock of game; to promote the development of the
country; to give regular employment to a professional staff; to
secure continuous supplies of wood and to get the maximum amount
of good from each acre."
Such arguments as these assume the presence of a force of men to protect
and administrate these Reserves.
_More Reserves Created._ In spite of this serious fault in the Act of
March 3, 1891, more Forest Reservations were created. By 1894 Presidents
Harrison and Cleveland had created about 17,500,000 acres and on a
single day, February 22, 1897, President Cleveland proclaimed over
20,000,000 acres. By the close of 1897 a total of almost 40,000,000
acres of Forest Reserves had been established.
During the six years following the law giving the President power
to establish Reserves, the Reserves were under the jurisdiction of
the General Land Office. The appropriations of Congress were small,
amounting to less than $30,000 annually. Such appropriations were used
mainly for testing timber strength and the conditions affecting quality.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE RESERVES UNDER THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE
_The Act of June 4, 1897._ The Secretary of the Interior in 1896
requested the National Academy of Sciences, the legally constituted
advisor of the Government in scientific matters, to investigate, report
upon, and recommend a National Forest policy. This resulted in the Act
of June 4, 1897, under which, with subsequent amendments, the National
Forests are now being administered. Under this act the Reserves remained
in the hands of the General Land Office, Department of the Interior. It
charged this office with the administration and protection of the Forest
Reservations. Later the Geological Survey was charged with surveying and
mapping them, and the Division of Forestry was asked to give technical
advice. It is very evident that the Division of Forestry containing all
the trained scientific staff had no relation to the government forestry
work except as the offices of the Department of the Interior might apply
for assistance or advice. It is true that an important step had been
taken, but the complete separation of the administration by the General
Land Office and the force of trained men in the Division of Forestry was
a serious defect.
The Act of June 4 might be called the Magna Charta of national
forestry. The U. S. Geological Survey undertook the task of surveying,
classifying, and describing the Forest Reservations. At a cost of
about one and one-half million dollars over 70,000,000 acres of Forest
Reserves were mapped and described. The General Land Office undertook
the administration and Forest Superintendents and Rangers were appointed
to take charge of the Reservations. The rules and regulations for
administering the Reserves were formulated by the Commissioner of the
General Land Office.
_The Division of Forestry in 1898._ On July 1, 1898, the Division of
Forestry employed 11 persons, 6 clerical and 5 scientific. There were
also some collaborators and student assistants. There was no field
equipment and no field work. But in the fall of 1898 an important
step was taken. From that time on the Division of Forestry offered
practical assistance to forest owners and thus it shifted its field of
activity from the desk to the woods. The lumbermen were met on their
own grounds and actual forest management for purely commercial ends was
undertaken by well known lumbermen. From that time dates the solution of
specific problems of forest management and the development of efficient
methods of attacking them. The work of the Division at this time,
therefore, consisted of activities along 4 distinct lines: (1) that of
working plans, (2) that of economic tree planting, (3) that of special
investigations, and (4) that of office work. Thus it will be seen, even
at this late date the Division had practically nothing to say about the
scientific forestry methods which should be used on the Reservations.
_The Bureau of Forestry._ In 1901 the Division of Forestry was raised
to the rank of a Bureau, but this was a change in name only and carried
with it no change in the handling of the Government's vast forest
resources.
THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE FORESTRY WORK IN THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
IN 1905
_The Act of February 1, 1905._ The necessity of consolidating the
various branches of government forest work became apparent and was urged
upon Congress by President Roosevelt and by the executive officers
concerned. This was finally accomplished by the act of February 1, 1905,
by which entire jurisdiction over the Forest Reserves was transferred
to the Secretary of Agriculture. Matters of surveying and passage of
title, however, were still kept under the jurisdiction of the General
Land Office. By this act the Division of Forestry for the first time in
its career became an administrative organization. On July 1 of the same
year the Bureau of Forestry became the Forest Service and in 1907 the
change of name from "Forest Reserves" to "National Forests" was made to
correct the impression that the forests were like reserves which had
been withdrawn from use.
_Early Forestry Education and Literature._ The Act of February 1,
1905, was the final step which established the federal policy with
regard to our National Forests. At this stage it will be interesting
to note briefly the status of the science of American Forestry and
of forestry education. As late as the spring of 1898 there was no
science or literature on American Forestry, nor could education in
the subject be procured in the country. But soon thereafter several
forestry schools were established, namely, Cornell Forestry School in
1898, Yale School of Forestry and Biltmore Forest School in 1899, and
the University of Michigan Forestry School in 1903. The beginning of
the twentieth century saw the first professional foresters graduated
and taking upon themselves the task of applying scientific forestry
methods to the National Forests. Further evidence of the growth of the
profession of forestry was the organization of the Society of American
Foresters in 1900. The first professional journal was started in 1902
as the _Forestry Quarterly_, and other scientific forestry literature
was issued by the Government. The scientific knowledge gathered in the
field work since 1898 has taken the form of a rapidly growing literature
on the subject which has formed the basis of the science of American
Forestry.
_Changes in the Forest Service Personnel._ By 1905 the work of the
Forest Service had increased to such an extent that the number of
employees was increased to 821. With the opening of the forestry
schools, professional foresters became available and the National
Forests then began to be put into the hands of expert scientific men.
Gradually the old type of untrained, non-scientific woodsman is being
replaced by the trained forester. In addition, the entire force was
made a part of the classified Civil Service and the plan of political
appointees was banished forever.
_More National Forests Created._ While the administration of the
National Forests was being adjusted the area of National Forests was
constantly being increased. To the 40,000,000 acres of Reserves set
aside by Presidents Harrison and Cleveland before 1897, President
McKinley added over 7,000,000 acres until 1901. When Roosevelt became
President the National Forest policy received an added impetus and
vigor. Being a great lover of the out-of-door-life and being especially
well acquainted, on account of his extensive travels, with the great
western country, President Roosevelt threw his powerful influence into
the balance. With the close coöperation of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, his warm
personal friend, and at that time the Chief Forester, Mr. Roosevelt
set aside between 1901 and 1909 over 148,000,000 acres of National
Forests, more than three times as much as had been set aside by all his
predecessors together. Since 1909 a careful adjustment of the boundaries
has been going on, both Presidents Taft and Wilson adding small areas
here and there, which were found valuable for forestry purposes, or
eliminating small areas found to have no value. Acts of Congress passed
since 1907 prohibit the addition by the President to the National
Forests already established in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho,
Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. Additions can be made in these States
only by special act of Congress. A number of such acts have been passed;
some of them upon petitions of the people in these States.
_The Growth of the Forest Service._ The growth of the Forest Service
between 1897 and 1917 is little short of marvelous. The number of its
employees has increased from 61 in 1898 to 3,544 on June 30, 1917. The
annual appropriations have increased from less than $30,000 in 1897 to
$5,712,275 for the fiscal year 1918. But besides this appropriation
for 1918 the Weeks Law calls for an expenditure of $2,100,000 and the
Federal Aid Road Act for $1,000,000 more. The receipts of the National
Forests have also increased by leaps and bounds. In 1897 the receipts
were practically negligible in amount but by 1906 they had reached
approximately $800,000. In the fiscal year 1917 they were more than
$3,457,000.
_Recent Modifications in the Organization._ Further slight modifications
in the organization, as established in 1905, were made since that
date. Before 1908 all the work of the Forests was supervised from the
main office in Washington and this arrangement caused much delay and
inconvenience in carrying on the business of the Forests. In the fall
of 1908 six administrative districts were established, to which another
was added in 1914. By this arrangement the National Forests are divided
into 7 groups and each group has a district headquarters in a large
city or town centrally located in the group. The District Office acts
as sort of clearing house for all National Forest business. All matters
in the administration and protection of the National Forests that
cannot be settled on the Forest or appear to be of general importance
to the district are taken to the District Office, which is in charge of
a District Forester and several assistants. Beginning in 1909 Forest
Experiment Stations were established in each district and in 1910 the
Forest Products Laboratory, the first one of its kind in the world, was
formally opened at Madison, Wisconsin. The Weeks Law, passed on March
1, 1911, provides for the acquisition of forest lands on the watersheds
of navigable streams in the Appalachian and White Mountains. Up to June
30, 1917, over 1,500,000 acres have been approved for purchase in these
mountains. The Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina was recently
organized from purchased lands.
THE PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE FOREST SERVICE
_The Administrative Districts._ The administration of the National
Forests and the conduct of all matters relating to forestry which
have been placed upon the Department of Agriculture are in charge of
the Forester whose office is in Washington, D. C. To facilitate the
administration of the Forests 7 districts have been established with
headquarters in the following places:
District 1. (Montana, northeastern Washington, northern Idaho,
and northwestern South Dakota) Missoula, Montana.
District 2. (Colorado, Wyoming, the remainder of South Dakota,
Nebraska, northern Michigan, and northern Minnesota)
Denver, Colorado.
District 3. (Most of Arizona and New Mexico) Albuquerque, New
Mexico.
District 4. (Utah, southern Idaho, western Wyoming, eastern and
central Nevada, and northwestern Arizona) Ogden,
Utah.
District 5. (California and western Nevada) San Francisco,
California.
District 6. (Washington, Oregon, and Alaska) Portland, Oregon.
District 7. (Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, and the newly
purchased areas in South Carolina, Georgia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, New
Hampshire, Maine, and Alabama,) Washington, D. C.
Each administrative district embraces a number of National Forests and
is in charge of a Forest officer known as the District Forester who
is responsible to the Forester for all administrative and technical
work performed within the district. Each District Forester is aided
by several assistants and by specialists in various lines of work.
Each National Forest is in charge of a Forest Supervisor who may
have a Deputy and a Forest Assistant or Forest Examiner to assist
him if the amount of business on a National Forest warrants it. Each
National Forest is subdivided into Ranger districts for the purpose of
facilitating the protection work. Each Ranger district is in charge of a
Ranger who may be assisted by other Rangers or Forest Guards.
_The Washington Office._ The work of the Forest Service in Washington is
organized under the Office of Forester and the Branches of Operation,
Lands, Silviculture, Research, Grazing, Engineering, and Acquisition
of lands under the Weeks Law. The Office of Forester includes the
Associate Forester, the Editor, the Dendrologist, the Chief of Accounts,
besides Inspectors and Lumbermen. The Branch of Operation administers
and supervises the business organization of the Forest Service and
has general supervision of the personnel, quarters, equipment, and
supplies of the Service and all the fire protection and permanent
improvement work on the National Forests. The Branch of Lands examines
and classifies lands in the Forests to determine their value for forest
purposes, conducts the work in connection with claims on the Forests
prior to proceedings before United States registers and receivers,
and assists the Chief Engineer of the Service in handling matters in
connection with the occupation and use of the National Forest lands for
hydro-electric power purposes. The Branch of Silviculture supervises
the sale and cutting of timber on the National Forests and coöperates
with States in protecting forest lands under Section 2 of the Weeks Law.
The Branch of Research has supervision over the investigative work of
the Service, including silvicultural studies, studies of state forest
conditions, investigations of the lumber and wood-using industries and
lumber prices, and the investigative work carried on at the Forest
Products Laboratory and the Forest Experiment Stations. The Branch of
Grazing supervises the grazing of live stock upon the National Forests,
allotting grazing privileges and dividing the ranges between different
owners and classes of stock. It is also charged with the work of
improving depleted grazing lands and of coöperating with the Federal and
state authorities in the enforcement of stock quarantine regulations.
The Branch of Engineering has to do with the proper designing and
planning of roads, trails, and bridges; with the engineering problems
involved in granting permits to hydro-electric plants in the Forests;
and with the making of forest maps, surveys, improving the forest atlas,
and other drafting work. The Branch of Acquisition of Lands under the
Weeks Law has charge of examining and evaluating such lands which are
offered for purchase and recommending suitable lands for purchase under
the act.
_The District Offices._ Each District Office (of which there are 7) is
organized in the main along the same lines as the Washington office.
Each Branch in the Washington office is represented in the District
Office by an Assistant District Forester or some similar official.
The Office of the District Forester has in addition the Office of
Solicitor (Forest Service Branch), which is in charge of an assistant
to the Solicitor of the Department of Agriculture. He is the advisor
to the District Forester in all matters of law which arise in the
administration of the National Forests. His opinions are usually binding
except that, in urgent cases, appeal may be taken to the Solicitor of
the Department at Washington through the Forester. Many cases of law
arise on the National Forests such as cases of timber, fire, and grazing
trespass. All these are handled in the Office of the District Forester.
The Office of Accounts in the districts is in charge of the District
Fiscal Agent who is an assistant to the Chief of Accounts in the
Washington Office. Three of the districts have a Branch of Products. The
Experiment Stations in the districts are under the supervision of the
District Forester and the men in charge of them bear the same relation
to the District Office as the Supervisor of a National Forest. Most
of the districts also have in the Office of Silviculture a Consulting
Pathologist who has charge of all problems relating to tree diseases.
The following scheme will illustrate in a general way the organization
of the Forest Service and show how the National Forests are administered
at the present time:
CHAPTER II
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS
Under the head of administration we must necessarily understand those
factors which are essential to carry on the business of the National
Forests. First of all we must consider the personnel, that is, the men
that make up the organization by means of which the work on the Forests
is done. Next we must learn how the money for this large enterprise is
appropriated each year to carry on the work, and how it is divided up
so that each National Forest gets an amount each year in proportion to
its needs. Then again men and money are of little avail without tools,
equipment, and supplies. The proper distribution of these to the 147
National Forests is no small business organization in itself. Lastly
we must learn of the many permanent improvements which are made on
the National Forests which are absolutely necessary for their proper
administration, protection and use. No large constructive forestry
enterprise is complete without these. They consist of the construction
of means of transportation, means of communication, and living quarters
for the personnel; of extensive planting of young trees to reëstablish
forests which have been destroyed by fires; the carrying on of research
and experiments to aid in the development of the best methods of
forestry; and the classification and segregation of agricultural lands
and the establishment of permanent boundaries. All these matters
must necessarily be considered before we attempt to learn about the
protection and the utilization of the National Forests.
PERSONNEL
_Duties of Forest Officers._ Forest officers are the servants of the
people and they are expected to assist in every way possible those who
wish to use the resources of the Forests. Their first duty is to enforce
the regulations under which all permits, leases, sales, and rentals are
made. These regulations cover every phase of National Forest activity
and in conducting business under them they must not let personal or
other interests weigh against the good of the Forests. For the good of
the Forest Service their conduct must be prompt and courteous and their
business methods sensible and effective. They make it their business to
prevent misunderstandings and violations of forest regulations rather
than to correct mistakes after they have been made.
On the National Forests there are permanent employees and temporary
employees. Under the former heading come the Forest Supervisor, the
Deputy Supervisor, the Forest Assistant, the Forest Ranger, Lumbermen,
Sealers, Planting Assistants, and Forest Clerks. Under the latter
category come the Forest Guards, the Field Assistants, and the Temporary
Laborers. All permanent positions are in the classified Civil Service.
Vacancies are filled from a certified list of those who have passed a
Civil Service examination or by promotion from the lower ranks.
[Illustration: Figure 9. Forest officers in front of the Forest
Supervisor's summer headquarters. Note the many telephone wires that
lead from the office. This is 50 miles from the railroad. Lassen
National Forest, California.]
[Illustration: Figure 10. Scene in front of the Forest Supervisor's
headquarters. Sheep leaving the National Forest summer range in the fall
to go to winter range in the valley. Lassen National Forest, California.]
_The Forest Supervisor._ A Forest Supervisor is in charge of each
National Forest and he plans the work of the Forest and supervises
its execution. He works, of course, under direct instruction from the
District Forester and is responsible to him. When the amount of business
on the Forest warrants it he is assisted by a Deputy Supervisor.
Both these positions are filled by the promotion of experienced men in
the classified Civil Service. The Forest Supervisor's headquarters are
located in towns conveniently situated with regard to the most important
points in his Forest. The town is usually located on a railroad and
centrally located with regard to the various Ranger districts of his
Forest. His headquarters are usually the center of the system of roads
and trails which covers his entire Forest. From his office also the
telephone system radiates in all directions to his various District
Rangers. In short, the Forest Supervisor's office is so situated that he
has at all times full knowledge of all the activities of his Forest; he
is therefore in a position to give advice and directions by telephone
to his Rangers and other subordinates almost at any time of the day or
night. Such intimate communication is of especial importance during the
fire season.
Some Forests have two headquarters, one that is occupied in the winter
and the other that is occupied in the summer. The summer quarters is
usually most advantageously situated as far as the business of the
Forest is concerned, but owing to deep snow, which seriously interferes
with mail and telephone connections, a more accessible winter quarters
is occupied from October to May.
The force of men the Forest Supervisor has working under him varies of
course with the amount of work to be performed. The permanent force is
usually from 10 to 15 men, which during the fire season may be increased
to from 25 to 40 and in cases of great fire emergency sometimes to
several hundred men, by the addition of temporary employees.
_The Forest Assistant._ The other permanent men on a National Forest are
the Forest Assistant or Forest Examiner, Forest Rangers, and a Forest
clerk with his assistant, the Stenographer and Typewriter. The Forest
Assistant or Examiner ranks next to the Deputy and his work is directed
by the Forest Supervisor, to whom he makes his reports. The Forest
Assistant is the technical man of the Forest force, who upon making
good is promoted to Forest Examiner. He is employed upon such technical
lines of work as the examination and mapping of forest areas; reports on
applications for the purchase of timber; marking, scaling, and managing
timber sales; the survey of boundaries; and nursery and planting work.
Not only is a Forest Assistant called upon to perform these various
lines of technical work. The very nature of the country he is in
indicates that he must be an all-round practical man. He must be able
to ride, pack, and drive. He must often live alone and therefore must
do his own cooking, washing, and take care of other personal needs.
He must be strong and healthy and capable of undergoing hardships, at
least be able to stand long days of walking, climbing, and horseback
riding. His various duties and the different situations that arise often
call for knowledge and practical ability as a carpenter, a mechanic,
a plumber, an engineer, a surveyor, and many other lines of work.
Perhaps more important than his education and ability are his personal
qualifications. His temperament must be such that he must feel satisfied
and contented under the most trying conditions. He must be able to do
without most of the comforts of modern civilization for most of the
time. For these reasons the country-bred western youths are more liable
to make a success of the work than the city-bred easterner.
_The Forest Ranger._ The Forest Ranger's position is one of the most
important and at the same time the most difficult positions on our
National Forests.
The Forest Ranger's headquarters are usually at the nearest business
center to his district and if that is not practicable permanent
headquarters are provided on the Forest. In any case his station
is located as near to the center of the business activity of his
district as possible. If his headquarters are centrally located in his
district, trails, roads, and telephone lines lead out from his cabin
to all parts of his district. His station is built and maintained at
government expense and usually has, besides his living quarters, a barn,
tool-house, pasture, corral, and other necessary improvements.
The Forest Ranger performs such routine work as the supervision of
timber sales, grazing, free use, special use, and other contracts and
permits, the carrying out of the protection and improvement plans for
his district, and other administrative duties. The average Forest Ranger
has a territory of from 75,000 to 150,000 acres to take care of. On
June 30, 1917, there were about 1,100 Forest Rangers employed on the
National Forests who were assisted by over 900 Assistant Forest Rangers
and Forest Guards. The protective force was therefore about one man for
every 77,800 acres or about 121 square miles.
The Forest Ranger must be a man who is physically sound and capable of
enduring great hardships. He is often required to do heavy manual labor
in fighting fire under the most trying conditions. For this reason he
must have great endurance. They are usually men who have been brought up
in timber work, on ranches or farms, or with the stock business. They
are therefore thoroughly familiar with the region in which they are to
be employed and especially acquainted with the rough, semi-primitive
life which is characteristic of remote places in the West.
He must be able to take care of himself and his horses in regions remote
from settlement and supplies. He must be able to build trails, roads
and cabins; he must be able to ride, pack, and drive and deal tactfully
with all classes of people. He must know something about land surveying,
estimating, and scaling timber; of logging, mining laws, and the live
stock business. His duties include patrol to prevent fire and trespass;
estimating, surveying, and marking timber; the supervision of cutting
and similar work. He is authorized to issue permits, build cabins and
trails, oversee grazing business, investigate mining and agricultural
claims, report upon applications, and report upon and arrest for the
violation of Forest laws and regulations.
_The Forest Clerk._ The Forest Clerk performs the clerical work and
the book-keeping in the Forest Supervisor's office. He sometimes has a
Stenographer and Typewriter to assist him and to do the mechanical work
of correspondence. Lumbermen are specialists who are thoroughly well
versed in all that pertains to logging, milling, scaling, and cruising
timber. They are assigned temporarily to Forests where need for their
work arises. Scalers are men thoroughly familiar with the art of scaling
or measuring logs, ties, poles, cord wood and other forest products.
Planting Assistants are specialists in nursery and planting work. Their
duties include the preparation of seed beds, seed sowing, transplanting
and care of seedlings, and field planting. They are assigned to the
Forest Service nurseries.
[Illustration: THE WORK OF FOREST OFFICERS IN THE WINTER
Figure 11. Forest officers and lumberjacks burning the slash resulting
from a timber sale. The snow on the ground makes the burning less
dangerous. Washakie National Forest, Wyoming. Photo by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 12. Forest officers at a winter timber-cruising
camp repairing snow shoes. Besides cruising the timber, these men make a
logging map of the government lands, to show how the timber can best be
taken out. Lassen National Forest, California. Photo by the author.]
Temporary Laborers, Forest Guards, and Field Assistants are employed
during the field season when additional work on the National
Forests warrants it. Forest Guards perform temporary protection,
administrative, and improvement work; Field Assistants, usually students
of forestry serving their apprenticeships, are usually employed at minor
technical work and timber cruising; Temporary Laborers are employed by
the day or month at any kind of improvement or maintenance work.
_Forest Service Meetings._ A general meeting of the Forest force is
usually held annually to give the Forest officers the benefit of each
other's experience, to keep in touch with the entire work of the Forest,
and to promote "esprit-de-corps." The time and place of the meeting
depends upon circumstances, but it is usually held at a time of the year
when there is least danger from fire. Often joint meetings are held with
the forces of adjacent Forests. This annual meeting idea is carried
through the entire Forest Service. The Forest Supervisors in each
administrative district usually meet at the district headquarters once
a year and the District Foresters of all the districts together with
representative officers from the Washington office usually meet annually
at some centrally located district office such as the one at Ogden,
Utah. These meetings assist greatly in keeping all the work in the
various branches of the Service up to the same standard of efficiency,
in avoiding mistakes by learning the experience of others, and in
correlating and summarizing work done on similar problems in widely
different regions.
HOW THE FOREST SERVICE APPROPRIATION IS ALLOTTED TO THE NATIONAL FORESTS
It is, indeed, a great task to distribute the money that is each
year appropriated by Congress for the Forest Service so that the
Washington Office, the District Offices, and the 147 National Forests
each get their just share and so that each dollar buys the greatest
amount of good for the whole people without extravagance or waste. To
do this a large organization has been built up composed of business
men who have absolutely no selfish interest at heart and among whom
graft or favoritism is unknown and unheard of. It may be said without
exaggeration that the business of the National Forests is on a
thoroughly sound and efficient basis.
_Forest Service Expenses._ While for reasons already spoken of, the cash
receipts are considerably below the expenses for running the Forests,
the rapidly increasing system of roads, trails and telephone lines
points not only to a constantly increasing use and service to the
public but also as a consequence to increased financial returns.
The expenses of the Forest Service on the National Forests are of a
two-fold character. There are costs of administration and protection
on the one hand which might be called ordinary running expenses, and
the costs of improvements, reforestation, and forest investigations
on the other. The latter are really in the nature of investments,
and do not properly fall into the category of operating costs. Yet
they are absolutely necessary to the welfare of the Forests. They
comprise expenditures for roads, trails, telephone lines, and similar
improvements, the establishment of forests by the planting of young
trees which have been destroyed by past fires, the carrying on of
research and experiments to aid in the development of the best methods
of forestry, and expenses connected with the classification and
segregation of agricultural lands in the Forests. The establishment of
permanent boundaries and the cost of making homestead and other surveys
are also in the nature of investments. Such expenditures may be looked
upon as money deposited in the bank to bear interest; they will not
bring direct financial returns now but will produce great revenue many
years hence.
_The Agricultural Appropriation Bill._ The fiscal year in the Forest
Service extends from July 1 of one year to June 30 of the next. Every
year, in the Agricultural Appropriation Bill that comes before Congress,
there is an appropriation for the Forest Service for its work. This
appropriation is not in a lump sum but by allotments or funds. There
is the fund for Fire Fighting, one for General Expenses, another for
Statutory Salaries, another for Improvements, another for Emergency Fire
conditions, and usually there are special appropriations for various
purposes. For the fiscal year 1918 (extending from July 1, 1917, to June
30, 1918) there are special appropriations for Land Classification, for
purchasing land under the Weeks Law, for coöperative fire protection
under the Weeks Law, and for the Federal Aid Road Act.
_The Ranger's Protection and Improvement Plans._ Long before this bill
reaches Congress every Forest Ranger on every National Forest, every
Forest Supervisor, and every Branch of the Washington and the District
Offices have been estimating how much money they will need to carry
out the plans proposed for the next fiscal year. Each Forest Ranger
works and studies over his plans for the next year with which he hopes
to protect his district from fire. He plans and figures out what
improvements are urgently necessary to make the remote parts of his
district more accessible. He tries to arrive at a safe estimate of the
cost of so many miles of trails, roads, and telephone lines, so many
cabins, barns, corrals, etc., which he thinks are absolutely essential
to the proper administration of his district, and he estimates the
number of Forest Guards, lookout men, and patrol men he will need for
the protection of his territory. Usually these items are summed up under
his annual Improvement Plan and his Protection Plan respectively.
_The Supervisor's Plans._ When the Forest Supervisor receives such
estimates and plans from each of his Forest Rangers he studies them over
carefully and tries to decide in an impartial way what improvements
are most necessary in each Ranger district and what additional men are
necessary for the adequate protection of the region in question. He
carefully weighs the arguments for and against each expenditure and
decides what improvements must be made now and which ones it would be
possible to postpone for one or more years without detriment to the work
of his Forest as a whole. For in most cases the amount of necessary
work to be done on each Ranger district is far in excess of the amount
which the Forest Supervisor could approve owing to the inadequacy of
the Forest Service funds. So, for the Forest Supervisor, it is merely a
question of how low he can keep his estimates for money for the ensuing
year until such a time when Congress will appropriate more money so
that all the important and necessary work can be done. In most cases
therefore the major part of all the expenditures recommended by the
Forest Ranger is warranted, but the Forest Supervisor knows that he must
cut all the estimates down considerably in order to bring the total
Forest estimate reasonably near the amount he is likely to get, basing
his judgment upon what he got the year before.
_Approval of Plans by the District Forester._ The District Forester then
gets the National Forest estimate from every one of his 25 or 30 Forest
Supervisors and he in turn must decide what projects on each Forest are
immediately necessary and which ones can be postponed. The same process
is repeated in the Washington office when all the estimates from the
District Foresters are received, and the Forester in turn sends to the
Secretary of Agriculture his estimates by allotments or funds, which
in turn are put before Congress. While Congress sometimes makes minor
changes in the Forest Service appropriation, in most cases the bill is
passed as it stands.
_The District Fiscal Agent._ The money appropriated by Congress is
allotted to each district, and in turn to each National Forest and
finally to each Ranger district by funds, such as General Expenses,
Fire Fighting, Improvements, etc. In each district the financial
matters are taken care of in the Office of Accounts by the District
Fiscal Agent. He is the Assistant of the Chief of the Forest Service
Branch of the Division of Accounts of the Department of Agriculture
and pays all the bills incurred by the district and receives all the
money which comes in from the sale of National Forest resources. The
amount of money appropriated for the district is credited to him and he
disburses this appropriation in accordance with the Fiscal Regulations
of the Department of Agriculture. No other officer is allowed to receive
money for the sale of timber, forage, or other resources; in fact no
other official in the District handles any of the Forest Service funds
whatsoever.
All remittances by users of the National Forests are made to the U. S.
District Depository. If a rancher has bought some timber from a Forest
Ranger, he is given a letter of transmittal showing the amount of the
purchase which he must send to the District Fiscal Agent with the amount
necessary to pay for the timber. The letter of transmittal explains the
purpose of the remittance.
_Tax Money Paid to the States._ Another interesting feature of the
National Forest business is the money paid each State out of the annual
receipts in lieu of taxes. It must be remembered that National Forests
do not pay taxes to the States in which they are located. On the other
hand, if the National Forests were private property they would bring
into the county and state treasuries yearly taxes. To compensate the
State for the taxes lost in this way each National Forest pays to each
county in proportion to the area of the National Forest lands located
in that county a sum of money equal to 25 per cent, of the total
gross receipts each fiscal year. From the receipts of the fiscal year
1917 this amounts to about $850,000. It is provided that this money
is to be expended for schools and roads in the county in which the
National Forests lie. Recently a law was passed giving the Secretary
of Agriculture authority to expend an additional 10 per cent. of the
National Forest receipts for the construction of roads and trails for
the benefit of local communities. From the fiscal year 1917 this amounts
to about $340,000. These moneys for roads, trails, and schools are of
course a great benefit to the mountain communities, since usually the
amount of taxable property in such remote localities is small and hence
the amount of taxes received is small. These allotments to the counties
have helped to develop the communication systems of local communities
and have also made the National Forests more accessible and useful.
THE EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES FOR THE NATIONAL FORESTS
_The Property Auditor and Property Clerk._ The depot for equipment,
supplies, and blank forms is located at Ogden, Utah, and this office
furnishes all the Forests in all the districts with most of the
equipment necessary. The record of the property of the United States in
the custody of the Forest Service is kept by a man called the Property
Auditor. Requisitions for supplies and equipment are made by the Forest
Supervisor to the Property Clerk. Government property is considered
expendable or non-expendable depending upon its character. Each Forest
has a Property Custodian who has charge of all the property assigned
to the Forest. When property is received from the Property Clerk or if
property is transferred from one forest officer to another, the Property
Custodian must note the change on his records.
_Blank Forms._ The blank forms which are supplied by the Property Clerk
are printed standard forms used in issuing permits, making contracts,
reports, examinations, timber sale agreements, in short, those used in
almost every business transaction of the Forest Service. Even timber
estimates, tree measurements, and other similar public records are kept
on standard printed forms for permanent uniform record.
_Supplies._ Supplies such as stationery, typewriters, pencils, ink,
notebooks, paper for map work, compasses, measuring tapes, and a host
of other articles are furnished upon requisition by the Property
Clerk. Equipment such as filing cases, tables, chairs, typewriters,
tree-measuring instruments, tents, cooking utensils, surveying
instruments, snow shoes, skiis, knapsacks, water buckets, canteens,
kodaks, and many other forms of equipment are furnished by the Property
Clerk, although in cases of emergency some of these things may be
purchased locally by Forest officers by the authority of the Forest
Supervisor.
NATIONAL FOREST IMPROVEMENTS
_The Need of Improvements._ It is but natural, from their situation,
that the National Forests represent pioneer conditions; conditions
that one might expect to find in a wild, rugged, mountainous country.
This was true to an extreme degree when the National Forests were
first established and it is true in a very large degree even to-day,
since the amount of time and money which it will be necessary to
expend on the construction of improvements on the 155,000,000 acres
of National Forests is something enormous. For a long time to come,
then, the National Forests will need improvements in order to make them
secure against fire and in order to make the resources, now locked
up, available. Proper protection and the fullest use of National
Forest resources depend mainly upon facilities for transportation,
communication, and control. All parts of the National Forests should be
accessible by roads and trails; there should be telephone communication
between settlements and Forest officers' headquarters and with the
lookout stations; and in most cases suitable living accommodations must
be provided for the field force. For the fullest use of the forage
resources, water for the live stock must be developed and range fences
constructed; to reduce the hazard and the cost and difficulty of
controlling forest fires, firebreaks and other works must be constructed.
_Transportation Facilities._ Adequate facilities for travel and
transportation are of first importance. Steam roads, electric roads, and
boat lines are utilized in the National Forest transportation system
as well as the existing roads and trails. Added to this, new roads and
trails are being constructed every year to complete the already existing
network.
[Illustration: Figure 13. A forest fire lookout tower on Leek Springs
Mountain. Eldorado National Forest, California.]
The need for new roads and trails depends upon the number of them
already existing, the value of the resources that it is necessary to
make accessible, the fire liability, and the amount of unrealized
revenues due to lack of transportation facilities. If valuable
grazing land or timber land can be made accessible there is good reason
for building a new road. In many cases roads and trails are built to
facilitate the protection of large remote areas from fire. Such areas
may have large bodies of valuable timber which if destroyed by forest
fires would involve a heavy loss. Even aside from valuable timber on
an area, it is absolutely necessary when a forest fire breaks out to
get to it with men and fire-fighting equipment in the shortest possible
time before it spreads. If the fire gets to be a large one, many men
with provisions, tents, fire-fighting tools, and other equipment must be
transported to the scene of the fire. Any delay in the transportation
of these things may prove fatal and may result in an uncontrollable
conflagration.
The transportation system that is proposed for a National Forest, if the
one that exists is inadequate, is usually planned many years ahead. The
ultimate or ideal system is always kept in mind so that every mile of
road or trail that is constructed is made a part of it. If not enough
money is available for a good road, a trail is built along the line of
the proposed road. Later this trail is widened into a permanent road.
The Engineer connected with each District Office usually has charge of
laying out big road projects. A few miles of permanent, good, dirt road
with good grade is always preferred to many miles of poor road with
heavy grade and improper drainage. A road and trail system is planned
for each National Forest which will eventually place every portion of
the Forest within a distance of at least 7-1/2 miles of a wagon road. A
pack-train can then transport supplies from the point to which they are
delivered on the wagon road to any field camp and return in a single day.
In trail and road construction it is very often necessary to build
bridges. Sometimes a very simple log bridge meets the need, but in
bridging many large mountain torrents, which become very high and
dangerous in the spring, large bridges are necessary. Cable suspension
bridges and queen and king truss bridges are built where occasion arises
for them, but only after being planned in detail and after the District
Forester has approved their design and method of construction.
[Illustration: Figure 14. A typical Forest ranger's headquarters.
Idlewood Ranger Station, Arapaho National Forest, Colorado]
Very often navigable streams and lakes are used as a part of the
transportation system on a National Forest. On the Tahoe National Forest
in California launches are operated by the Forest Service on Lake
Tahoe to patrol the region around the lake for forest fires. Ferries,
boats, and launches belonging to private companies or individuals are
used by agreement or if necessary are bought by the Service from the
Improvement funds. Speeders, motor cars, and hand cars on railroads or
logging roads are often used when an agreement has been made with the
company. In this way railroads are made a part of the transportation
system of the Forest.
_Communication Facilities._ The system of communication on the National
Forests is scarcely less important than the system of transportation.
This system includes telephone lines, signal systems, and mail
service. The telephone system, as can be readily seen, is of the
utmost importance for the transaction of all kinds of National Forest
business. In case a Forest Ranger wishes to speak to his Supervisor
about controlling a large fire, it makes a great difference whether he
can talk to him over the telephone or whether he must send a messenger
on horseback perhaps 60 or 70 miles. In the former case practically no
time is lost, in the latter it would take at least two days for the
messenger to reach the Forest Ranger, and in the meantime the fire would
continue to rage and spread.
In the absence of a telephone system a signal system is used. The one
probably used the most in forest fire protection work is the heliograph,
by which code messages are sent from one point to another by means of a
series of light flashes on a mirror. The light of the sun is used and
the flashes are made by the opening and closing of a shutter in front of
the mirror. Very often these heliograph stations are located on mountain
tops in the midst of extremely inaccessible country. Where there are a
number of these stations at least one is connected by telephone to the
Forest Supervisor's office. When the Forest officer at the telephone
gets a heliograph message about a certain fire he immediately telephones
the news directly to the Forest Ranger in whose district the fire is
located, or if he does not happen to be in direct communication with
the Forest Ranger he notifies the Forest Supervisor, who then notifies
the officer concerned. Of course it is all prearranged who should be
notified in case a fire is reported to the heliograph man.
[Illustration: Figure 15. A typical view of the National Forest country
in Montana. Forest Service trail up Squaw Peak Patrol Station, Cabinet
National Forest.]
Unfortunately it has been found that this system of communication is
not satisfactory even under favorable conditions. This system depends
upon direct sunlight; without it is useless. When there is much smoke in
the air it is also of uncertain value. The heliograph system has perhaps
reached its greatest development upon the California National Forest,
but even here experience has shown that it is only a temporary makeshift
and the plan is to replace it by a telephone system as soon as possible.
The Forest Supervisor, especially in his summer headquarters, depends
directly upon the mail service for communication with the District
Forester and the outside world. In many cases the fact that the Forest
Supervisor has his headquarters in a small mountain community in the
summer has made it possible for that community to receive a daily mail
service or mail at least three times a week. When the Forest Supervisor
becomes satisfied that mail service is desirable in certain mountain
communities he investigates local settlers' needs for mail facilities;
or he may coöperate with the people in the nearest village who are
petitioning for mail service. Often his influence proves the deciding
factor in getting it.
As I have said before, telephone communication is indispensable to fire
protection and to quick and efficient methods of conducting National
Forest business. Not only do Forest Service lines enter into the
National Forest telephone system but all private lines are also made
use of. By coöperative agreements with private companies the National
Forest lines are used by private companies, in return for which private
lines are used by the Forest Service. In this way a complete network of
telephone lines is established connecting not only the Forest Supervisor
with all his Rangers and his forest fire lookout stations, but also
connecting each one of these with local communities and the large towns
at a distance. Thus, when a forest fire occurs and the available local
help is not sufficient to control the fire the telephone system is put
to use to call help from the nearest villages and towns.
[Illustration: Figure 16. Forest Rangers repairing a bridge over a
mountain stream. Arapaho National Forest, Colorado]
_Grazing Improvements._ It is often necessary for the complete and
economical use of the forage on a National Forest to coöperate with the
local stockmen to develop range by constructing improvements. Water
may have to be developed; fences, corrals, bridges, trails, and other
works may have to be constructed. Often cattle belonging to different
stockmen are grazed on adjacent areas which are not separated by natural
boundaries such as rivers, ridges, or swamps. If there is no obstacle to
prevent the cattle from drifting from one range into another, a drift
fence is built, thus definitely separating one stockman's range from the
other. Often good range would remain unused on account of lack of water
altogether or on account of lack of water during the dry season only.
In this case the Forest Service usually coöperates with the stockmen to
provide water. Roads, trails, and bridges are often necessary to enable
sheep and cattle to reach range lands.
_Protective Improvements._ Ranger stations, cabins, lookout stations,
firebreaks and similar works are required to protect the forests from
fire and are known as protective improvements. Buildings are constructed
for the field force to afford necessary shelter and to furnish an office
for the efficient transaction of business. Land is often cultivated for
the production of forage crops and fences are built to insure necessary
pasturage for live stock used by the Forest officers in their work. The
buildings may be substantial houses to be used throughout the year or
they may be merely such structures as will afford the necessary shelter
and domestic conveniences for Forest officers in the summer. These
summer camps are constructed where needed for the use of patrolmen,
officers engaged in timber sale work or at such points as will serve the
needs of officers traveling through the forest. Barns, sheds, and other
small structures are constructed at the Ranger's headquarters when they
are needed. Office buildings are also constructed for the use of Forest
Rangers or for summer headquarters of the Forest Supervisor.
[Illustration: Figure 17. A forest fire lookout station on the top of
Lassen Peak, elevation 10,400 feet, Lassen National Forest, California.
This cabin was first erected complete in a carpenter's shop in Red
Bluff, about 50 miles away. It was then taken to pieces and packed to
the foot of Lassen Peak. On the last two miles of its journey it was
packed piece by piece on forest officers' backs and finally reassembled
on the topmost pinnacle of the mountain. Photo by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 18. Forest officers and laborers building a wagon
road through trap rock. Payette National Forest, Idaho.]
_Appropriations for Improvement Work._ The money for the construction of
National Forest improvements is secured from various sources. The annual
Forest Service appropriation usually carries a considerable sum for this
purpose. In the fiscal year 1918 $450,000 has been appropriated for this
work, which divided among the 147 National Forests gives an average only
of about $3,000 per Forest. This is really a very small sum considering
the size of the average National Forest. Fortunately there are other
appropriations and funds and each year sees more money available for
this most important work. Under the law 25 per cent. of the receipts
are paid to the States in which the National Forests are located to be
expended for roads and schools. The amount to be paid to the States in
this way from the receipts in 1917 is about $848,874.00. By the acts of
Congress organizing them as States, Arizona and New Mexico also receive
for their schools funds an additional share of the receipts based on the
proportion that their school lands within the National Forests bear to
the total National Forest area in the States. The approximate amounts
due on account of the receipts for 1917 are $42,844.80 to Arizona and
$18,687.56 to New Mexico. Congress has also provided that 10 per cent,
of the receipts shall be set aside as an appropriation to be used
under the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture for road and trail
building in National Forests in coöperation with state authorities or
otherwise. The amount thus appropriated on account of the fiscal year
1917 receipts is $339,549.61. This added to the amount carried over
from the 1916 receipts fund, $136,981.23, and the amount appropriated
for improvements, in the regular Agricultural Appropriation Bill,
$450,000.00, brings the total available for the construction of roads,
trails, cabins, bridges, telephone lines, etc., on the National Forests
for the fiscal year 1918 to $926,530.84.
There is still another fund recently appropriated which will enable
roads and trails to be built on a very much larger scale than hitherto
has been possible and will result in the rapid opening of forest regions
at present practically inaccessible. The Federal Aid Road Act, passed by
Congress in 1916, appropriated ten million dollars for the construction
and maintenance of roads and trails within or partly within National
Forests. This money becomes available at the rate of a million dollars
a year until 1927. In general, the States and counties are required to
furnish coöperation in an amount at least equal to 50 per cent. of the
estimated cost of the surveys and construction of projects approved
by the Secretary of Agriculture. The apportionment among the States
is based on the area of National Forest lands in each State and the
estimated value of the timber and forage resources which the Forests
contain.
The total amount from all sources available for roads, trails, and other
improvements on the National Forests during the fiscal year 1918 is
therefore $1,926,530.84.
THE CLASSIFICATION AND CONSOLIDATION OF NATIONAL FOREST LANDS
The classification and consolidation of National Forest lands is
a matter of great importance to their proper administration and
protection. If all the lands within the Forests are to be put to their
highest use for the permanent good of the whole people the lands
inside of their boundaries must be classified and permanent boundaries
established for each Forest. Through this kind of work the National
Forests gain in stability. The classification and segregation of the
agricultural lands is most important, for these lands are open to entry
under the Forest Homestead Act.
_Land Classification._ The land classification work is organized in the
Washington and District Offices under the Branch of Lands. Crews of men
are sent out from the District Offices and the work of classification,
carefully planned ahead, is done by projects, that is, large contiguous
areas are examined together. For instance, the Hat Creek Project on the
Lassen National Forest consisted of a number of large areas containing
scattered parcels of agricultural lands along the Hat Creek valley in
that Forest. For the classification of the lands on a big project a
surveyor and a lineman, one or more timber cruisers, and an expert from
the Bureau of Soils constitute the crew. As a result of this work over
1,100 individual tracts within the Forests were made available for entry
under the Forest Homestead Act during the fiscal year 1916, because
this land was found to have a greater value for growing agricultural
crops than for growing timber. Under this same policy since 1912 about
12,000,000 acres were eliminated from the Forests, partly because they
were of greater value for agricultural use, or because they were not
suited for the purposes for which the National Forests were created.
Up to June 30, 1917, 127,156,610 acres of National Forest land have
been examined and classified. Such work as this, once and for all time,
will settle the controversy now and then waged in Congress by certain
Congressmen that the National Forests have large and valuable tracts
of agricultural lands locked up within their boundaries and therefore
should be abolished, or turned over to the States, or equally radical
disposition made of them. Such Congressmen usually are working for some
predatory private interests who want to secure the great wealth in the
National Forests that is being wisely conserved for the people.
_The Consolidation of National Forest Lands._ There has also been a
great need for consolidating the National Forest lands where these were
interspersed with private or state lands. Congress has recognized this
need and from time to time has granted authority to exchange lands with
private owners or States where such an exchange would be advantageous
to the Government through the resulting consolidation of holdings.
Thus by getting the government lands into a more compact body their
administration and protection are materially facilitated in many ways.
Before any exchange is made it must be ascertained that the land which
the Government is to receive has equal value with that relinquished,
also that the land is chiefly valuable for the production of timber and
the protection of stream flow. Recent additions to the Whitman National
Forest in Oregon consisted of privately owned cut-over timberland
rapidly reproducing to valuable timber trees. Title to this will be
secured by exchange for government owned lands.
HOW YOUNG FORESTS ARE PLANTED TO REPLACE THOSE DESTROYED BY FIRE
_Reforestation and the Timber Supply._ More than 15,000,000 acres of
National Forest lands which are capable of producing timber and valuable
chiefly for that purpose have been denuded of their original tree
growth. These lands are not adapted to agriculture and possess but a
small value for grazing. In their present condition they are practically
unproductive barrens.
It is probable that one-half of this area will reforest itself naturally
through the reseeding of burns, and the encroachment of tree growth upon
natural openings, parks, grass lands, and brush lands. This natural
extension of the forest on such areas is progressing at the estimated
rate of 150,000 acres annually. The remaining half of the denuded area,
7,500,000 acres, must be reforested by artificial means. This land
is unquestionably adapted to growing timber and useful to the nation
primarily for that purpose. Every year that it lies idle the country
suffers a great financial loss, for such an immense area is capable of
growing at least three-quarters of a billion feet of timber annually.
It was recently estimated that the timberlands on the National Forests
are producing between five and six billion feet of lumber annually by
growth. The complete restocking of the areas now denuded or sparsely
timbered will increase the annual production of wood at least 25 per
cent., an item certainly worth considering.
_Reforestation and Water Supply._ Even more important than the value
of the timber which is lost annually is the part which these large
areas play in the conservation of water supply. Most of this area is on
the watersheds of western streams and rivers and the fact that it is
denuded is a dangerous menace to the equable flow of the rivers which
drain those areas. The National Forests contain over 1,175 watersheds
which supply many municipalities, 324 water-power projects, and 1,266
irrigation projects, aside from many other outside power and irrigation
projects which are fed by watersheds within the Forests. The cities of
Salt Lake City, Utah; Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado; Portland,
Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, all derive their municipal water supply
from streams arising in the National Forests. The proposed water system
for the city of San Francisco, California, is also to be taken from the
National Forest streams. A few years ago planting was undertaken on
the watershed of the Colorado Springs, Colorado, reservoir. This water
supply is worth annually from $80,000 to $100,000. Besides this the
2,000 horsepower hydro-electric plants are valued at $40,000 and the
40,000 undeveloped horsepower are said to have an additional value of
$400,000, making the total value of the watershed more than $500,000,
with the probability that a greater water supply having a far greater
value will be needed as the city grows.
[Illustration: Figure 19. Drying pine cones preparatory to extracting
the seed. Near Plumas National Forest, California.]
[Illustration: Figure 20. Extracting tree seed from the cones. The dried
cones are shaken around until the seeds drop out through the wire mesh
which forms the sides of the machine.]
And there are many evidences that the people of the West have begun to
realize that the National Forests are the key to the entire water-supply
situation in the West no matter for what purpose the water is used. The
public consideration now being given to flood control, the requests from
many western cities for special measures to protect their municipal
water supply, the concern expressed by irrigation associations in
Colorado and elsewhere, lest even the regulated cutting on the National
Forests may reduce stream flow, and the rapid rate at which unused
reservoir and power sites in the Forests are being developed, all are
evidences of the importance of Forests in protecting water supplies.
Reforestation is essential so that the National Forests can effectively
discharge this function.
_Government Reforestation Policy._ The duty of the Forest Service to
put the denuded areas which will not be reforested naturally into
a condition of productivity admits of no further argument. But the
problem is not so easily solved as it is made clear. Under the semi-arid
conditions prevailing on many National Forests this work involves
uncertainties and unsolved problems. On the National Forests artificial
reforestation was an untried field when the Forest Service entered it.
The Government therefore had to develop its own practice in the face
of a great variety of conditions, largely unfavorable. The situation
still calls for intensive experiments to develop the best methods from
the standpoint of both cost and results. More than that, it calls for a
different set of methods for each forest region of the West which has
its peculiar trees, climate, and soils. Then, lastly, when the proper
methods have been demonstrated by experiment, the new methods can be
applied on a large scale with a very good chance for success.
Therefore intensive experiments must come first. Business prudence
requires the development of all methods in detail and reasonable
certainty as to their results before large sums are expended upon field
operations. In the least favorable regions like the semi-arid mesas
of the Southwest, the work is restricted for the present to small,
carefully conducted experiments, the result sought being reliable
information upon how to proceed rather than the reforestation of many
acres. In the most favorable regions, as the western slopes of the Rocky
Mountains and the Cascade Ranges, the results already obtained have been
so excellent, due to an unusual combination of good growing conditions,
that operations upon a larger scale have been justified simultaneously
with continued intensive investigations. As the work is extended into
each new region or new National Forest, the most favorable sites are
always chosen first. After the possibilities and limitations of each
method have been ascertained by experience under the best conditions
of each locality the work can either be intelligently extended or
restricted. But the work is always conducted from the standpoint of the
maximum return for each dollar expended.
In accordance with the policy outlined by the Forest Service watersheds
used for municipal supply or irrigation continue to receive first
consideration. Large sums are not, however, being spent on such
watersheds where any uncertainty as to the outcome exists; that is
before successful methods have been perfected by experiment. In addition
to watersheds, reforestation work is being conducted for the primary
object of producing timber only where climatic conditions and other
factors are extremely favorable. As far as possible these areas are
being selected with reference to the low cost of the work, natural
conditions which insure rapid tree growth, and urgent local need for
additional timber supplies. These favorable conditions generally obtain
in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, and Michigan and it is
in these States that the best results have been obtained. In California,
Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and the Southwest the work is restricted to
intensive experiments on a small scale, until successful methods of
meeting the adverse local conditions have been perfected.
[Illustration: Figure 21. Preparing the ground with a spring-tooth
harrow for the broadcast sowing of tree seeds. Battlement National
Forest, Colorado. This view was taken at approximately 10,000 feet
elevation. Photo by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 22. A local settler delivering a load of Lodgepole
pine cones at the seed extractors, for which he receives 45 cents
per bushel. Forest officers receiving them. Arapaho National Forest,
Colorado.]
_Methods of Reforestation._ Two general methods of reforestation have
been developed. The first is called the direct seeding method, in
which tree seed is sown upon the ground with or without simple forms
of cultivation. The other method is the planting method by which
seedlings are grown in nurseries under ideal conditions of soil, light,
and moisture until they are large enough to be transplanted and stand
the rigors of the open field. Direct seeding, where successful, is the
cheaper method, but is necessarily limited to sites whose soil and
moisture conditions are exceptionally favorable to tree growth. The
inability of the newly germinated seedling to establish itself except
in comparatively moist soil makes the success of this method on the
semi-arid mesas of the Southwest, for example, very problematical,
especially since these localities are subject to long dry seasons. In
such localities the use of the direct seeding method must be restricted
to experiments designed to determine the exact range of conditions
under which it is feasible. The main effort, however, of the Forest
Service has been given to direct seeding on areas where reasonable
success appears to be assured. The planting of 2 or 3 year old
seedlings or transplants largely overcomes the adverse soil and moisture
factors which appear to have made direct seeding unsuccessful in many
localities. This method, which is the general practice in European
forestry, must without doubt be employed to reforest a considerable
portion of the denuded lands. The growing and planting of nursery stock
is carried on simultaneously with direct seeding. The object of this is
to ascertain the comparative results of the two methods, the sites on
which the greater success will be obtained from each, and the proper
relation of the two methods in the future development of reforestation
work.
Since reforestation work was begun on the National Forests about 135,500
acres have been sowed or planted. The larger part of this acreage was
reforested by direct seeding. Until only a few years ago larger areas
were direct seeded each year than were planted to nursery stock, but at
the present time more planting is being done. During the fiscal year
1916 about 7,600 acres were planted and about 2,800 acres were seeded.
The average cost in that year of planting was about $10.00 per acre,
that of the seeding was about $4.50 per acre. The 1917 costs were
slightly higher, due to the increased cost of labor and supplies.
The reforesting methods of the Forest Service mean the collection of
large quantities of seeds and the growing of large quantities of small
trees for planting. Since 1911 the Forest Service has collected over
175,000 pounds of seeds for its direct seeding and planting work. During
the fiscal year 1916 the Forest Service had 14 large tree-nurseries
and 7 small ones, which had in them over 37 million young trees which
would, in a short time, be planted in the field. From these figures it
is readily seen that the reforestation work on the National Forests is
conducted on a large scale.
_Direct Seeding Work on the National Forests._ The direct seeding work
on the National Forests involves many more problems than one would at
first thought suppose. Seed must be collected and extracted; it must be
stored, if it is not used immediately; if the seed is sown it must be
protected from rodents and very often the ground must be prepared before
the seed is sown.
[Illustration: Figure 23. In the forest nursery a trough is often used
for sowing seed in drills. The seed scattered along the sides of the
trough rattles into position at the bottom and is more even than when
distributed by the ordinary worker at the bottom of the trough. Pike
National Forest, Colorado.]
[Illustration: Figure 24. Uncle Sam grows the little trees by the
millions. These will soon cover some of the bare hillsides on the
National Forests of the West.]
Seeds are collected in various ways. Often cones are purchased at
advertised rates from persons who make a business of seed collecting.
The collectors deliver the cones to a specified Ranger station or
to some seed extracting plant. But such collectors are not always
available. Seed is collected by Forest officers by stripping cones
directly from standing trees or from those felled in logging operations.
Large quantities are also gathered from the vast stores or caches
assembled by squirrels.
Seed extraction is usually done most economically by experienced Forest
officers. It requires drying by exposure to natural or artificial heat
to open the cones; threshing to separate the seed from the scales and
woody portions of the cone; and cleaning or fanning to remove chaff and
dirt. Much of the extraction has hitherto been done in small quantities
at a large number of stations and with very simple home-made appliances.
In view of the large amount of seed which must be handled each year
the cost of extraction has been materially reduced and seed of higher
average fertility has been obtained by concentrating the major part
of the work at central seed-extracting plants equipped with improved
machinery.
A problem of great importance from the standpoint of final results
is that of having seed available at the season of the year when it is
needed. Past experiments have shown that fall sowing is essential to
success in most parts of the West where extensive seeding projects will
be conducted. Experience has also shown that seed on a large scale
cannot be extracted in time for use in the same season. Moreover,
every year is not a good seed year, so that Forest officers must take
advantage of the good years to collect large quantities and store
them for use during years of seed shortage. Purchased domestic or
foreign seed cannot be used to advantage to make up these deficiencies
because it is sometimes of poor quality and not adapted to the climatic
conditions in which it must be sown. For these reasons methods had to
be devised for storing large quantities of seeds for several years at
a time and in such a manner that their vitality would not be impaired.
Many storage tests have been made by the Forest Service to determine the
best way of storing seeds. The tests showed that the sealed glass jar
is the best container and that seed must be stored either in air-tight
receptacles or at low temperatures to be kept for any considerable
period without loss of fertility.
Probably the greatest obstacle encountered in reforestation by direct
seeding is the destruction of the seeds by rodents. The failure of many
direct seeding projects has been due primarily to loss from this cause.
Failure has occurred on areas of practically every character regardless
of the time of the year the seed was sown. Success has been encountered
only where recent burns had largely eliminated the animals either
by outright destruction or by the loss of food supply. The rodents
which are most destructive to tree seeds are the ground squirrels,
the chipmunks, the mice, and the gophers. It is not strange that they
should seek out the seed that has been carefully sown by the Forest
officers. In many cases these seeds are their natural food and they are
wonderfully diligent and expert in searching it out.
In coöperation with the Biological Survey, the Forest Service has
worked on the problem of destroying the rodents. Many methods have been
tried out in the field. The free use of grain poisoned with strychnine
has thus far produced the best results and has reduced the loss from
rodents sufficiently to secure satisfactory germination. The successful
elimination of such injury appears to lie in the thorough poisoning by
this method of areas to be seeded, once or oftener in advance of sowing.
With successful germination assured by the collection of good seed and
the protection of it after it has been sowed from rodents, the next
problem lies in cheap methods of cultivation and sowing. This will
enable the young seedling to develop its root system early enough and
rapidly enough to withstand the first annual drought, the dominant
feature of the climate of all the western National Forests.
[Illustration: Figure 25. One of the large Forest Service nurseries
where the young trees are given the utmost care before they are large
and strong enough to endure the rigorous climate of the National
Forests. McCloud Nursery, Shasta National Forest, California.]
There are numerous methods used in sowing tree seed on the National
Forests. Three general methods are used in most of the work. Broadcast
sowing is practiced in the fall and spring or upon the snow in the
winter, both on ground that has not been prepared and on soil that has
been scarified by rough brush drags, harrowing, disking, or partial or
complete plowing. In seed-spot sowing the seed is planted at regular
intervals in small spots where the soil is cleared of vegetation and
worked up loose to a depth of from 5 to 6 inches. When corn planting
or dibbling is practiced the seed is thrust into the soil by a hand
corn-planter, or, in the case of large nuts, pressed into holes made
with a pointed stick. The corn-planter method is often combined with the
preparation of seed spots or the plowing of single furrows, in order to
plant the seed in loose soil free from vegetation.
On a large majority of the Forests broadcast seeding on unprepared
ground has not succeeded. As a rule satisfactory stands have been
secured from broadcasting only after an expensive preliminary
cultivation which would be impracticable in extended operations and
which would exceed the cost of planting with nursery stock. But
broadcasting on prepared strips and upon recent burns has given some
success. The seed-spot method has been most successful if done at the
proper season. Late summer and early fall sowing has produced better
results than sowing in spring or winter. As a whole direct seeding
has not succeeded, especially when the results and costs of the work
are compared with the planting of nursery stock. Planting has thus
far yielded better results, especially on the less favorable areas.
Furthermore, from the standpoint of final results attained, planting has
actually been cheaper than seeding, in spite of the greater initial cost
of planting. While the major emphasis in reforestation work is placed
upon planting, considerable seeding is being done, but it is confined to
the most favorable localities and sites.
_Planting on the National Forests._ Reforestation by planting young
trees has received much attention during the last few years principally
because it has produced better results. Much still remains to be said
for both methods and future experiments alone can decide which method
to use in a specified region and under given conditions of climate and
soil. Usually direct seeding has been tried first in any given locality
where reforestation work was to be done. In fact the policy of the
Forest Service in artificial reforestation on the National Forests has
been, first, to conduct experiments to find out what can be done and
what is the best way to do it; second, to reforest by direct seeding
wherever this is feasible; and third, to plant nursery seedlings where
direct seeding has been found too uncertain.
[Illustration: Figure 26. A view of seed sowing with a corn planter. San
Isabel National Forest, Colorado]
[Illustration: Figure 27. Sowing seed along contour lines on the slopes.
Pike National Forest, Colorado]
In selecting areas for planting, preference is usually given to the
watersheds of streams important for irrigation and municipal water
supply and to land which is capable of producing heavy stands of
a quick-growing species or of a specially valuable species. Next in
importance are areas which offer good opportunities for object lessons
to the public in the practice of forestry. Some areas offer combinations
of advantages. For instance, a burned-over tract may be suitable for
planting to some rapid-growing species which is also valuable for timber
and at the same time may be situated so that it will serve as an object
lesson also. It is on such areas in general that reforestation by
planting is being concentrated.
While the reforestation of the watersheds of streams important for
irrigation and municipal water supply has a large financial value, this
value is hard to estimate because it involves not actual cash profit but
loss prevented. But when a favorable site is planted to a quick-growing,
valuable, species, it is comparatively easy to arrive at a fair estimate
of the possible profit on money invested. It has been estimated that
under many conditions it is highly profitable to reforest waste lands
on the National Forests by planting. From certain experiments made it
is estimated that a white pine forest artificially established on a
second-class forest soil in Minnesota, will yield about 46,500 board
feet per acre in 50 years, worth at least $10 per thousand feet, or
$465 per acre. Figuring the cost of planting and the cost of care and
protection per acre per year at 3 per cent. compound interest gives a
total cost of $34.07 per acre at the time the timber is cut and a net
profit of $8.62 per acre per year. Douglas fir in the Northwest will
produce 81,000 board feet in 80 years, worth at least $8.50 per thousand
feet. After deducting all expenses this would leave a net profit of
$555.30 in 80 years or about $6.94 per acre per year. These profits are
indeed large, considering that the land is not capable of producing
cereal or vegetable crops profitably. And it must be remembered that in
all the above calculations all the money invested is earning 3 per cent.
compound interest and that the net profits are the earnings in excess of
this 3 per cent. interest.
The little trees that are set out on the National Forests every year
are produced in large nurseries, where they are grown by the millions.
In these nurseries the little trees receive the most expert care from
the time the seeds germinate until the time they are large enough to
withstand the rigors of wind and weather on the barren hillsides of
Uncle Sam's Forests. The seeds are first carefully sown in seed beds
and left to develop in these from one to three years. At the end of one
year they may be transplanted in nursery rows where they will have more
room to develop. Rapidly growing species like yellow pine are kept only
a year in the seed bed and perhaps one or two years in the transplant
beds; but slow growing species, like cedar, must remain in the seed beds
two years and usually two years in the transplant beds. All this depends
upon the species and the site upon which it is to be planted.
If my reader were to visit the Pikes Peak region during spring or fall
he would doubtless encounter large gangs of men planting young trees
on the barren mountain slopes. Under the proper supervision of Forest
officers some of the men will be seen digging holes with a mattock while
others are coming directly behind them with bags or boxes with wet moss
or burlap, containing small trees. These men are called respectively the
diggers and planters. Two men will plant from 500 to 1,000 trees a day,
depending upon how deep the holes must be dug to accommodate the roots,
whether the ground is bare or covered with sod, whether the land is
mountainous or level, and many other factors.
In this way Uncle Sam plants his denuded areas in the Forests, so
that they will be producing _timber_ for future generations instead
of useless _brush_ or _tree weeds_. The great variety of climatic and
topographic conditions included in the National Forest area makes the
problem of tree planting infinitely complex. Nursery stock must be
raised in each region having similar climatic conditions, and in each of
these regions different methods of planting must be used, depending upon
local conditions. The semi-arid mesas of Arizona and New Mexico present
different planting problems from the humid forest regions of Oregon and
Washington; the methods used in the sandhills of Nebraska and the sand
plains of Michigan cannot be applied in full on the high mountain slopes
of Colorado; nor are the planting problems in the vast chaparral areas
of northern California anything like those encountered in the mountains
of Idaho, or in the prairie States of the Middle West, or in the Black
Hills. Then, again, the reforestation problems of the chaparral fields
of southern California are more perplexing than any I have mentioned
above.
[Illustration: Figure 28. A planting crew at work setting out small
trees. The man ahead digs the hole, and the man behind plants the tree.
Wasatch National Forest, Utah]
THE ORGANIZATION AND SCOPE OF FOREST EXPERIMENTS AND INVESTIGATIONS
_The Need of Scientific Experiments._ No science can make progress
without intensive experiments and investigations, least of all a new
science like forestry. The science of forestry as it has developed
in Europe is several hundred years old, but the science of forestry
as applied to American conditions is still in the infancy of its
development--probably not over 20 years old. Therefore we know very
little about our trees, our forests, and the wood which they produce,
and the professional foresters who handle the scientific work on our
National Forests are very much handicapped. To supply the needed
information about the requirements of many of our tree species, the uses
to which their wood can be put, and many other related subjects, the
Forest Service has established 8 Forest Experiment Stations (recently
reduced to 6) and one Forest Products Laboratory. It has become the
business of these institutions to study the laws governing the life of
the tree and the forest and their effect upon the final product--wood.
The Experiment Stations are working on the solution of the many
problems which confront the Forest officers in the management and the
protection of the National Forests; while the Forest Products Laboratory
was organized to promote the most profitable utilization and the most
economical disposition of the forest products of the National Forests.
Both sets of institutions, in doing this, are helping materially to
build up the science of American Forestry, which even to-day can hardly
be said to exist.
_The Science of Growing Timber._ In order to better understand the many
diversified problems which are being studied at the Forest Experiment
Stations, it is necessary to give the reader a few ideas concerning the
science of forest ecology. This science is the basis of all problems
dealing with the growing of timber and is therefore a study of the
utmost importance to forestry. Forest ecology is the study of the
relations of trees and forests to their surroundings. By surroundings
(or environment) we mean all the factors which influence their growth
and reproduction, such as soil temperature, soil moisture, soil
texture, rainfall, light, wind, air temperature, relative humidity,
altitude, slope, exposure, and surface. Forests, we must remember, are
not warehouses of standing logs; they are not merely aggregations of
individual trees; but they are complex communities of living organisms,
which are affected in many ways by climate and soil and which, in
turn, affect in no small degree the climatic and soil conditions in
their immediate vicinity. The forester cannot treat the forest as
an aggregation of individuals, for forests have laws which govern
their behavior which are entirely different from those that govern
the individual tree. Some foresters and botanists prefer to call this
science by the name of "tree sociology," and they compare it with human
sociology. Individuals, as we well know, are governed by different
natural laws than communities. Just so with trees and forests. In order,
therefore, to grow a never-failing supply of timber intelligently and
economically we must understand these complex organisms and communities,
we must study their behavior under different soil and climatic
conditions and ascertain the conditions under which they grow best. Only
by doing this can the forester achieve all the objects of forestry,
namely, to help Nature to produce more and better timber, in a shorter
length of time and at the smallest possible cost.
The experimental work of the Forest Experiment Stations is grouped
under such categories as these: dendrological studies, forestation
studies, studies in forest influences, studies relating to forest
management, studies in forest protection, commercial tree studies, and
grazing studies.
_Dendrological Studies._ Dendrological studies include studies in tree
distribution and wood identification. For each tree species growing in
the United States (and there are about 500 of them) it is desirable to
know its geographical distribution, its commercial distribution, and
its local distribution. The first of these deals with the entire range
of the tree by geographical divisions; the second of these with the
distribution of those bodies of timber that are of commercial quantity
or size; and the last deals with the distribution of the tree by
local divisions, such as lowlands, slopes, ridges, valleys, plateaus,
etc. This information is usually placed on maps for permanent record.
Observations by Forest officers on the many National Forests are
recorded by them and at the first opportunity sent to Washington. Very
often it happens that the range of a species of tree is considerably
extended and that a tree is found growing in a locality where it was
never reported from before. The identification of woods is done at
the Forest Products Laboratory. The distinguishing characteristics of
the woods of many American tree species have been determined. The wood
of different trees is studied under the microscope to discover in what
way it differs from other woods closely related. Many such results are
published for the benefit of both the lumber dealer and the general
public in the form of bulletins. Both the subject of dyewoods and that
of the many woods now sold as mahogany have been investigated in this
way. The resulting data have been used by many companies and have helped
to protect the public from frauds.
_Seed Studies._ Experiments in reforestation are grouped under seed
studies, nursery studies, and sowing and planting. Considerable work
has been done in developing the best methods of seed-extraction. Much
valuable information has been gathered on the largest amount of seed
that may be extracted from pine cones of different species per unit
of time at different degrees of temperature; the maximum temperature
which may be applied to seeds of different species without impairing
their vitality; the germinating power of seed extracted at different
temperatures; the comparative length of time required for the
germination of seed extracted with or without artificial heat; and the
most economical type of seed-extracting plant. Studies have been made
upon the comparative germination of tree seeds in the field and the
greenhouse. The ultimate success of the plantations being established
on the National Forests in a large degree depends upon the character
of the seed used. Hence studies are being conducted of the effect of
altitude, soil, age of the tree, density of stand, insect damage and
disease infection, and other factors that affect the mother tree, upon
the character of the seed collected from those trees, and the growth and
form of the resulting seedling. Also tests to show the effect of the
source of seed on the form and growth of young seedlings have indicated
very clearly that with all species the seed grown in the locality where
the trees are to be planted give as a rule better results than seed
imported from another region.
_Nursery Studies._ Nursery studies endeavor to show the most efficient
methods for growing young trees for field planting for each species
of trees. It is of great importance to know how much seed to sow per
foot in the nursery beds; what is the best time (spring or fall) for
sowing; to what depth the seed should be covered in order to give
the highest germination; whether better results are obtained by drill
sowing or by broadcast sowing; the best methods of shading, fertilizing,
watering, and cultivating the seed beds; the methods of securing the
best root development of the young seedlings; the best time and method
of transplanting from the nursery beds to the transplant beds; the best
methods for retarding spring growth in seedlings to be used at high
altitudes; and other problems of similar nature.
_Forestation Experiments._ Experiments in forestation have, year after
year, proven that planting is much safer than direct seeding and
ultimately less expensive. For this reason a greater emphasis has been
placed upon planting studies. These studies have attempted to show the
best season for planting each species; the best methods of planting; the
most advantageous classes of stock to use; and what the most suitable
sites are for each species of tree.
_Studies of Forest Influences._ Studies on the influence of forests upon
stream flow and erosion are attempting to furnish important data for
American conditions upon this subject. At the Wagon Wheel Gap Forest
Experiment Station in Colorado such a study is being carried on. The
purpose of the study for the first two or three years has been to
determine the character of the two streams which are to be measured. The
forest cover on the two watersheds is practically identical. The results
so far obtained indicate that the influence upon the stream flow must be
about the same in both cases, and, consequently, a comparison of these
streams after the denudation of one watershed will be a very fair test
of the influence of the forest cover upon the relative height of the
flood stage and low-water stage, the amount of erosion, and the rate of
melting of the snow.
[Illustration: Figure 29. At the Fort Valley Forest Experiment Station,
Coconino National Forest, Arizona. A typical meteorological station
Forest officer measuring precipitation. Note the shelter which contains
thermometers and also the electrically equipped instruments to record
the direction and velocity of the wind.]
[Illustration: Figure 30. Forest officer ascertaining the amount of
evaporation from a free water surface. Fort Valley Forest Experiment
Station, Flagstaff, Arizona.]
Experimental observations which have been conducted since 1908 at the
various Forest Experiment Stations have shown that the forest exercises
a decided moderating influence upon temperature extremes, wind motion,
and evaporation. Likewise, the presence of a forest cover retards the
melting of snow in the spring, and in this way huge snowbanks in the
forests feed the nearby streams until late in the summer. Forests
therefore have been shown to conserve the water supply and also causing
this water to run off slowly rather than in sudden floods. Studies have
also been conducted on determining the effect of cutting timber upon
the climate within the forest.
_Meteorological Observations._ The climatic requirements of forest types
have been studied at the Fremont Experiment Station since January 1,
1910, through experimental observations, and other stations have taken
up the same problem since that date. The first step in this work at the
Fremont has been to obtain a complete meteorological record as a basis
for determining what climatic conditions are most important in limiting
the natural range of such important species as Yellow pine, Douglas fir,
and Engelmann spruce. The data collected so far have shown that soil
moisture and soil temperature are the controlling factors in determining
the existence of the three forest types. It has also been shown what
climatic conditions each of the three types of forest must have in order
to succeed. This work has since been extended to include other types of
forest and a meteorological station has been established at timber line
on Pikes Peak. This station, which is at approximately 11,500 feet, is
equipped with self-recording instruments to measure the climatic factors
which obtain at that elevation and which mark the uppermost altitudinal
limit of tree growth in that locality.
Such studies as these, based upon systematic meteorological
observations, have an important bearing on all other forest problems.
The data secured in this way especially assist the technical foresters
in solving the various problems in forest management, reforestation,
fire protection, and land classification, besides giving positive
knowledge of the environment in which our trees live and of the factors
affecting their growth and reproduction. These systematic observations
are of prime importance if we ever hope to have a science of American
Forestry.
_Forest Management Studies._ Experiments in forest management are
carried on to determine the best methods of cutting National Forest
timber to secure natural reproduction and at the same time to improve
the quality and productivity of the remaining stand. These studies
are carried on by means of permanent sample plots, on which all the
trees are carefully measured and recorded. First the timber is cut
on the plots under different systems of management, or thinnings or
improvement cuttings are made. An exact record is kept of the amount
of timber removed and of the size and distribution of the remaining
trees. Measurements taken at regular intervals show the precise effect
of the method used on each plot. Close observations of the reproduction
which takes place, brush and other forms of cover which may establish
themselves, and changes in soil conditions are recorded. On similar
sample plots methods of brush disposal, methods of marking timber for
cutting, and thinning methods are studied. After logging there are
several ways in which the resulting slash may be disposed, depending
upon surrounding conditions. In some localities the brush must be
burned immediately on account of the fire danger which its presence
involves; in other places it must be removed because it interferes with
reproduction; in still other places the brush may be scattered over the
area because there is little fire danger and, in fact, the brush has
been found to assist and protect reproduction. All these possibilities
must be determined by experiments. Likewise in marking timber for
cutting and in thinning practice various methods are possible, depending
upon circumstances, the most important of which are the requirements of
the species and the density of the forest.
Other management studies deal with the determination by actual
measurement of the volumes of trees and stands, and the growth of trees
and the yields of whole forests. Reliable growth and yield data for the
different species and types are necessary to properly handle timber
sales as well as for forest management. They are also essential for
determining damages caused by fires and trespass.
_Forest Protection Studies._ Studies in forest protection endeavor to
find the best methods of protecting the National Forests from fire,
grazing, disease, insects, wind, snow, hail, and animals. The most
efficient protection of the National Forests from fire calls for an
accurate, scientific knowledge of all the factors that enter into the
problem. Comprehensive studies are undertaken to secure the basis for a
more scientific method of distributing National Forest fire-protecting
funds. The aim has been to find the degree of intensiveness in fire
protection warranted by timber, forage, and watershed values, as
modified by their susceptibility to damage by fire. Under the ideal
system of allotting fire-protecting funds, the most valuable resources,
which at the same time are most in danger of destruction by fire,
should receive the largest amount of funds and therefore the greatest
amount of protection. Less valuable resources, less susceptible to
fire danger, should receive protection in proportion. Other classes
of fire protection studies have to do with the various phases of
fire prevention, fire detection, and fire control. Studies have also
been carried on to determine the rapidity with which fire spreads in
different forest types, and under a given set of climatic conditions.
_Protection from Grazing Damage._ Studies of the effects of grazing
upon the natural reproduction of forests are conducted with a view to
devising a system of range control which would minimize such injury
without requiring the total exclusion of the stock from the range.
Studies have shown that serious damage occurs to seedlings under
four feet in height during the dry season, on areas containing poor
forage, or which have been overgrazed, or where there was little or no
underbrush. It was found that sheep do twice as much damage as cattle.
Some of the measures that have been adopted to lessen the injury to
reproduction by sheep and cattle are: the revegetation of overgrazed
areas, reductions in the amount of stock, provisions for the better
distribution of stock by the regulation of watering places, and
the exclusion of sheep from cut-over areas on which reproduction is
deficient until the seedlings reach a sufficient height to be out of the
reach of the animals.
_Protection from Insects and Diseases._ In coöperation with the Bureau
of Entomology and the Bureau of Plant Industry the Forest Service is
conducting a large number of studies and investigations dealing with the
insects and diseases that do destructive damage to forests. The direct
result of these studies will be the gradual eradication of predaceous
insects and dangerous tree diseases from the valuable timber forests
of the Government. Control measures already taken have shown the value
of exact scientific information. On the Klamath National Forest some
years ago about 900 acres were treated for insect infestation. The cost
was about $3,000 and the amount of timber saved by the eradication of
the insects was worth over $600,000. Other studies are carried on to
identify and describe certain classes of insects, such, for instance,
as those that destroy the seeds of trees in the cones. The various
families, genera, and species of forest insects are studied and
described, and the results are published in the form of monographs.
Many of these insects are difficult to identify and concerning others
very little is known. Investigations on tree diseases have not made
such good progress, because tree diseases are much more difficult to
control. Tree diseases, like human diseases, must be prevented instead
of controlled. A general survey of the tree diseases prevalent in the
National Forests has been made, especially in California. Further
studies have brought to light little known or even unknown diseases. In
California, studies have shown that a certain relation exists between
old age and disease. Incense cedar, for example, seems to become
infested after it reaches maturity at an age of about 150 years.
_Tree Studies._ Commercial tree studies are made of important tree
species. The results are published in the form of monographs dealing
with the range, silvicultural characteristics, growth, yield and
management of each tree. These studies bring together all the important
facts known about the tree described, such as: the industrial uses
of the wood, the conditions under which the tree succeeds, the rate
of growth in different situations, and the most suitable methods of
management to secure the highest returns. Tables are included to show
the volume of the trees at different ages and sizes, in cubic feet, in
cords, in board feet, etc. Studies are also made of the life history
and requirements of important forest trees, often in connection with
commercial studies. Such studies cover: local, geographical, and
commercial occurrence of the species, the species which are associated
with it, the habit of the tree, its soil and climatic requirements for
germination and growth, and the various matters connected with its
reproduction. Such publications as these give the Forest officers much
valuable information about the trees with which they are dealing, and
also furnish the only sources of information to students in forest
schools on the characteristics and requirements of the trees important
in forestry in this country.
_Grazing Investigations._ Grazing investigations, being intimately
connected with a great national industry, have received a considerable
amount of attention. These studies are confined at present to grazing
reconnoissance, the reseeding of depleted mountain grazing lands,
studies in the best methods of handling sheep on the range, studies of
the effect of grazing on the forest, identification of range plants,
and the systematic elimination of poisonous range plants and predatory
animals.
Grazing reconnoissance is a stock taking of the forage possibilities of
a certain piece of range land. This work is usually done by organized
parties, but a small amount is done also by Forest officers in spare
time. This study aims to collect all the important grazing information,
such as: the area of grazing lands, the kind of forage, the species of
forage plants, the location of streams, springs, and other watering
places for stock, the location of stock driveways, drift fences, and
cabins, the location of timber lands that do and those that do not
contain forage, and many other matters pertaining to the grazing of
stock. The maps and field data secured furnish the basis for range
improvement and more intensive range management. Up to date, over
12,288,885 acres of range lands have been covered in this way.
All intensive forage and range experiments are conducted at the Great
Basin Experiment Station on the Manti National Forest. Here intensive
problems are carried on under controlled conditions and under constant
and careful observation and the necessary care and thoroughness is
given to them which could only be given them at a fully equipped
experiment station. All grazing investigations on the National Forests
are carried on under the direct supervision of this station.
The seeding of depleted grazing lands is accomplished either by direct
artificial seeding or through rotation grazing. Under the former method
the seed of native or foreign grasses and other range plants are sown
on the range, in the attempt to increase the forage crop. By rotation
grazing, that is, permitting the stock to feed first on one area and
then on another, the grasses and forage plants are allowed to recuperate
from the effect of grazing and allowed to reproduce. The stock is
excluded from one area while the seed is maturing, and after the seed
has matured and become scattered on the area the stock is allowed to
graze on it. As the stock feeds on the plants it tramples the seed
into the ground and thereby furnishes favorable conditions for the
germination of the seed. There are few parts of the National Forests
that cannot be completely regenerated by the adoption of either one or
the other of these two methods.
To reduce interference with the natural processes of reforestation,
damage to tree growth and watersheds, depletion of grazing lands, and
the waste of valuable forest resources, it is important to develop
improved methods of managing different kinds of live stock on different
types of land. These new methods of handling stock have been applied
only to sheep. The lambing of sheep in small inclosures on the open
range has resulted in the saving of a large percentage of the lambs. The
new method of bedding sheep where they happen to be at nightfall has
been found to have many advantages over the old system of returning them
to an established bedding ground a number of nights in succession. The
results have been better sheep, less damage to range, and more feed.
It was not so many years ago that practically nothing was known about
the various plants which make up the forage crop on the National
Forests. Forest officers could not identify the plants or say whether
they were of value for forage or not. This made it difficult to secure
the use of each range by the class of stock to which it was best
adapted, to apply deferred and rotation grazing and to eliminate losses
from poisonous plants. This obstacle to efficient range management
was overcome when a system of plant collection and identification
was started by the Forest Service. Some 23,000 specimens of about
3,000 different species have been collected on the National Forests,
identified by specialists and the collector informed as to the value
of each species. The identification of range plants is the first step
toward securing an intimate knowledge of the life history of the
plant. Such information as the soil and moisture requirements, date of
flowering and seeding, requirements for reproduction, and its relation
to other range plants is of the utmost importance if the maximum forage
crop is to be produced on the range each year. This constitutes the
latest stage in the development of grazing studies.
[Illustration: Figure 31. Forest Ranger with his pack horses travelling
over his district. Meadow Creek, foot of Mt. Wilson, Montezuma National
Forest, Colorado]
_Investigations Dealing with Poisonous Plants and Predatory Animals._
In coöperation with the Bureau of Plant Industry the study of poisonous
plants and the means for reducing the losses from them has been
undertaken. The death camas, the lupines, the larkspurs, some of the
wild cherries, locoweed, and practically all species of zygadenus are
plants that have been found to cause death among stock. While the
handling of stock to avoid the poison areas can eliminate the losses
to a small extent, it has been found that the most expeditious remedy is
in digging out and destroying the poisonous plants. On the Stanislaus
National Forest in California, a cattle range of about 14,000 acres,
containing about 67 acres of larkspur, was cleared of this weed at a
cost of about $695. The average loss of cattle in previous years had
been about 34 head. Following the eradication of the larkspur the loss
was 4 head. The net saving was valued at $1,800. Similar operations are
conducted on other Forests.
The work of the destruction of predatory animals has been transferred to
the hands of the Bureau of Biological Survey. Formerly special Forest
Service hunters were detailed to hunt the animals, and these men used to
kill about 4,000 a year. The Biological Survey, however, still furnishes
traps, ammunition and poison for the destruction of predatory animals
to Forest officers, who do this work in connection with their regular
duties. Bears, coyotes, mountain lions, lynxes, wildcats, and wolves are
the animals that do the most of the damage. What makes the problem a
difficult one is that the wolf and the coyote, the two species which do
the greatest damage to game and domestic stock, are transient visitors
on the Forests which frequent the Forests only when game and stock is
most abundant. They are bred, born, and spend the greater portion of
their lives in the foothills outside of the National Forests. Under
these conditions the animals killed on the Forests are quickly replaced
by others from outside. For this reason the matter was handed over to
the Biological Survey, which will destroy these animals throughout the
public domain and the results will be much more permanent and effective.
Besides the investigations carried on by the Forest Experiment Stations
many studies are carried on dealing with forest products. The purpose of
the Branch of Forest Research of the Forest Service is to promote the
most profitable and economical utilization of forest products by means
of experiments and investigations. The work of the Branch falls into
three divisions: National Forest utilization, the work of the Forest
Products Laboratory, and industrial investigations.
_National Forest Utilization Experiments._ The work of the proper
utilization of the products of the National Forests is under the
supervision of the District Forester and the Assistant District
Forester in charge of Forest Products in the districts. Only three out
of the seven districts have such an organization. These men have charge
of all problems connected with the use and marketing of National Forest
timber, the construction of improvements on the Forests, and related
administrative questions. The following problems are included: studies
of existing industries, covering methods and costs of manufacture,
grades, and other specifications of manufactured products and the
prices obtained for such products; the collection of market prices,
mill scale studies to determine grades and overrun, and investigations
in kiln drying; waste in existing industries and closer utilization
possible through improved methods; new uses for National Forest species
through wood preservation; introduction of industries which will
result in closer or more profitable utilization, as the manufacture of
pulp and paper, wood distillation, turpentining, and the manufacture
of secondary wood products; overcoming prejudices against particular
species or classes of material; general questions of timber supply
and demand, markets and freight rates; advice and assistance in the
construction of National Forest improvements, particularly in the
use of wood preservatives; advice and assistance to persons on any
matter connected with the utilization of National Forest timber; the
preparation of publications upon subjects covered by investigations
which have practical or scientific value; and demonstrations of methods
or processes developed by the Forest Service for the benefit of local
communities.
The presence on a Forest of large quantities of unmarketable timber,
or dead timber, or of material not used in current sales would mean
an investigation of methods for its utilization. Local problems
affecting wood-using industries in manufacturing or marketing timber,
such as sap stain in lumber, difficulties in seasoning lumber, and
the effect of different silvicultural methods upon the average grades
of lumber manufactured, are also taken up with the Products experts
at the District Office. Also in the construction of National Forest
improvements the Forest Supervisor may need assistance in applying wood
preservatives to telephone poles, fence posts, and other material.
Sometimes timber treating plants are erected, if necessary, to treat not
only material used on the National Forests, but also material used by
local residents near a Forest.
One of the important problems which confronts the Office of Products
in the various National Forest districts is the utilization of the
so-called low grade or inferior tree species. The terms "high grade"
and "low grade" or "inferior," as used at present, merely indicate the
lumberman's valuation of the timber from his point of view and according
to his standards of value. If a certain species will not produce clear
lumber, which is straight-grained, easily worked, and not subject to
splitting or warping, it is at once classed as inferior. But the Forest
Products specialists each year are making progress in demonstrating that
wood, in order to be of marketable value, does not necessarily need to
be cut in the form of lumber. It is also being shown that proper methods
of drying lumber make possible the use of inferior woods for lumber and
manufacturing purposes.
The Office of Forest Products in California has made considerable
progress in overcoming the lumberman's prejudices against the inferior
species in the California National Forests and the species are beginning
to find wider use and to command better prices. The discovery that
Incense cedar was valuable for making lead pencils caused the price of
this so-called "inferior" species to jump from an average of $10 per
thousand feet in logs f. o. b. cars to as high as $16. White fir, a
species religiously avoided by lumbermen in the woods, was found to have
special properties which make it very valuable as a pulpwood. One mill
in California now uses annually upwards of 30,000 cords of it for making
paper. Lodgepole pine has been shown to have a great value for telephone
and telegraph poles when treated with preservatives. It was found to be
12 per cent. stronger than Western Red cedar, the standard pole timber,
has a more desirable taper and can be shipped for less money. Many other
cases could be cited from this and other National Forest Districts.
_Forest Products Laboratory Experiments._ The work of the Forest
Products Laboratory includes investigations on the mechanical properties
of wood; the physical and chemical characteristics and properties of
wood; air seasoning and artificial drying of wood; agencies destructive
to wood; wood preservation; wood distillation; production of naval
stores; and the production of pulp and paper and other chemical
products of wood. This work is carried on at the Laboratory and
sometimes in coöperation with the National Forests and district experts.
At the Laboratory there is a director and a large staff of technical and
scientific men, such as chemists, physicists, and engineers, each of
whom is an expert in his particular line of work.
A good deal of attention is given to testing the strength of woods
grown in the United States, as a means of assisting users to select the
species best adapted to a given purpose, or to find substitutes for
species which are becoming difficult to obtain. The strength of a good
many species used for structural timbers has been tested. The species
most used for this class of timber are the Southern pines, Douglas fir,
Norway pine, Tamarack, and Red spruce. An important discovery was made
several years ago that Western hemlock, generally considered an inferior
timber, showed an average strength 88 per cent. as great as that of
Douglas fir, one of the best construction timbers in the United States.
Strength tests have also been made on fire-killed timber and these have
shown that timber killed by fire is almost as strong as green timber.
Other tests have been made to determine the effect of preservative
treatment upon the strength of timber. As a result of the large number
and variety of strength tests carried on by this Laboratory the United
States Government now has a more thorough and comprehensive collection
of data on the mechanical properties of wood than any other nation.
Many studies are also conducted to determine the physical properties
and the structure of the different kinds of wood grown in this country.
The minute structure of the wood of many of our native species has been
studied by means of microscopic slides. A study has also been made of a
large number of species to determine the specific gravity of the actual
wood substance. Other tests are made to determine the specific heat of
woods.
The drying or seasoning of woods, more especially of certain species
which have been found difficult to season, has received a good deal of
attention. A new type of kiln, invented by a Forest Service man, has
been devised to season such woods as the eucalyptus, which has always
been very difficult to handle in drying. Western larch has been seasoned
with a loss of only 5 per cent., whereas the loss in ordinary commercial
kilns usually ran between 60 and 70 per cent. As a result, many
manufacturers have remodeled their old kilns to embody the new Forest
Service methods. A new method has also been developed for the rapid
dry-kilning of Eastern hemlock, which has great commercial possibilities.
Experiments in wood preservation have to do with the kind of
preservatives it is best to use, the character of the wood to be
treated, and the methods of injection. Experiments have developed the
best methods for treating railroad ties, mine timbers, fence posts,
wood paving blocks, telephone and telegraph poles, and wharf piling.
Untreated mine timbers have been found to last only from 1 to 2 years,
while treated ones are usually entirely sound at the end of 4 years.
Untreated railroad ties last from 5 to 10 years, while treated ones will
last over 15. Such experiments as these have shown the advisability
of treating all kinds of timbers with creosote or zinc chloride, or
some other preservative. Many new preservatives are being proposed or
marketed each year by various companies or individuals. These are all
tested to determine their value to prevent the growth of fungi in the
wood. Their efficiency varies greatly and many of them have been shown
to have very small value.
Studies in wood distillation seek to find new woods which can be used
for this industry, new and more efficient methods which can be employed,
and new uses for wood waste and stumps. Charcoal, wood alcohol, acetate
of lime, and tar are derived from the distillation of such woods as
beech, birch, and maple, to which tar oils and turpentine are added
for the pines and other resinous woods. These by-products of wood
distillation have many uses, as well as the many products which are, in
turn, made from these by-products. Charcoal is used in the manufacture
of black powder, acetic acid is used in the manufacture of explosives,
and wood alcohol is converted into formaldehyde for disinfection against
contagious diseases. By means of temperature control methods developed
at the Laboratory in the destructive distillation of hardwoods, the net
gain per annum of one company's plant was over $17,000. About one-half
of the plants of the country have adopted the new method developed by
the Forest Products Laboratory.
Experiments have been conducted by the Laboratory in the distillation
of the needles of coniferous trees and the distillation of the crude
gum of some of the important timber trees of the South and West. The
oils distilled from many trees in this way have found great use for
various purposes. Shoeblacking owes its peculiar aromatic odor, faintly
suggestive of the deep spruce and hemlock woods, to an oil which is
distilled from these same kind of needles. Evergreen tree leaf oils
are used for the perfume of soap, and in the manufacture of liniments,
insecticides, and medicinal preparations.
Investigations have been carried on at the Forest Products Laboratory
in making artificial silk from sawdust. The industry has already
attained considerable proportions. It consists principally of converting
cellulose into viscose, which, in turn, is manufactured into an almost
endless number and variety of silk and other goods varying from sausage
casings to silk hose and tapestries. Sawdust is used also in the
manufacture of inlaid linoleum and dynamite.
Experiments in naval stores are attempting to improve the old methods
of harvesting turpentine, which have proven very destructive to the
forests. With the approaching exhaustion of the Southern Pinery as
a field for the naval stores industry, it has become more and more
important to find other species for this purpose. Consequently the
Laboratory has conducted experiments with the various pines on the
National Forests in California, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.
[Illustration: Figure 32. A plank of Incense cedar affected by a disease
known as "pin rot." By cutting the cedar timber when it is mature this
can be largely avoided. Lassen National Forest, California. Photo by the
author.]
[Illustration: Figure 33. The western pine forests will some day be a
great source for naval stores. By distilling the crude resin of the
Jeffrey pine a light volatile oil--abietene--is secured which has great
healing and curative properties. Lassen National Forest, California.
Photo by the author.]
A great many pulp and paper investigations are also conducted by this
Laboratory. The large size of the industry and the threatened exhaustion
of the native spruce forests which furnish the principal supply are
circumstances which call for intensive investigations. About nine-tenths
of the paper which we use is made from wood, and the amount of wood
which is converted into paper annually has reached almost 5,000,000
cords. There are over 2,500 newspapers in the United States, and it
is said that a single issue of a New York Sunday paper consumes the
trees on about 15 acres of forest. The main object of the work at the
Laboratory has been to use other species of wood for the manufacture of
paper to offset the fast waning supplies of spruce. Poplar, hemlock,
pine and balsam are now being used in considerable quantities. News
and wrapping paper has also been successfully made from many National
Forest species, including Sitka spruce, Western hemlock, Engelmann
spruce, Red fir, White fir, and Lodgepole pine. Kraft paper has been
made and manufactured into suitcases, bags, wall coverings, twine, and
similar articles. Not only has the Forest Products Laboratory brought
into use species of trees never before tried for paper making, but it
has also improved some of the old methods of paper making to such an
extent that the results have been adopted by various large paper mills.
Many strength tests are conducted with packing boxes. The railroad
companies of the United States are paying annually claims amounting to
many millions of dollars because of goods damaged in shipment. Much of
the damage is preventable through properly constructed boxes. Tests
conducted at the Laboratory have shown for canned-food boxes an increase
in strength of 300 per cent, by the use of four additional nails in each
end of the box. The results of these tests are being rapidly adopted by
manufacturers and canners.
The dyeing principle of the Osage orange wood was not used prior to the
investigations conducted by the Laboratory. The value of this material
has been so conclusively shown that about one million dollars' worth
of the dye is now being manufactured annually in the United States and
practically all from material which was formerly wasted.
The discovery that sodium fluoride is superior to sodium carbonate in
preventing sap stain in lumber promises to reduce materially the present
estimated loss of $7,000,000 from this cause.
_Industrial Investigations._ The function of the Office of Industrial
Investigations of the Branch of Forest Research is to conduct
statistical and industrial studies of uses of wood in the United States.
The aim of these investigations is to determine methods and conditions
under which wood is now used; the marketable products obtained from
it; tendencies in methods of manufacture; and improved methods
possible, especially in the utilization of waste. When practicable,
such investigations are followed by the commercial application of their
results. This office also conducts all statistical investigations of the
production and use of forest products.
The work of industrial investigations includes the following: collection
and compilation of statistics on the production and consumption of
forest products, prevailing market and stumpage prices, imports
and exports, and transportation rates; the compilation and study of
specifications of rough and manufactured forest products; studies of
lumber manufacture and wood-using industries as to methods, forms
of material, waste, costs, equipment, substitution of one species
for another, and improvements through a more conservative use of
raw material; studies of special problems or features of wood-using
industries; advice and assistance to States, industries and individuals
along such lines of work; and the dissemination of results by
publications.
Many studies in wood utilization are made not only of certain industries
like the shingle, or the lumber industry, but also dealing with the
industries of particular sections of the country and with the various
States. These investigations in the States show the kinds and amounts
of woods required by the various industries, the purposes for which the
various species are employed, and the extent of their use. So far the
wood-using industries of 35 States have been studied and the results
published.
Records of lumber prices for important woods are compiled quarterly.
These figures are useful in establishing timber sale prices on the
National Forests. Statistics as to the annual consumption of lumber in
the country are also compiled by this office.
The wood waste exchange was established in 1914 by the Forest Service.
It consists of two lists of manufacturers, which are sent out quarterly
to persons desiring them. One of these is of "Opportunities to Sell
Waste" and contains the names of firms which use sawdust and small
pieces of wood. This list is sent to people having waste for sale. The
other list is of "Opportunities to Buy Waste," and gives the names of
concerns which have waste to dispose of. This list is sent to people who
wish to buy material. No charge is made for this service, and at the
present time over 500 coöperators are using this exchange.
By the use of this exchange, makers of wooden novelties have been
successful in finding supplies of material near their plants. Other
wood-working industries have been able to dispose of their waste at
higher prices than they could otherwise have obtained. Many firms were
located within short distances of each other, but until recently have
had no way of getting together. A Philadelphia firm, engaged in the
manufacture of composition flooring, has been able to obtain a portion
of its sawdust from a New York lumber company. A New York woodworking
establishment disposed of its waste pieces of white oak and sugar maple
to a maker of wooden novelties in Connecticut for use in the manufacture
of furniture knobs. A clock maker of Connecticut secured waste material
for making clock boxes from the planing mill of a New York lumber
company.
CHAPTER III
THE PROTECTION OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS
The resources of the National Forests may be injured or destroyed in
many ways. Fire may burn the timber and young growth; insects and tree
diseases may damage or kill timber, and certain persons may innocently
or willfully commit trespass on National Forest land and use the
resources without permit. Then also, the fish and game of the Forests
must be protected from unlawful shooting and trapping, and the water
issuing from National Forest streams must be kept free from pollution,
to protect the public health.
PROTECTION FROM FIRE
_Forest Fire Danger on the National Forests._ Practically all the
resources of the National Forests are subject to severe injury or
even to entire destruction by fire. It is an ever-present danger on
the National Forests, due to their great inaccessibility, their dry
climate, and to other unfavorable conditions. There are probably few
forest regions in the world where the danger of fire is greater than
on the National Forests. The great size of the individual Forests,
as compared with the size of the available patrolling force, the
difficulty of reaching remote areas across miles of wilderness, the dry
air and light rainfall in most parts of the western United States, the
prevalence of lightning storms in the mountains, the sparseness of the
population, and the constant use of fire in the industries and the daily
life of the people, all combine to make the hazard exceptional.
_Importance of Fire Protection._ Forest fires when uncontrolled mean
the loss of human lives, the destruction of homes, live stock, forage,
timber and watershed cover. Besides the direct damage to the National
Forest resources it defeats all attempts to practice forestry; it
nullifies all efforts of forest management, such as regulation of
cutting to insure a second crop of timber, the planting of denuded
areas, and the restriction of grazing to assist reproduction. Fire
destroys the very improvements which are constructed annually at great
expense. In other words, protection from fire is the first and most
important problem on the National Forests without which no operation or
transaction, however small, can be undertaken.
If the problem of fire protection is the most important task confronting
a Forest officer on the National Forests, then certainly fire prevention
is next in importance. Obviously it is easier to prevent fires than
to fight them. All large conflagrations have their origin in small
fires which if they could be reached in time could probably be put out
by one man. But in regions remote from water and supplies fires may
start and reach vast proportions before a party of fire fighters can
get to the scene, no matter how promptly the start is made. By far the
best plan, therefore, is to prevent fires rather than to depend upon
fighting them after they get started. To this end the Forest Service has
given the most earnest consideration. During the dangerous season the
main attention of Forest Supervisors and Forest Rangers is devoted to
preventing fire. Extra men are employed, the Forests are systematically
patrolled, and a careful lookout is maintained from high points. Roads
and trails are so built that every part of the Forests may be quickly
reached with pack animals. Tools and food for fire fighters are
stored at convenient places. The Ranger stations and lookout houses
are connected with the office of the Forest Supervisor by telephone,
so that men may be quickly assembled to fight a dangerous fire which
the patrolman cannot subdue alone. Each Forest Supervisor endeavors to
secure the coöperation of all forest users in the work of preventing
fires and in reporting and helping to fight them in case they get
started.
Probably the beginning point of any discussion of forest fires is a
consideration of their causes. The Forest Service has kept careful
records year after year (by calendar and not fiscal years) concerning
the cause, the damage, the area burned over, the cost of fighting and
many other matters. During the calendar year 1917 there were 7,814
forest fires on the National Forests. Of these the National Forests of
California had to contend with 1,862. Of the total number of forest
fires 40 per cent. were confined to less than 1/4 of an acre, 28 per
cent. to less than 10 acres, while 32 per cent. spread over areas
greater than 10 acres. The large percentage of small fires shows how
efficiently the National Forest fire protection organization works in
keeping the area burned over to the lowest possible acreage.
_Causes of Forest Fires on the National Forests._ Forest fires on the
National Forests originate in many different ways. In 1917, lightning
caused 27 per cent.; unknown agencies, 17 per cent.; campers, 17 per
cent.; incendiaries, 12 per cent.; railroads, 13 per cent.; brush
burning, 7 per cent.; saw mills, 3 per cent., and all other causes, 4
per cent. Thus it will be seen that a very large percentage, at least
60 per cent., of the fires are attributable to human agencies and
are therefore preventable. At least 27 per cent, of the fires, those
attributed to lightning, are not preventable, and the only way to combat
those is for the Forest officer to get to them as soon as possible after
they get started. The preventable fires, however, may be arrested at
their source, that is, by popular education dealing with the use of fire
in the woods these causes can be greatly reduced and, in time, no doubt,
eliminated. Therefore, the fire protection problem immediately resolves
itself into two almost distinct phases of action--fire prevention and
fire control.
[Illustration: Figure 34. A forest fire lookout station at the summit of
Mt. Eddy. Mt. Shasta in the background, California]
Just how these various agencies start fires may be of interest.
Railroads cause fires by their locomotives sending out sparks through
the smokestack or dropping hot ashes along the right-of-way. These
sparks alight in inflammable material, such as dry grass and leaves,
and start a fire. Lightning sets fire to trees, especially dead and dry
ones. In the California mountains, lightning storms without rain are
frequent and these do great damage. The author has seen as many as nine
forest fires started by a single lightning storm inside of half an hour.
Incendiary fires are set by people with varying intent. How many are set
with malicious intent, just to see the forests burn, is not known, but
many fires are started by people setting fires to drive game, to improve
the pasture, to make traveling through the woods easier, or for other
reasons. Brush burning includes those fires which start from settlers
clearing land and burning the brush and thickets. Campers cause a large
percentage of the fires by leaving their camp fires burning. Instead
of extinguishing them before they leave camp, careless people let them
burn; a wind blows a few sparks into some dry leaves or grass nearby,
and the fire is started. Many forest fires also start around logging
camps by sparks escaping from logging engines, or by setting fire to
the slash that is left after logging and allowing these fires to get
beyond control.
_Behavior of Forest Fires._ Fires behave differently, once they get
started, depending upon the character of the timber, the amount of wind,
and the degree of inflammability of the forest cover. Ground fires burn
the inflammable dry grass, needles, dead twigs, etc., on the ground;
crown fires are much more severe and, being usually fanned by a heavy
wind, run through the tops or crowns of the trees; brush fires burn the
bushes and dry shrubs from 5 to 10 feet high; timber fires consume the
entire forest--crown, stem, ground cover, and undergrowth--and usually
occur in timber that stands close together.
_Losses by Forest Fires on the National Forests._ The results of forest
fires naturally vary with the kind and intensity of the fire. Crown and
timber fires do the most damage, and ground and brush fires do less.
While the ground fires and brush fires seem to do very little damage to
the valuable timber, still they may greatly reduce the productive power
of the soil and destroy the watershed cover. Severe ground fires may
kill valuable timber by girdling the trees. The great fires of August,
1910, which swept northern Idaho and western Montana destroyed millions
of dollars' worth of timber and 85 human lives, and cost the United
States $839,000 for fire fighting. These were timber fires and they
occurred for the most part in valuable stands of dense timber.
The forest fire losses on the National Forests for the last 9 years
show a very great and gradual reduction of losses due to forest fires.
In 1908, the total loss through fires was $451,188 and in 1909 it was
$297,275. In 1910, the year of the great fires in Montana and Idaho,
there were very heavy losses in timber and human lives, due to an
unusual combination of dry weather and high winds. But in that year
the fire organization was not complete; it had never really been tried
out. In this year the organization received its first severe test, and
while it did the best it could with the available men and equipment,
the situation in Idaho pointed out conclusively the weak points and the
short-comings. The proof of these statements is found in the statistics
of the next 5 years, when the average total loss for 1911 to 1915,
inclusive, was $293,000, and, it must be remembered, several of these
years were equally as unfavorable, so far as dry weather and high winds
were concerned, as the year 1910. During these years, however, the fire
fighting organization had a good chance to be tried out thoroughly; for,
as is quite evident, experience is the greatest teacher in this kind of
work. During the calendar year 1916 the fire losses reached a new low
level, compared to other years, the losses amounting to only $198,599.
In 1917 they were higher.
[Illustration: Figure 35. A forest fire lookout station on the summit
of Brokeoff Mountain, elevation 9,500 feet. Lassen National Forest,
California. Photo by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 36. Turner Mountain lookout station, Lassen
National Forest, California. This is a 10 ft. by 10 ft. cabin with
a stove and with folding bed, table, and chairs. The forest officer
stationed here watches for forest fires day and night throughout the
fire season. Photo by the author.]
_The Forest Fire Problem Stated._ Having seen a little of the causes,
behavior and results of forest fires on the National Forests, it is
comparatively easy to state the forest fire problem as it occurs on
the National Forests. Briefly stated, it is this: With the funds,
organization and equipment that are available, the aim of the Forest
Service is to keep the area burned over each year (and therefore the
damage done) down to an accepted reasonable minimum. But the problem
is not as easily worked out as it is stated, due, largely, to a great
many uncontrollable and variable factors which cannot be foreseen in
advance, the most important of which are the weather conditions. As
has been said before, there are two general ways of keeping the area
burned over down to an accepted reasonable minimum: either prevent the
fires from getting started (as in the case of those started by human
agencies) or, after they get started, to get to them with men and fire
fighting implements in the shortest possible time after they are found.
The former is called fire prevention, and the latter fire suppression or
control. How the organization of the National Forests solves these two
problems is of the greatest interest.
_Fire Prevention._ The measures employed for fire prevention may be
either administrative, legislative or educative in nature.
The most important administrative measures employed to prevent fire
are those that aim to reduce the amount of inflammable material in
the National Forests. This is done in many different ways. The free
use timber policy enables Rangers to give away much dead timber, both
standing and down. Timber operators cutting on the National Forests are
required by the Forest Service contract to remove dead snags, which are
a fire menace, from the timber sale area. Where there is fire danger,
all slashing resulting from such sales must be burned or otherwise
disposed of. While grazing is usually not considered a measure to
prevent fires, still grass lands that have not been grazed over become
very dry in the fall and are a dangerous fire menace. Wherever it is
feasible, old slash left by lumbermen on private lands adjacent or
near to the National Forests are burned, when the fire can be confined
to a small area. Another administrative measure is the reduction of
the causes of fires by a patrol force. Forest Guards travel along the
highways where there is most traffic and most danger. Their presence
often is enough to remind campers, hunters and fishermen to put their
camp fires out before leaving them. These patrolmen mix with the people
and, if necessary, remind them in a courteous way to be careful to
extinguish their camp fires before breaking camp.
Most of the necessary legislative measures for preventing forest fires
already exist. The National Forest force is seeking merely to obtain
a strict enforcement of existing laws. Railroads are required to use
spark-arresters on their locomotives and to provide for keeping their
rights-of-way free from inflammable material. Logging camps must also
prevent the destruction of National Forest timber by fire by using
spark-arresters on all logging engines. The Forest officers are ever
on the alert for the detection and apprehension of campers for leaving
fires unextinguished and incendiaries for starting fires willfully.
These careless individuals are arrested by them without warrant, either
under the Federal laws, if the fire occurred on National Forest lands,
or under the State law, if it occurred outside of government lands.
Educational measures are for the purpose of educating both the local
forest-using public and the general public who may travel through the
Forests in the careful use of fires in the forests. Forest officers,
especially Rangers, come into personal touch with local residents and
users, that is, the ranchers, stockmen, business men, loggers, campers,
hunters, fishermen and others. Such people are often reminded by
personal appeals by the Forest officers. Most of them have learned by
this time, because of having been called upon to help fight fires at
one time or another, and having gotten a taste of the result of other
people's carelessness. Many written appeals are also sent out by the
Supervisor and are slipped into the envelopes when grazing permits and
other official documents are mailed. One of these written appeals, and
probably the one that has been used most widely, is known as the six
rules for the prevention of fires in the mountains:
1. Matches.--Be sure your match is out. Break it in two before
you throw it away.
2. Tobacco.--Throw pipe ashes and cigar or cigarette stumps in
the dust of the road and stamp or pinch out the fire before
leaving them. Don't throw them into the brush, leaves, or
needles.
3. Making camp.--Build a small camp fire. Build it in the open,
not against a tree or log, or near brush. Scrape away the
trash from all around it.
4. Leaving camp.--Never leave a camp fire, even for a short
time, without quenching it with water or earth.
5. Bonfires.--Never build bonfires in windy weather or where
there is the slightest danger of their escaping from
control. Don't make them larger than you need.
6. Fighting fires.--If you find a fire try to put it out. If you
can't, get word of it to the nearest United States forest
ranger or State fire warden at once. Keep in touch with the
rangers.
Besides these kinds of appeals, many kinds of fire warnings are posted
at conspicuous places along roads and trails to remind the public to be
careful with fire in the Forests.
[Illustration: Figure 37. A fire line cut through the low bush-like
growth of "Chaparral" on the Angeles National Forest, California. This
"Chaparral" is of great value for regulating stream flow. The streams
are used for water power, domestic purposes, and for irrigating many of
the largest lemon and orange groves of southern California.]
[Illustration: Figure 38. A forest officers' temporary camp while
fighting forest fires. Near Oregon National Forest, Oregon.]
An attempt is also made to reach the general public, that is, those
living outside the local communities, but who occasionally travel
through and use the National Forests. Many hundreds of thousands
travel through the Forests every year by automobile or by other
conveyances. These people camp in the Forests, fish, hunt, and enjoy the
cool climate and beautiful scenery. Before they start on their trips,
that is, while they are still in their home towns, and also while they
are on their way, many means have been devised to reach them. They
are confronted with newspaper advertisements, folders, booklets, and
other printed matter. In towns and cities, public meetings, lectures,
exhibits, expositions, county fairs, commercial clubs, and the chambers
of commerce, all help, either directly or indirectly, by one means or
another, to inform the people of the great fire danger on the National
Forests. Even the letters sent out by the District Forester and the
Supervisors have written appeals affixed to the outside of the envelopes
by means of a rubber stamp. In short, every possible means is used to
educate the public that uses the National Forests and in whose interest,
in fact, the Forests are being maintained and protected.
_Fire Suppression._ So much for the problem of fire prevention. In
case a fire does get started, and there are thousands of them on the
National Forests every year, the problem, as has been said before,
consists of getting men and tools to it in the shortest possible time,
in order to keep the damage down to the lowest possible point. To do
this, a vast organization has been formed by the Forest Service, which
is not unlike the Minute Man organization of Revolutionary days. A brief
outline of this organization and how it works when a fire starts will
give my reader a still better idea of what the Forest Service is doing
in forest fire protection. But before speaking of this organization, a
few preliminary matters are of interest; they deal with the manner of
distributing fire protection funds, forest fire history, and the study
of weather conditions.
_How Forest Fire Funds Are Distributed._ It devolves upon the Forest
Supervisor and also the District Forester to apportion the appropriation
allotted for fire protection in the most economical and efficient
manner. First of all, the money is allotted to the various Forests in
proportion to their needs. These needs are measured by the size of the
Forest, the value of its resources, the length of the dangerous dry
season, the fire liability or the amount of money loss in case of fire,
the fire hazard or the degree to which an area is subject to fire
danger, the difficulty of prevention and control and many other factors.
These same factors are employed to apportion the Supervisor's allotment
of money to the various Ranger districts on his Forest.
Probably the most difficult factors for the Forest Supervisor to
appraise on each Ranger district are the fire liability and the fire
hazard. Fire liability has to do with the amount of damage a fire could
do if it got started. Valuable timber needs protection most of all, and
the value of the forest is determined by the kind of trees in it and the
density of the stand. Fire hazard is usually expressed in terms of risk.
The Supervisor asks his Ranger if the risk on a certain area in his
district is high, low, or medium. Risk depends, of course, largely upon
the character and inflammability of the forest cover and the presence of
human causes. Dense forests involve greater risk than open, scattering
trees; government forests interspersed with private holdings containing
much old slash have a high risk factor; and government forests near
sawmills, large towns, and along railroad rights-of-way also have high
risk factors. All these matters must be considered, in order that each
area on each Ranger district gets just enough money for fire protection
and not a bit more.
[Illustration: Figure 39. Putting out a ground fire. Even if the
fire does not burn the standing timber, it kills the young trees and
so weakens the larger ones that they are easily blown over. Wallowa
National Forest, Oregon.]
[Illustration: Figure 40. Forest officers ready to leave a tool box for
a forest fire in the vicinity. Such tool boxes as these are stationed at
convenient places on National Forests ready for any emergency. Arapaho
National Forest, Colorado.]
_Forest Fire History._ Very important also in fire protection are the
studies which the Forest Service is carrying on, dealing with forest
fire history. For many years back, records have been kept on all fires:
their causes, area burned over, date of the fire, damage caused, the
exact location of each fire, the cost of fighting it, the total number
each month and each calendar year, and many other data. More recently
records have been kept upon still further details connected with each
fire, such as: the time elapsed between the start and the discovery of
a fire, between the discovery and the report to the proper official,
between the report and the beginning of the actual work of fighting, and
the time required to put the fire out. Intensive studies have been made
also upon the length and character of the fire season on each Forest,
for it is important to know the maximum length, the minimum length and
the average length of the fire season. These data show how much extra
help must be hired for fire patrol and fire fighting, and during what
periods the greatest damage is done, based both on acreage burned
over and by the number of fires. Studies of this kind yield positive
information on what areas of each Forest are particularly liable to
lightning fires, to camp fires, and to incendiary fires. With this
knowledge the Forest Supervisor can plan and distribute his men and
funds more intelligently; they tell him during what period he can expect
the most trouble, and therefore must have the greatest number of fire
fighters at his command. It is scientific study like this that is doing
more than anything else to solve the fire protection problem in the
Western States.
_Relation of Forest Fires to the Weather._ In coöperation with the
United States Weather Bureau, the Forest Service studies weather
conditions in relation to forest fires. Weather forecasts have been sent
to each Forest Supervisor throughout the fire season, informing him of
the probable weather conditions. The velocity and duration of the wind,
the temperature, the precipitation, and the relative humidity are all
factors which greatly affect the inflammability of the forest. Forest
Supervisors have been informed in these forecasts of what are known as
emergency conditions, that is, an unusual and abnormal combination of
weather conditions which make fire danger very great. These conditions
may be a high wind, low relative humidity, high temperatures, or a
combination of the three. When a Forest Supervisor is informed by the
District Forester that emergency conditions are likely to exist during
the next ten days or so, he immediately sends an alarm to all his
Rangers to be especially watchful.
_Improvements and Equipment for Protection._ After the preliminaries
of fire protection finance, forest fire history, and the study of
weather and emergency conditions have been worked out, probably the
first and most important prerequisite to forest fire protection is a
matter already spoken of, namely, the improvements and the equipment.
The construction and maintenance of improvements and the possession of
suitable equipment is second in importance only to the organization
which is to do the actual fire suppression. Roads, trails, telephone
lines, fire lines, lookout stations, Ranger stations, tool and food
caches, a central supply depot, and many other things are necessary
before men can be effective. Each Forest Ranger has use for the
following equipment: fire fighting tools, water bags and pails, teams,
pack horses, wagons, automobiles, saddle horses, tents, portable
telephone lines, riding and packing equipment, and many other special
equipment, which must be hired when occasion for its use arises. If a
Forest Ranger has not access to this equipment, and few of them have, he
has hanging by his telephone a complete list of all the stores, stables,
garages, etc., in the neighboring towns and how much equipment each can
furnish when called upon.
_Forest Fire Maps and Charts._ Not the least important bit of equipment,
by any means, is the fire map or maps. The Forest Supervisor has a fire
map of his whole forest in his office and the Forest Ranger has one
of his district (sometimes including the neighboring districts, too)
hanging in his cabin, usually posted conspicuously, so that it can be
referred to any time of the day or night without delay. These maps have
upon them all the available information regarding the country which is
to be protected. They show physiographic features, such as topography,
creeks, springs, meadows, water, swamps, etc.; vegetative features, such
as timber, forage, brush, reproduction, planted areas, regenerating
areas, slashings, etc.; such man-made features as roads, trails, cabins,
ranger stations, corrals, pastures, Supervisor's headquarters, sheep
camps, cattle camps, ranches, camp sites, railroads, logging railroads
and camps, sawmills, power plants, towns, villages, etc.; and special
protective features, such as locations of men, tools, equipment, tool
and food caches, local help, emergency help, fire lines, fire breaks,
lookouts, government and private telephone lines, instruments and
switchboards, locations of stores, state Fire Wardens, livery stables,
pack trains, garages, stage routes, etc. All these features and data
are not put upon one map; usually a series of maps are used or some of
the information is put on charts or on the border of the maps. In short
all this information is put in such form that it is available at the
shortest notice for emergency conditions. It makes little difference how
it is recorded, so long as the information is available when needed.
[Illustration: Figure 41. A forest fire on the Wasatch National Forest,
Utah. Forest officers trying to stop a forest fire by cutting a fire
line. Note the valuable growth of young trees which they are trying to
save on the right.]
_Forest Fire Organization._ The forest fire organization, whether it
be on the whole National Forest or upon the Ranger district, consists
of three agencies: the fire detection agencies, the fire reporting
agencies, and the fire fighting agencies. All these must work in
absolute harmony without interruption of any kind, to obtain the maximum
of efficiency. The detection agencies consist of the lookout men,
stationed at high, advantageous points which overlook large areas, and
the moving patrolmen, who are assigned to definite beats or territory
which cannot be adequately reached by the lookouts. Lookout men live in
small cabins on the tops of high mountains, and they watch for fires
constantly. In regions which have very few high points and which are
not suited to that method of detection, moving patrolmen are employed.
These men move about on foot, on horseback, on railroad speeders, in
automobiles, or in any other conveyance adapted to the country they are
in.
When the detectors find a fire they report it immediately to the
nearest Forest Ranger or the Forest Supervisor. The Forest Ranger in
whose district the fire is located is logically the first man to be
informed, but telephone connections and other conditions sometimes alter
this procedure. Just because a fire is found in, we will say, Ranger
district number one, does not necessarily mean that the Forest Ranger
of this district is the proper man to be notified. The fire may be at
the very outer boundary of his district and may be much more easily
accessible to the Forest Ranger in district number two. In any case
it is all arranged beforehand just exactly who shall be notified in
case of a fire in each and every corner of a National Forest. Each man
in the organization has his duties and responsibilities determined for
him in advance and he does his part without being prodded or reminded.
The location of a fire in the wild and inaccessible forest regions of
the West, which may seem a very simple matter, is determined in a very
ingenious manner.
_How Fires Are Located._ The lookout man, as well as the Forest Rangers
and the Forest Supervisor, is provided with identical maps of the
Forest. These maps show most of the important features useful in fire
protection work, including also the private lands, all government
holdings, and the public land survey. This public land survey has
divided the land surface into legal subdivisions known as townships,
sections, and quarter sections, and it is by these and with reference
to these that all features, both natural and artificial, are located. A
township is usually a square 6 miles on a side, containing 36 sections.
Each section is divided into quarter sections containing 160 acres
each, which are further divided (though not by law) into forty-acre
squares. The problem, therefore, that confronts the lookout man upon
the discovery of a forest fire is to inform the Ranger or other Forest
officer where the fire is--that is, in what _section_ it is located, if
it cannot be located with reference to some well-known natural feature.
In order to determine in what section or quarter section a fire is
located, each lookout point on the Supervisor's and Rangers' fire maps
has a transparent circular protractor mounted on it. (A protractor is
a device by which angles are marked off; it consists of a circle upon
whose arc the degrees from 0 to 360 are indicated, 0 degrees being
equivalent to North, 90° to East, 180° to South and 270° to West.)
The center of the protractor is the lookout point. A piece of black
thread is fastened to the center of each lookout point, so that it can
be stretched across the arc of the circle and the degrees read off.
The other end of the thread has fastened to it a thumb tack or similar
device, so that when the thread is stretched to read a certain angle,
it can be fixed at that angle. The maps of the lookout men are usually
fastened or permanently mounted upon a table which is oriented (that
is, the top of the map is turned toward the north). The lookout men
have sighting devices, usually alidades, which are placed on the map, by
means of which they sight at a fire; but the bearing of the fire is read
from the angles marked on the edge of the map, which is in reality a
large protractor.
By these devices a fire is quickly and accurately located. When the
lookout man sees a fire, he gets its bearing from the map by means of
the sighting device. He telephones this bearing to the Ranger, or, in
many cases, to the Supervisor. Immediately the Supervisor goes to his
map, picks up the black thread attached to this lookout point, stretches
the string, and, having marked off the bearing, pushes the thumb tack
into the map. In the meantime, another lookout, perhaps two more, have
sighted the same fire. The black threads from the other lookout points
on the Supervisor's map are stretched and fixed in a similar manner. The
fire will be found to be at the point where two or more of these black
threads intersect. This is only one of the many ways which have been
devised to locate forest fires; there are other methods, but all are
based upon the same principle.
[Illustration: Figure 42. A forest fire running in dense underbrush on
one of the National Forests in Oregon.]
[Illustration: Figure 43. Men in a dense forest with heavy undergrowth
clearing away brush to stop the fire as it is running down hill. Crater
National Forest, Oregon.]
_The Fire Fighting Organization._ The organization of men who do the
actual fire suppression must be an elastic one, adequate to meet
the needs of a Ranger district or of a whole National Forest, or, in
some cases, of an entire administrative district, comprising as many
as 25 to 30 National Forests. The Forest Guards and Forest Rangers are
known as the first line of defense in this war against forest fires.
Upon them falls the brunt of the work of fire suppression. The second
line is composed of local stockmen, ranchers, and logging and sawmill
crews. When these prove insufficient in number, the large villages and
towns are called upon, and the last resort is the labor of the cities
and the United States Army. Thus, in the case of a very large fire the
organization of the Forest Service is modified to cover not only each
and every National Forest, but also entire States. In case of a very
large fire, every available man from each Forest is sent to take his
place in the organization. Expert fire fighters are sent direct to the
fire. Other Forest officers are sent to the large towns and villages
to act as quartermasters. These men hire fire fighters, entrain them,
and fill orders for food, bedding, tools, and other equipment. Other
quartermasters at the scene of the fire check shipments of supplies,
check the time of fire fighters, approve accounts, hire transportation,
and perform similar duties. Special disbursing agents are sent to
the scene to pay the men. In short, everything is done to dispatch
as quickly as possible the necessary men, food and equipment to the
fire, and to do it in accordance with the prearranged plan for such
emergencies.
_Forest Fire Coöperation._ A very important part of the plan of fire
protection on the National Forests are the coöperative agreements
entered into between the Forest Service and private individuals or
companies. Such coöperation may be in the form of building improvements
for fire suppression, furnishing men in case of fire, furnishing
lookouts or patrols, furnishing equipment, and, in fact, in connection
with any of the necessary means for fighting fire. This coöperation has
been of mutual benefit. One National Forest may coöperate with one or
more neighboring Forests or with sawmills, power plants, logging camps,
or railroad companies. Coöperation may also be with a well-organized
Forest Protection Association, of which there are a large number in the
Western States. These coöperative agencies agree to send a large force
of their men to fires on the National Forest in their vicinity, and the
Forest Service reciprocates by sending men for fires occurring on their
lands, which may threaten National Forest timber. Often coöperative
agencies enter into agreement to build jointly with the Forest Service
certain improvements, such as telephone lines, lookout towers, or
trails, which will benefit public fire protection as well as private.
Many sawmills and logging companies who operate on or near the National
Forests have agreements with the Service, by which they suspend all
operations and send all their help to fires which threaten National
Forest timber. All timber sale contracts of the Forest Service provide
for coöperative fire protection.
_Fighting Forest Fires._ The most important requirements for successful
fire suppression are: quick arrival after discovery, adequate forces of
men, proper equipment, thorough organization on the fire line, skill in
attacking, and careful, systematic patrol after the fire is thought to
be out. All fires, whether large or small, require generals to lead the
attacking forces, and the strategy of fire fighting can only be learned
after long experience on the fire line. A cool, level-headed man is the
greatest necessity in an emergency, for it is as disastrous to get too
many men as it is too few. A few men that know how to attack a fire are
worth a great deal more than a great many that are inexperienced.
[Illustration: Figure 44. Fire in a Lodgepole pine forest in Colorado.
Arapaho National Forest, Colorado]
[Illustration: Figure 45. A mountain fire in "Chaparral," five hours
after it started. Pasadena, California]
There are different kinds of fires, depending upon their size, their
intensity, and the nature of the country in which they are burning.
And there are as many different methods of fighting fire as there are
kinds of fires. Some fires, such as grass fires or those burning in
the needles and litter in the forest, can be extinguished directly by
being smothered or beaten out. For this purpose Rangers sometimes use
their saddle blankets, when nothing else is handy, but usually wet gunny
sacks, boughs, and tree branches are used. Often, if it is available,
sand or dirt is thrown on the fire with a shovel. Surface fires are a
little more difficult to extinguish. They are more intense and more
swift and consume brush, young growth, and fallen dry trees. These
usually cannot be attacked directly, but must be controlled indirectly
by the building of a trench or a fire break, or by a system of back
firing. Trenches are fire breaks in miniature, usually from one to
several feet wide. Fire breaks or fire lines are broad belts from 30 to
50 feet wide, which are cleared of inflammable material, not so much
to stop the fire when it reaches this belt as to furnish a safe area
from which fire can be fought and, most of all, from which back firing
can be started. These lines or belts are usually built along ridges. If
a fire starts on the lower slope of a mountain and the wind carries it
up the mountain toward the fire line, the only hope of stopping the fire
at the top of the ridge at the fire line is to start fires on the top
of the ridge, which will burn down the slope and meet the original fire
coming up. In rare cases, as, for instance, in the Idaho fires of 1910,
the fires get to be so large and swift that all methods of attack prove
futile and the only salvation is in natural barriers, such as rivers, or
a change of the wind, or rain, to extinguish them.
In all fire fighting work, the plan is to surround the fire (if it
cannot be beaten or smothered out) by a trench, fire line, or fire
break, and to prevent the fire from spreading. In this kind of work,
shovels, spades, mattocks, rakes, and hoes are used to move the soil;
saws and axes are used to remove fallen trees from the fire line, and in
some cases plows, dynamite, and other implements are employed.
PROTECTION AGAINST TRESPASS, FOREST INSECTS, EROSION AND OTHER AGENCIES
While the protection of the Forest resources from fire is probably the
most important phase of forest protection, it is not the only one by
any means. The National Forest force also protects the Forest resources
from trespass, from insect damages, and from tree diseases. Also water
supply for domestic use, for irrigation, water-power, and navigation
must be protected, and the public health must be safeguarded against
the pollution of the streams emerging from the Forests. It is also the
duty of Forest officers, in coöperation with the state authorities, to
protect game, fish, and birds from illegal practices.
_Trespass._ The Act of June 4, 1897, authorizes the Secretary of
Agriculture to make rules and regulations for the occupancy, use and
protection of the National Forests, and provides that any violation of
such rules and regulations shall be punishable by a fine or imprisonment
or both. This and later acts provide for fines or imprisonment for all
violations of the regulations governing National Forests. The violation
of these regulations constitutes trespass, and these may be either
fire, timber, grazing, occupancy or property trespass, depending upon
the offense. Since the United States has all the civil rights and
remedies for trespass possessed by private individuals, it may bring
action to recover damages resulting from trespass or breach of contract.
Fire trespass includes the following offenses: setting fire to timber,
brush or grass; building camp fires in dangerous places where they
are hard to extinguish; or leaving camp fires without completely
extinguishing them. The various railroads that cross the National
Forests are one of the most frequent offenders in that the sparks
issuing from the locomotives or the hot ashes dropping from the fire box
set fire to National Forest timber. The railroads are required to use
every precaution to prevent such fires, but many of them are started,
resulting in damage suits by the Government. The damages cover not only
the merchantable timber and forage destroyed, but damages are also
collected for young, immature growth, which at first thought might seem
to have little or no value. But the courts have held that while the
young, unmerchantable trees have very little value now, they have a
great value as the basis for a future crop of timber. Thus, in the case
of the United States versus the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad,
in 1910, for fire trespass on the Black Hills National Forest, caused
by sparks from the locomotives operated by the company, the damages
included $17,900 for young growth. Also, in the case of the United
States versus the Great Northern Railroad, in 1911, in which suit was
brought upon the negligence (causing fires to start) of the defendant
company on their right-of-way, which fires subsequently spread to the
Blackfeet National Forest, damages included the destruction of a great
many immature trees, the value of which was estimated on the basis of
their value at maturity discounted to date. It is significant that this
case never went to trial; the defendant paid damages and costs without
argument.
[Illustration: Figure 46. A few years ago this was a green, luxuriant
forest. Picture taken after the great fires of August 20, 1910, on the
Coeur d'Alene National Forest near Wallace, Idaho]
Under timber trespass are included the following acts: the cutting,
killing, girdling, or otherwise damaging trees; the cutting of timber
under sale contract or permit before it is marked by a Forest officer;
the removal of timber before it is scaled, measured, or counted by a
Forest officer; and the fraudulent stamping of any timber belonging
to the United States with the regulation marking tools or similar
device. Under grazing trespass are included such acts as: grazing stock
on National Forest lands without permit; grazing stock on areas which
are designated as closed to grazing; driving stock across a National
Forest without permit; and refusal to remove stock upon instructions
from an authorized Forest officer when an injury is being done to the
National Forests by reason of the improper handling of the stock. The
use of National Forest land without a permit for any purpose for which
special use permits are required constitutes occupancy trespass. But
traveling, temporary camping, hunting, surveying, or prospecting may
be carried on without permit, and camp wood and forage for stock used
in connection with such activities may be taken free of charge. The
unauthorized appropriation, damage, or destruction of property belonging
to the United States, which is used in the administration of the
National Forests, also constitutes trespass.
Innocent trespass is usually settled amicably between the trespasser
and the Supervisor. If the violation of the timber, grazing, or land
regulations was due to a misunderstanding and was not of a willful
character, a permit is issued and the trespasser pays for the timber
or special use, as under regulation. Fire and property trespass cases
seldom can be construed as innocent, hence in most cases such offenses
result in litigation.
_Forest Insects._ Protection against forest insects is carried out
in coöperation with the Bureau of Entomology of the Department of
Agriculture.
An essential part of good forest protection is the work of locating and
reporting evidences of insect depredations. There are scores of insects
which are constantly working in the forests, either injuring or killing
live trees or attacking the wood of trees after they have been killed.
Weevils kill young shoots on trees and destroy tree seeds; bark beetles
and timber beetles infest the bark, girdle the tree and destroy the
wood; and various borers and timber worms attack seasoned and unseasoned
forest products and destroy the wood in the forest after it has been
cut down and sawed into lumber. The greatest annual loss by insects is
caused not so much by conspicuous local outbreaks as in the sustained
annual loss of scattered merchantable trees. Local infestations often
kill a large percentage of trees on an area, but these outbreaks are
easily seen; the scattered infestations that kill a tree or two here
and there over large forest areas are not so noticeable, but, taken all
together, add up to a startling total.
The task of locating and reporting insect infestations falls upon the
Forest Ranger and other field men of the Forest Service. Since the
Rangers are practically the only class of Forest officers that visit
all parts of a National Forest during each field season, the Supervisor
relies mostly on them to report upon insect infestations. In riding
to and from his work, while on fire patrol, while going for mail and
supplies, while attending to the timber, grazing and other business
of his district, the Ranger does a good deal of traveling and covers
practically every part of his district. These are good opportunities to
watch for fresh outbreaks of insects, and the wide-awake, progressive
Ranger never misses such chances. If he sees reddish-brown masses of
pitch and sawdust on the bark of a tree he immediately recognizes it
as the work of insects. Or perhaps he may see a pine or a spruce tree
with all its needles turned yellow. He knows then that this tree was
girdled by bark beetles very recently, probably during the previous
summer. A tree whose needles had turned red would indicate to him that
the infestation was more than a year old, since trees attacked in the
spring of one year usually do not show the results until the following
summer. These two stages are known by the trained entomologist as the
"yellow-top" and the "red-top" stages respectively. The latter is
followed by the "black-top" stage. In this stage, insect infested trees
stand out very conspicuously as leafless, gray or black snags, and they
tell the story of the work of bark beetles that happened years ago.
[Illustration: Figure 47. The first evidence of insect attack are the
reddish brown pitch tubes on the bark. Lodgepole pine infested by the
mountain pine beetle. Lassen National Forest, California. Photo by the
author.]
[Illustration: Figure 48. The last stage of an insect-attacked tree. The
tree is dead and the dry bark is falling off. Lassen National Forest,
California. Photo by the author.]
Probably the first external evidence of the attack of a bark beetle upon
living trees with normal green foliage, is the presence of pitch tubes
upon the outer bark. These are small, reddish-brown (later becoming
grayish-white) masses of pitch and sawdust, which exude from the small
cylindrical entrance made by the adult beetle where it bores through the
bark to begin its egg tunnel. Each tube represents the entrance of one
or more of these beetles. But we must follow these egg tunnels further,
to learn how the actual damage is done to the tree. As soon as the bark
beetle has made its entrance through the bark, it starts to work up
through the live bark and cambium of the tree, forming a tunnel but
little larger than the diameter of the beetle, which is known as the egg
gallery, These egg galleries vary in shape from straight to winding, and
in length from ten to forty inches. As a rule, male and female beetles
work together in one gallery, and the eggs are deposited along the
sides of the gallery, often in little pockets. When the tunneling and
egg-laying process of the adult beetles is completed, their activity
ceases, and they are usually found dead at the upper end of their
galleries. The larvæ hatch and begin their work by burrowing across the
cambium at right angles to the egg galleries. The complete girdling of
the cambium layer is not accomplished until the larvæ have completed
their work, and the numerous larval galleries, by joining one another,
form a complete gallery around the cambium of the tree, thus cutting
off the food supply which is made in the leaves of the tree, from the
lower portion of the tree, namely the roots. Since the roots cannot live
without nourishment, the tree dies. As soon as the larvæ have completed
their development they pupate. Later they develop into adult beetles.
These adult beetles issue forth in swarms the following spring, to
attack new trees.
The control of insect pests is a difficult matter. On areas where insect
depredations are conspicuous and are liable to spread to nearby valuable
timber, control measures are undertaken in coöperation with experts from
the Bureau of Entomology. In these control projects, crews of men fell
the infested trees, strip the bark from them, and burn the bark (usually
at a time of the year when the young broods of beetles are still in the
bark, namely, fall or winter). Trap trees are sometimes resorted to.
In this method, trees are girdled with an ax and thereby weakened to
such a degree that beetles are attracted to it. After such a tree has
become thoroughly infested in this manner, it is cut down and burned. In
the case of a large, conspicuous infestation, an insect reconnoissance
is made, in order to obtain an estimate of the percentage of trees
that have been killed by insects. When it is possible, the timber is
immediately sold. For example, on the Lassen National Forest, the writer
several years ago made such an estimate of an infestation caused by the
mountain pine beetle, covering over 100,000 acres. The reconnoissance
showed that about 35 per cent. of the trees above 12 inches in diameter
had been killed. The killed timber was subsequently utilized for
telephone and telegraph poles.
There are many administrative measures which are practiced on the
National Forests, which aim to prevent insect infestation. The
prevention and suppression of forest fires, which form infection courts
for insects, is probably the most important one. In all timber sales,
old dead snags and slashing, which are breeding places for insects, are
disposed of. Through free use and timber sales, insect-killed timber is
disposed of and the loss due to insects is reduced to a minimum, besides
in many cases destroying the young insect broods.
_Tree Diseases._ In almost every administrative district there is a
Consulting Pathologist, connected with the Bureau of Plant Pathology of
the Department of Agriculture, who has charge of all work dealing with
the eradication of tree diseases.
A tree disease is really any condition that interferes with the normal
functioning of the tree, be this condition caused by fungi, mistletoe,
fumes, smoke, frost, sunscald, drought or excess of water in the soil.
Parasitic fungi and mistletoes cause most of the tree diseases. Leaf
diseases, by killing a greater part of the foliage, destroy the very
organs in which food for the growing tissues is prepared. Diseases
of the bark intercept the flow of food coming down in the bark from
the leaves. Diseases of the sapwood cut off the water supply, which is
pumped upward from the roots. Those that attack the roots also affect
the water supply of the tree. Diseases of flowers and seeds destroy the
faculty of reproduction.
Certain parasites are able to enter the youngest parts of trees, twigs
and leaves directly, but the majority of the fungi causing decay of the
wood can get into the interior of the living tree only by way of a pin
knot or wound. For this reason, every wound caused by lightning, by
fire, by man, or by animals, constitutes a menace to infection. Many
coniferous trees cover their wounds by an aseptic coat of pitch, which
is very effective in preventing the germination and growth of fungus
spores. But the less resinous conifers and the hardwood trees do not
cover their wounds very effectively; large wounds are not covered at
all. Upon exposure by a wound, the sapwood just underneath the bark
dies, dries out, and checks. Spores of parasitic fungi enter the cracks,
germinate and infect the heartwood. The spores of a heartwood-inhabiting
fungus cannot germinate and thrive unless they fall upon the heartwood
of the tree. In this way certain diseases of the heartwood, which
result in rot or decay, can very frequently be traced directly to fire
scars, lightning scars, spike tops, broken limbs or branches, and other
mechanical destruction caused by lightning, fire, storms, cloudbursts,
or heavy snowfall.
Fire as a cause of wounds is responsible for more cases of heartrot than
all other injuries taken together. For this reason the protection of
forests from fire is the most important preventive measure that can be
taken to eradicate tree diseases. In fact, the best way of controlling
diseases is by preventing them, and the Forest officers are endeavoring
to eliminate any danger to the health of the forest, to prevent the
injury of the trees, and to establish healthy conditions for their
growth. This is forest hygiene, and it bears the same relation to the
trees and forests as personal hygiene and community sanitation do to
persons and communities.
It is impossible to grow a sound and thrifty forest for future
generations if there are unhealthful conditions in the forest that are
a constant menace to the trees. The first step in this hygienic work
is close observation on the part of the Forest officers. The next
important step is to prevent the infection and infestation of sound
trees by getting rid of all diseased and insect-infested living and
dying trees. By means of timber sales and free use, Forest officers
very materially help in establishing healthy conditions on the National
Forests. There is a clause in most timber sale contracts which requires
the cutting by the purchaser of all snags and other unhealthy trees
on the area. This measure not only eliminates undesirable trees from
a hygienic standpoint, but it also makes it possible to utilize the
merchantable timber left in undesirable trees, which would otherwise
go to waste. On timber sales, Forest officers who do the marking leave
for reproduction only such trees as are perfectly sound and healthy.
Mistletoe infested trees, especially, are marked for cutting, for
neither in plant nor in animal life can healthy offspring be expected to
develop under unhealthful conditions.
[Illustration: Figure 49. Wrecked farm buildings due to flood of May 21,
1901, Nolichucky River, near Erwin, Tenn. This is one result of denuding
the Appalachian Mountains of their forest cover.]
[Illustration: Figure 50. When steep hillsides are stripped of their
forest growth, erosion results. Erosion has been especially serious in
the Appalachian Mountains. View taken in Madison County, North Carolina.]
_Water Supply._ Undoubtedly the greatest value of the mountain forests
of the West, most of which are within the National Forests, lies in
their influence upon the regularity of the water supply. In many States
these mountains afford the only water supply for domestic use, for
irrigation, and for the development of power. The future development
of the entire region depends, therefore, upon a regular water supply.
It is not so much the amount of water as the manner in which it flows
from the mountains that is important. To insure this regularity, the
vegetative covering is an important factor. For this reason, Congress
made the preservation of conditions favorable to stream flow one of
the principal objects in the establishment and administration of the
National Forests.
Many of my readers who have lived out-of-doors a great deal have learned
by common observation the simple problem of how the forest regulates
stream flow. Any one who has been in a treeless region after a heavy
rainstorm can recall how suddenly the streams swell and flood their
banks, and how soon these same streams return to their former flow. On
the other hand, a severe rainstorm in a forested region will hardly have
an appreciable effect upon the streams. The difference is not very hard
to explain. In a treeless region there are no natural obstacles which
might delay or prevent the raindrops from reaching the ground. The soil
is usually hard and dry, and the water runs off as though from a gable
roof. In a forest, we well know, the crowns of the trees intercept
most of the rain that falls; very little strikes the ground directly.
The rain that strikes the crown is dissipated on the leaves or needles,
on the twigs and branches, and on the trunk. It must travel a long way
before it reaches the ground, and all this delay helps in preventing a
rapid run-off or flood. The soil in the forest is covered by a living
ground cover of flowers, shrubs and young trees, and by a dead cover
composed of leaves, twigs, dead branches, fallen trees, all of which
interrupt the raindrop's journey to the ground. Even after the rain
reaches the ground, only a small part of it goes off as surface run-off.
The soil in the forest is loose and full of holes and channels made by
decaying roots, earth worms, etc., so that the water is absorbed as fast
as it reaches the soil. Also the soil in the forest contains a large
amount of organic matter, resulting from decaying leaves and branches,
and this organic matter acts as a great sponge, because it is capable of
holding several times its own weight of water. As a result of the living
and dead ground cover, the crown cover, and the organic matter in the
soil, the rainfall is fed to the streams gradually through weeks and
months, instead of a few hours, and the nearby rivers have a steady,
equable flow, instead of alternate stages of floods and low water.
Closely bound up with the protection of watersheds is the erosion
problem. Without a forest cover, rain runs off mountain slopes very
rapidly, often carrying with it silt and sand, and, in severe floods,
even rocks and bowlders. A well known physical law states that the
carrying capacity of a stream increases as the sixth power of its
velocity. In other words, double the velocity of a stream and you have
multiplied its carrying power by 64; increase its velocity ten times,
and you multiply its carrying power by a million. The delay caused by
the forest cover in each raindrop's journey down a mountain side not
only prevents floods, but also preserves the fertility of the fields in
the valleys below.
Many streams in the West carry such enormous amounts of silt that the
storage capacity of reservoirs has been seriously impaired, even within
a comparatively short time. Then, also, there is the added difficulty
and expense of keeping the diversion works--the ditches and canals--free
from an excess of this material. Studies which have been carried on to
determine in what way the administration of the National Forests can
keep the destructive processes of erosion at a minimum have shown that
the balance between the stability of the soil and rapid erosion on many
slopes is so delicate that only a slight abuse may result in complete
loss of the fertile top soil and permanent changes in the character of
the vegetation.
In August, 1909, the town of Ephraim, on the Manti National Forest,
Utah, experienced a disastrous flood from Ephraim canyon, which was
attributed in part to the overgrazed condition on the watershed. An
examination made the next spring clearly demonstrated that the severity
of the flood was a direct result of deterioration of forest, brush,
and grass cover, due to overgrazing during a long period of years.
The canyon was therefore closed to grazing as an immediate protective
measure. Plans were thereafter made to restore the forest cover of the
canyon by planting.
[Illustration: Figure 51. A fertile corn-field covered with sand,
gravel, and débris brought down from the mountains by floods. These farm
lands are ruined beyond redemption. This could have been prevented by
preserving the forests on the watershed of this river.]
In this kind of protection work, as in the case of forest fires, it has
been found that preventive measures are much more effective and much
less costly than remedial measures. The regulations under which the
Forests are administered give the Secretary of Agriculture power to
institute preventive measures. To insure the sufficiency and purity of
the water supply of a municipality or of an irrigation district, or
to prevent floods and snowslides, the use of watersheds for grazing,
timber, special uses, or settlement is especially restricted when such
restriction is found to be necessary. On steep grass or timber-covered
mountain slopes both grazing and timber sales are prohibited, if
necessary.
_Public Health._ From the relation which the National Forests bear to
the streams that issue from them, it will be seen that they may exert a
great influence upon the health and general welfare of the communities
in the valleys below. All persons either permanently or temporarily
camped upon National Forest land are liable to trespass proceedings if
unsanitary conditions result from their presence. All camp refuse must
be disposed of either by burying or burning. This regulation applies
to hunting and fishing parties, as well as to large logging camps,
sawmills, and construction camps on National Forest lands. Thus the
regulations strictly guard against the pollution of the water supply
of the people who live in the large towns and cities, and also those
who live on the Forests or near them. The watersheds tributary to many
of the large western cities and towns are under special protection by
the Forest Service. Under this sanitary regulation, it is possible to
maintain such control of them as will greatly reduce the danger of
typhoid and other enteric diseases.
_Violation of Game Laws._ Wild game, fish and birds add materially
to the enjoyment of the National Forests by the public, and their
protection and preservation is a duty of Forest officers. Although this
duty rests primarily with the State the Forest Service assists, as far
as practicable, in the protection of game on the National Forests from
illegal practices. Forest Service officials are at the same time State
Game Wardens. In the event of a violation of the state game laws, they
either apprehend the offender or report the matter to the proper state
official.
Various kinds of game and bird refuges may be included within National
Forests, depending upon whether they are created by specific acts
of the State Legislature or by Acts of Congress. In these refuges,
hunting, trapping, willfully disturbing, or killing any game or bird is
prohibited. Whether the violation occurs in the state game refuge or the
national refuge, the Forest officer has authority to arrest the offender
without warrant.
CHAPTER IV
THE SALE AND RENTAL OF NATIONAL FOREST RESOURCES
The timber, the pasture, the water and mineral resources and the land
in the National Forests are for the use of the people, and they may
be obtained for legitimate use from the local Forest officers without
delay. In fact, the Forest Service is doing all it can to encourage all
kinds of business which depends upon National Forest resources.
THE SALE AND DISPOSAL OF NATIONAL FOREST TIMBER
There has been a steady increase in the amount and value of the
timber cut on the National Forests. During the fiscal year 1917 over
700,000,000 feet of timber, valued at almost $1,500,000, was cut, while
almost three times as much was sold. Most of this was cut in the States
of Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, California and Arizona.
All mature timber on the National Forests which may be cut with benefit
and in accordance with certain well-established forestry principles, is
for sale and is advertised and offered as demand arises. The outstanding
feature of government timber sales is the fact that only the stumpage is
sold, the title of the land remaining with the Government. The timber
is sold in any quantity, so long as the sale is in accordance with
well-established policy. Large sales require a large initial investment
for constructing a railroad or other means for taking out the timber,
and may even require the construction of a common carrier from the
market to comparatively inaccessible regions.
_Government Timber Sale Policy._ The National Forest timber sale policy,
first of all, aims to prevent the loss of this valuable public property
through forest fires. This phase of the policy, however, is covered
under the chapter on protection. Next, it aims to utilize the ripe
timber which can be marketed and to cut it in such a way as to insure
the restocking of the land with young timber and the continuance of
forest production. The price at which timber is sold represents, as
required by statute, the appraised market value and a proper return to
the public which owns it. It is disposed of in such a way as to prevent
its speculative acquisition and holding, and to prevent monopoly.
National Forest timber has found its way into both the general,
far distant market, and the local market. But it is the aim of the
Forest Service to first of all provide for the requirements of local
communities and industries, including the free use and sale at cost to
settlers as authorized by statute. It is also the aim of the Forest
Service policy to make timberlands of agricultural value available for
settlement under conditions which prevent speculative acquisition but
encourage permanent and genuine farming. According to this policy, land
which at the present time is covered with a good stand of timber and
which has been shown to have a greater value for agricultural purposes
is cleared as soon as a bona fide sale can be consummated. And, lastly,
it is the aim of this policy to return as soon as possible the cost of
protection and administration of the National Forests, and to yield a
revenue to the States, since these are entitled by statute to 25 per
cent. of all gross receipts as an offset to the loss of local taxes
through the government ownership of the forests.
[Illustration: Figure 52. A view towards Mt. Adams and the headwaters of
Lewis River. Council Lake in the foreground National Forest lands lie at
the headwaters of practically every large western river. This means that
the water supply for the western people used for domestic use, water
power, and irrigation is being protected from pollution and destruction.
View taken on the Rainier National Forest.]
_Annual Yield and Cut._ Each year the amount of timber which can be
cut from each National Forest, according to sound forestry principles,
is authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture. This cut is based upon
the best available data as to the amount of mature and over-mature
timber needing removal, and the amount of annual growth on each Forest.
At the present time only a small percentage of the authorized annual cut
of the Forests is taken. Most Forests cut a very small part of their
annual allotment, but a few Forests cut their full annual yield, or
nearly so. On some Forests, the entire annual yield is used by local
industries and no timber can be sent to the general market; on others
a very small part of the annual yield is used by local needs and most
of the cut can be sent to the general market. On the Cascade National
Forest, in Oregon, for instance, the annual production is estimated at
about 200,000,000 feet, while the present local needs can be supplied
by approximately 1,000,000 feet. From such a Forest a large annual cut
can be made for the general market. On the Deerlodge National Forest, in
Montana, on the other hand, the annual yield is estimated to be about
40,000,000 feet, all of which is needed to supply the large copper mines
near Butte. From Forests like this, no sales for the general market can
be made.
Although the National Forests contain about six hundred billions of
board feet of timber, or about one-fifth of the standing timber in the
United States, only a small fraction of the available timber is actually
disposed of. This is due to the comparative inaccessibility of this
timber and the presence of large bodies of privately owned timber which
lie between it and the market. The result of this condition is that the
bulk of the salable timber on the Forests will be automatically saved
until such a time when most of the privately owned timber has been cut.
In this way, future generations will benefit and the public will receive
a much better price for it years hence than they could possibly obtain
now.
_Timber Reconnoissance._ Before any timber can be sold to advantage,
however, it is necessary to take an inventory of the timber resources.
In other words, it is necessary to know where the timber is, how much
there is, and what can be done with it. This timber estimate, or timber
reconnoissance, as it is called, is also needed to settle questions of
title arising from the presence of patented lands or valid claims; to
determine if cutting is advisable on a given area, and, if so, under
what stipulations; and to fix the minimum price at which stumpage is to
be sold. The annual yield, or the amount of timber grown or produced
annually upon an area, must be the ultimate basis of the annual cut, and
this yield can only be computed after an inventory of the timber has
been made.
Timber reconnoissance (valuation survey or valuation strips) involves an
estimate of the standing timber by small legal or natural subdivisions
of land, with the necessary land surveys, the preparation of an accurate
topographic and forest type map, and the compilation of detailed
descriptive notes. These notes deal with the condition and character
of the timber, the most practical methods of exploitation, the extent
and character of the young growth, and many other factors which affect
the management of timber lands. These data are secured at a cost of
from 3 to 10 cents per acre, depending upon the accessibility and the
topography of the region and the density of the timber. This work is
carried on both in the summer and in the winter. Up to date, about
21,000,000 acres have been covered by intensive reconnoissance and about
48,000,000 acres by extensive methods.
_Logging the Timber._ In order that my reader may better understand
various matters connected with the disposal of National Forest timber,
it will be necessary to give a brief outline of how timber and other
forest products are taken from the woods, and the different steps
necessary before a green tree in the woods becomes a board or a railroad
tie.
The methods of logging used in the National Forests are essentially
the same as those used on private lands, with the exception of certain
details, such as the protection of young growth, the cutting of snags,
and the disposal of the brush. The methods used, of course, vary with
the locality; they are different for the Pacific Coast, where donkey
engines are used, than for the Rocky Mountains, where horses are largely
employed. They vary with the climate, the topography, the size of the
timber, and the kind of product to be harvested. But a typical logging
operation, as carried on in the Sierras of California, will give an idea
of how logs are taken from the forest.
[Illustration: Figure 53. A large storage reservoir used to irrigate the
ranches in the valley below. Elevation 10,500 feet. Battlement National
Forest, Colorado. Photo by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 54. A sheep herder's camp used temporarily by
Forest Service timber cruisers. Elevation about 10,000 feet. Battlement
National Forest, Colorado. Photo by the author.]
In the particular operation which I have in mind the timber was
located on the western slope of the mountains between 3,500 and 5,000
feet in elevation. The slopes were of medium steepness and much of
the timber was on level benches. The large sawmill was located at the
lower edge of the timber and the logging camp was in the woods near
the cutting. The felling of the trees, which were from 3 to 6 feet in
diameter, was done by two men with a two-man saw. These men are the
"fallers." Two men then cut the tree into logs and still other men
called "swampers" cut the brush and fallen trees away so that the newly
cut timber can be "skidded" to the railroad. This "skidding" is done by
a powerful, steam-driven stationary donkey-engine, which is fitted up
with a long cable and a drum. After the log is attached to the cable
out in the woods by means of a "choker," the man in the woods gives the
signal and the engine starts, revolving the drum and winding up the
cable at the same time pulling the log towards the engine. Just beside
this engine is a platform from which the logs are loaded directly on
flat cars. When six or eight flat cars are loaded in this manner a
locomotive hauls them to the sawmill where they are sawed into boards.
In this case as soon as the boards were cut they were placed in a flume
in which there was a strong stream of water. In this they floated about
40 miles to a town in the valley below directly into the company's
lumber yard.
In the Rocky Mountains one of the main forest products derived from the
National Forests is railroad ties. On the particular operation with
which the writer is familiar the Government had sold to a tie operator
about 3,000,000 railroad ties under a long term contract. This tie
operator had a large contract with a railroad company. The area of the
sale, several thousand acres, was divided or surveyed into long strips
each 100 to 150 feet wide and from one to one and a half miles long. A
large camp and commissary was established on the area. There were about
100 tie choppers and each man was assigned to a strip. On these strips
the trees to be cut were marked by a Forest officer. Trees too small to
make ties were left as a basis for a future tie operation in from forty
to fifty years.
The tie choppers usually worked alone. They first felled the tree with
a saw, cut the lower limbs off, and marked off the ties on the bark to
see how many ties could be cut from the tree. The tree was then "scored"
with an ax on both sides in order to start making the two flat faces of
the tie. These sides were then chipped with a "broad ax," thus making
two smooth faces. The bark was then peeled from the other two faces and
the tree was then cut into finished ties. After the ties were made the
top of the tree was lopped, that is, the branches were cut from the
trunk. In this operation these branches were scattered evenly over the
ground. The tie chopper then cleared a road through the middle of his
strip and "parked" his ties on the road. He then stamped his private
mark on each tie. In the winter the ties were "hauled" on large sleds to
the river bank. Each tie chopper's ties were put in a separate pile so
that the company's scaler could count them and credit them to the man
that made them. In the spring, when the river's banks were full, the
ties were "driven" down the river to the shipping point, usually a town
on a railroad line.
A Forest officer is detailed to an operation of this kind to inspect
the choppers' work and count and stamp the ties. He sees to it that
all trees that have been marked for cutting are cut, that no trees not
marked have been cut, that young growth is not unnecessarily injured,
that the stumps are not left too high, that the tops are fully
utilized, that the slashing or brush is disposed of according to the
contract, and that the operator is keeping all his agreements in the
contract.
_The First Step in Purchasing Government Timber._ After the desired
body of timber has been located, the first step for any one desiring
to purchase government timber is to communicate with an officer of the
National Forest in which the timber is located. If only a small amount
is desired--less than $50 in value--the local Ranger can arrange to make
the sale without delay. Amounts valued at more than this can be sold
only by the higher officials of the Service, that is the Supervisor,
District Forester, or the Forester, according to the size of the sale.
The Supervisor can sell up to two million feet; larger sales are made
by the District Forester or the Forester. All sales exceeding $100 in
amount must be advertised, except those made to homestead settlers and
farmers in a private sale. Sales are advertised in order to secure the
largest number of bidders possible and thus prevent the monopoly of
large bodies of timber by large timber operators.
[Illustration: Figure 55. View taken in the Coast Range mountains of
California where Sugar pine and Douglas fir are the principal trees.
Klamath National Forest, California. Photo by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 56. A typical mountain scene in the California
Coast Range. On these steep slopes a forest cover is of vital
importance. Klamath National Forest, California. Photo by the author.]
_Procedure in an Advertised Sale._ After the applicant has selected
the body of timber he wishes to purchase, he is furnished by the
Supervisor with a sample application stating the area, estimated amount,
minimum stumpage price, period allowed for cutting and removing the
timber, and other conditions to be complied with, following as closely
as possible the form of the final sale agreement. Usually, also, the
purchaser is interested in the amount of timber which he may cut per
acre. For this reason he visits sample areas on which the trees have
been marked for cutting. A notice of the sale of the timber is then
published, the choice of mediums and number of insertions depending
upon whether the sale is of local, regional, or general interest. This
notice describes the timber, gives the minimum stumpage prices that
will be accepted, and specifies the date upon which sealed bids will
be received. The period of advertising is at least 30 days, and in
large sales from 3 to 6 months. Forms for bidding are furnished to the
original applicant and others who signify their intention to bid. A
deposit is required with all bids to show the good faith of the bidder.
In large transactions this deposit is usually from 3 to 5 per cent. of
the purchase price. On the date specified in the advertisement the
Supervisor (or District Forester) opens all bids received and awards
the sale to the highest bidder. The sale contract is then prepared and
executed by the purchaser.
A specific statement of financial ability is required in all sales of
ten million feet or more, and in smaller sales in the discretion of the
approving officer. Such a statement may be required before the approval
of the sale application, either formal or tentative, and in any event
before the timber is awarded to the successful bidder. The contract must
be supported by a suitable bond given by two responsible sureties or by
a surety company authorized to do business with the United States.
[Illustration: Figure 57. A forest officer at work on a high mountain
peak making a plane-table survey and timber estimate of National Forest
lands. Photo by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 58. A government timber cruiser's summer camp.
These cruisers get a fairly accurate estimate of Uncle Sam's timber
resources at a cost of from 2 to 5 cents an acre. Photo by the author.]
_Timber Sale Contract Clauses._ The sale contract contains in full all
the conditions under which the cutting is to be done. In all sales of
National Forest stumpage the contract provides that no timber shall be
cut until it has been paid for, and that it shall not be removed until
it has been scaled by a Forest officer. All live timber is marked or
otherwise designated before cutting, and any merchantable timber used
for logging improvements, such as houses, bridges, stables, etc., must
be scaled and paid for. In order to secure full utilization of the
timber the maximum stump height is ordinarily fixed at 18 inches,
and merchantable timber must be used to a specified diameter in the
tops, which is adjusted for each species in accordance with local
manufacturing and market conditions. The officer in charge of the sale
is authorized to vary the stump height and top diameter in individual
cases when those specified in the contract are not practicable. The
tops must be trimmed up and, as a rule, brush must be piled and burned,
or burned without piling under the direction of Forest officers.
Merchantable timber which is not cut and removed and unmarked trees
which are cut must be paid for at double the specified stumpage rates.
This extra charge serves as a penalty.
All camps, buildings, railroads, and other improvements necessary in
logging and manufacturing the timber may be constructed upon National
Forest land without charge. Railroads which open up inaccessible regions
may be required to be made common carriers or to transport logs and
lumber for other purchasers or for the Government at reasonable rates.
Since fire protection is one of the most important duties of the
Forest Service, provision is made in all contracts that the purchaser
must place himself and employees, as well as the employees of his
contractors, at the disposal of authorized Forest officers for fighting
fires. Reimbursement is made for such services at the wages in vogue
for fighting fires on the National Forest in question, unless the fire
threatens the timber of the purchaser or property of the operator, or
is started in connection with the operation. Under these conditions
the purchaser is expected to furnish his available employees to assist
the Government in fire fighting without charge. Efficient spark
arresters are required on wood and coal burning boilers or locomotives.
Inflammable material must be cleaned up in the vicinity of logging
engines, and other precautions taken to insure against fire spreading
from this source. Snags and diseased trees upon the sale area must
usually be felled, whether merchantable or not, in order to remove fire
menace and to check the spread of timber infestations and pests.
[Illustration: Figure 59. Forest officers moving camp while engaged in
winter reconnaissance work. All food, beds, and clothing are packed on
"Alaska" sleds and drawn by the men themselves. Photo by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 60. A winter reconnaissance camp showing
snow-shoes, skis, "Alaska" sleds, and bull hide used to repair the
webbing on the snow-shoes. Lassen National Forest, California. Photo by
the author.]
_Special Contract Clauses._ Special clauses are inserted in contracts
to meet peculiar and unusual conditions. These deal with the number
of men the company is to furnish for brush burning; the time of the
year this work is to be done; the construction of fire lines; the
manner of scaling timber; the manner of piling and the location of
piles of material to be scaled; the definition of a merchantable log;
the utilization of tops; the manner or method of logging to be used;
the location of improvements; the use of timber for the construction of
improvements; the disposal of improvements at the termination of the
contract; where cutting is to begin and how fast it is to proceed; the
percentage of merchantable timber to be reserved in marking; and other
special clauses recommended by the Bureau of Entomology for the sale of
insect infested timber.
That the Forest Service timber sale policy and the various timber sale
clauses have met with the approval of the lumbermen and the timber
buyers of the Western States is attested by the fact that in the last
ten years (from July 1, 1907, to June 30, 1917) there have been nearly
75,000 purchasers of National Forest timber and that between these two
dates the annual number of timber sales has increased from 5,062 in the
fiscal year 1908 to 11,608 in the fiscal year 1917. No better evidence
could be cited of the confidence which the lumbermen have in the Forest
Service method of doing business.
_When the Operation May Begin._ As soon as the contract has been
executed and the first payment has been made a portion of the timber
is marked for cutting and the purchaser may begin operations at once.
Sometimes cutting in advance of the execution of the contract is allowed
to prevent serious hardship and unnecessary delay and expense on the
part of the purchaser.
[Illustration: Figure 61. A group of giant redwoods. Santa Cruz County,
California]
_Marking the Timber for Cutting._ In order to insure a proper restocking
of the ground, all live trees must be marked or otherwise designated
by a Forest officer before cutting can commence. Usually from 1/10 to
1/3 of the stand is reserved, either scattered over the entire tract
or distributed in groups. These trees are left for various reasons,
depending upon circumstances. The most important consideration is, of
course, to leave enough seed trees to restock the cut-over area. On
steep slopes a certain number of trees must be left to protect the
watershed and to prevent the erosion of the soil. Many species of trees
are subject to windthrow when the stand is thinned out. To counteract
this tendency a sufficient number of trees must be left to prevent the
wind from getting an unobstructed sweep. In many semi-arid portions
of the West additional trees must be left standing to protect the forest
from excessive drying and to prevent the ground from being occupied by
useless tree weeds and brush. Often, especially along highways, trees
are left for their scenic effect. From an economic standpoint it is
important sometimes to leave trees in order to make a second cut worth
while.
Where only dead timber is purchased, and no living trees are cut, or
where patches of forest are to be cut clean, Forest officers, instead
of marking every tree to be removed, blaze and mark a boundary of the
cutting area or patch and instruct the purchaser accordingly. Where
individual trees are marked they are blazed and stamped "U. S." next to
the ground on the lowest side of the stump. Additional blazes may be
made several feet above the ground whenever desired by the purchaser
for the convenience of his "fallers" or where deep snow may conceal the
lower mark from the "fallers." Where both kinds of blazes are used, one
man, in fairly dense pine timber, can mark from 500 to 1,000 trees in a
day. Under no condition may unmarked or undesignated trees be cut by the
purchaser.
The system of marking and the proportion of the timber to be cut is
explained to purchasers by marking sample areas before the contract is
executed. The cost of logging under the methods of marking adopted is
compensated fully in the stumpage appraisal.
_Scaling, Measuring, and Stamping._ Unless timber is sold by estimate,
it must be scaled, counted, or measured before it is removed from the
cutting area or place agreed upon for this purpose. In addition it must
be stamped by a Forest officer with a regulation marking ax or similar
instrument. Payment is made upon the actual scale, count or measure,
with due allowance for defect.
All National Forest timber is sold under specifications which are in
accordance with those in commercial use, such as logs by the thousand
board feet, ties by the piece, poles by length and top diameter, shingle
bolts by the cord, and mining timbers by the linear foot. All logs are
scaled at the small end.
[Illustration: Figure 62. A big Sugar pine tree about six feet in
diameter. This is the most valuable timber species in California. Photo
by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 63. A Western Yellow pine forest in California.
These trees are from four to six feet in diameter and from 150 to 200
feet high. Note the Forest Service timber cruiser measuring the tree at
the left. Photo by the author.]
All saw timber is scaled by the Scribner Decimal C log rule. In order to
permit scaling at reasonable cost to the Forest Service, purchasers may
be required, where the cost of logging may not be unduly increased,
to skid and pile the logs for scaling. Piles and skidways must be
constructed so as to permit economical scaling and when necessary and
practicable the purchaser is required to mark the small ends of the logs
to avoid misunderstanding when they are scaled on the pile.
Logs or other material that has been scaled or measured are designated
by a "US" stamp impressed in the wood so that the material may not be
scaled again by mistake. Each merchantable log scaled is stamped on at
least one end and unmerchantable or defective logs are stamped "US" in a
circle. Material other than saw logs, such as mine timber, ties, posts,
poles, or piling, after scaling, is stamped on at least one end. Cord
wood is stamped at both the top and bottom of each rick.
On all National Forests except those in Alaska and west of the summit
of the Cascades in Washington and Oregon, logs over 16 feet are scaled
as two or more logs as far as practicable in lengths of not less than
12 feet. In Alaska and parts of Oregon and Washington logs up to and
including 32 feet in length are scaled as one log; logs from 32 to 64
feet inclusive are scaled as two logs as nearly equal in length as
possible in even feet. All diameters are measured inside the bark at
the top end of the log and diameters are rounded off to the nearest inch
above or below the actual diameter.
In the case of logs each one is numbered and the number entered in a
scale book with the corresponding board foot scale of the log. In the
case of ties, posts, poles, mining timbers, etc., each pile or skidway
is numbered and the count or scale entered opposite the corresponding
number in the scale book.
_Disposal of Slash._ One of the most important features in National
Forest timber sales is the disposal of the brush or slash after logging.
On account of the great diversity of conditions which obtain on the
Forests, the best way to dispose of brush is not everywhere the same.
Piling and burning is required where the fire risk is great; otherwise
the method promising the best silvicultural results is used.
[Illustration: Figure 64. Logging in California. Powerful steam engines
pull the logs from the woods to the railroad and load them on flat cars.
Photo by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 65. The loaded flat cars reach the sawmill where
the logs are unloaded and sawn into lumber. During the fiscal year 1917
timber sales on the National Forests brought into the National Treasury
almost $1,700,000.00. Photo by the author.]
When piling and burning is necessary, all tops and débris, including
large chips made from hewing ties, are piled at a safe distance from
standing trees. The piles are not allowed to be made in groups of
seedlings or young growth, against dead snags, near living trees, or on
stumps, large tops or logs, but wherever possible in openings. The
piles are adapted to the size of the opening in which they are made and
must be made sufficiently compact to kindle easily and burn cleanly. The
ideal pile is of medium size, conical in shape, compact, from 5 to 7
feet in diameter at the base and from 4 to 5 feet high. Brush piling and
burning is an art which can only be acquired after long experience.
Brush is scattered whenever this method promises the best silvicultural
results, unless there is serious danger from fire on account of dense
timber and reproduction. The scattered brush is intended to afford
protection to seedlings from excessive transpiration and from trampling
by stock and to protect the soil from erosion.
Ground burning may be advisable where clean cutting has been employed,
to expose the loose mineral soil for better seed germination. When this
method is used the purchaser is required to clear a fire line around the
area to be burned and to furnish adequate help to the Forest officer who
supervises the burning.
Frequently brush is burned as the cutting progresses. Fires are started
at convenient points and the brush is thrown on them as it is lopped.
Where brush burning is necessary it is not advisable, ordinarily, to
burn over an entire sale area. It is frequently possible to burn the
brush so as to form broad fire lines, particularly along railroads or
wagon roads. The best times for brush burning are after a light fall
of snow or rain, early in the spring before the snow has melted or the
dry season has begun or during or immediately after summer rains. Brush
disposal must always keep pace with logging except when the depth of
snow or other reasons make proper disposal impossible. Often the brush
must lay in piles at least one season before it becomes dry enough to
burn.
_Payment for Timber._ Payment must be made for all timber in advance of
cutting. This, however, does not imply that one advance payment must be
made to cover the stumpage value of all the timber included in the sale.
Frequent installments are allowed sufficient usually to cover the cut of
one or two months.
[Illustration: Figure 66. Scene in Montana. Forest officers constructing
a telephone line through the Flathead National Forest.]
[Illustration: Figure 67. Forest Ranger, accompanied by a lumberman,
marking National Forest timber for cutting in a timber sale. Coconino
National Forest, Arizona.]
This arrangement makes it possible to secure large tracts of National
Forest timber at a very slight initial outlay and to hold them with
almost no interest charges. The other usual carrying charges, namely,
taxes and fire protection, are eliminated. The timber is protected
from fire by the United States throughout the life of the contract. The
money deposited to secure cutting in advance of the execution of the
contract may be credited towards the amount to accompany the bid.
_Stumpage Rates._ The minimum stumpage rates applicable in each
proposed sale are determined by a careful study of the conditions in
the particular case. Stumpage rates are the actual market value of
the timber. They are based upon the quality of the timber and the
character of its commercial products; the estimated cost of logging,
transportation, and manufacture; the investment required on the part
of the operator; the selling value of the product; and a fair profit
to the purchaser. The estimated profit depends upon the size and the
permanency of the operation and the degree of risk involved. The cost of
brush disposal, protection of young growth, logging only marked timber
and other requirements of the Forest Service is fully considered in
appraising stumpage rates.
Timber is ordinarily appraised at the rates indicated for the most
valuable products to which it is suited and for which an established
market exists. Merchantable dead timber is appraised at the same rate
as green timber of the same species unless it is clearly shown that
the products manufactured from it command a lower market price or that
logging costs are higher.
_Cutting Period._ Ordinarily the cutting period allowed in each sale
is only sufficient to permit the removal of the timber at a reasonable
rate, approximately equivalent to the working capacity of the plant.
Sales of accessible timber usually do not exceed 5 years in length.
However, in the case of inaccessible tracts requiring a large investment
for transportation facilities an exception is made and periods of from
15 to 20 years may be granted.
_Readjustment of Stumpage Rates._ In all sales exceeding 5 years in
length provision is made to have the stumpage rates readjusted by the
Forester at the end of three or five year intervals to meet changing
market and manufacturing conditions.
[Illustration: Figure 68. An excellent illustration showing the
difference between unrestricted logging as practised by lumbermen,
and conservative logging as practised by the Forest Service. In the
foreground is the unrestricted logging which strips the soil of every
stick of timber both large and small; in the background is the Forest
Service logging area which preserves the young growth to insure a future
supply of timber for the West. Bitterroot National Forest, Montana.]
_Refunds._ Deposits to cover or secure advance cutting or to accompany
bids apply on the first payment if a sale is awarded to the depositor;
otherwise they will be refunded. Refunds are also made to the purchaser
if the last payment is in excess of the value of the timber that is
cut.
THE DISPOSAL OF TIMBER TO HOMESTEAD SETTLERS AND UNDER FREE USE
Besides selling the timber and other forest products outright, as has
just been described, some timber is sold to settlers at cost and much
timber is given away to the local people under the free use policy.
_Sales to Homestead Settlers and Farmers._ Sales to homestead settlers
and farmers are made without advertisement in any amount desired, at
the price fixed annually for each National Forest region of similar
conditions by the Secretary, as equivalent to the actual cost of making
and administering such sales. Only material to be used by the purchaser
for domestic purposes exclusively on homesteads or farms is sold in this
way. Such uses include the construction or repair of farm buildings,
fences, and other improvements and fuel. Such sales are restricted to
mature dead and down timber which may be cut without injury to the
forest.
_Free Use._ Free use of timber is granted primarily to aid in the
protection and silvicultural improvement of the Forests. Hence the
material taken is, except in unusual cases, restricted to dead,
insect infested and diseased timber, and thinnings. Green material may
be taken in exceptional cases where its refusal would clearly cause
unwarranted hardship. The use of such material is granted freely: (1)
To bona fide settlers, miners, residents, prospectors, for fire wood,
fencing, building, mining, prospecting, and other domestic purposes;
and to any one in case its removal is necessary for the welfare of the
Forest; (2) for the construction of telephone lines when necessary for
the protection of forests from fire; (3) to certain branches of the
Federal Government. Free use is not granted for commercial purposes or
of use in any business, including sawmills, hotels, stores, companies or
corporations. Such persons are required to purchase their timber.
[Illustration: Figure 69. View showing the Forest Service method of
piling the brush and débris after logging, and also how stump heights
are kept down to prevent waste. New Mexico.]
[Illustration: Figure 70. A tie-cutting operation on a National Forest.
These piles of railroad ties are being inspected, stamped, and counted
by Forest rangers. From this point the ties are "skidded" to the banks
of a stream to be floated to the shipping point. Near Evanston, Wyoming.]
The aggregate amount of free use material granted annually to any user
must not exceed $20 in value, except in cases of unusual need or of dead
or insect infested timber, the removal of which would be a benefit to
the forest, or in the case of any timber which should be removed and
whose sale under contract cannot be effected. In these cases the amount
may be extended to $100. Supervisors have authority to grant free use
permits up to $100, District Foresters up to $500, and larger amounts
must have the approval of the Forester.
Free use material is appraised in the same manner and in accordance
with the same principles as timber purchased under sale agreements. The
valuation of such material is at the same rate as that prevailing for
similar grades of stumpage in current sales in the same locality.
The magnitude of the free use business may be appreciated from the
fact that during the fiscal year 1917 there were 41,427 individuals or
companies who received timber under this policy. The total amount thus
given away was 113,073,000 board feet valued at over $150,000.
Permits for this use are required for green material, but dead timber
may be taken without a permit. Supervisors designate as free-use areas
certain portions or all of any National Forest and settlers, miners,
residents, and prospectors may cut and remove from such areas free of
charge under Forest Service regulations any timber needed for their own
use for firewood, fencing, buildings, mining, prospecting, or other
domestic purposes.
Material cut under free-use regulations must not be removed from the
cutting area until scaled or measured by a Forest officer. In some
cases this requirement is waived when by it the needs of the users are
met with greater dispatch and the cost of administration is thereby
reduced. The free-use applicant is required to utilize the trees cut
in accordance with local Forest Service practice and he is required to
avoid unnecessary damage to young growth and standing timber.
TIMBER SETTLEMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE USE
When timber on National Forest land is cut, damaged, killed, or
destroyed in connection with the enjoyment of a right-of-way or other
special use, it is not necessary to advertise it for sale, but payment
therefor is required at not less than the minimum rate established by
the Secretary of Agriculture. Timber removed in this way is usually
scaled, measured, or counted and the procedure is identical with that of
a timber sale. But where timber is destroyed or where it is not worked
up in measurable form or where the cutting is done in such a way that
scaling is impracticable, settlement is required on the basis of an
estimate.
[Illustration: Figure 71. Brush piles on a cut-over area before burning.
Forest Service methods aim to clean up the forest after logging so that
forest fires have less inflammable material to feed on. Bitterroot
National Forest, Montana.]
[Illustration: Figure 72. At a time of the year when there is least
danger from fire the brush piles are burned. Missoula National Forest,
Montana.]
In 1912 a new branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad was built across
a portion of the Lassen National Forest in California. The company
was going to use some of the timber, but most of it was to be destroyed
or disposed of in the easiest manner. Scaling was impossible, so the
company paid for the timber--about $10,000--on the basis of a careful
estimate made by the writer, then Forest Examiner.
The charge for all such timber is made on the basis of the current
stumpage rates for timber of like quality and accessibility included in
sales for all classes of material which have to be cut or destroyed and
which are commonly salable on the Forest.
Timber is often used by the Forest Service itself in the administration
of the National Forests. The Forester, District Foresters, and the
Supervisors are authorized to sell or dispose of under free use or
otherwise, within the amount each one is authorized to sell, any timber
upon the National Forests when such removal is actually necessary to
protect the Forest from ravages or destruction, or when the use or
removal of the timber is necessary in the construction of roads, trails,
cabins, and other improvements on the National Forests or in experiments
conducted by the Forest Service.
THE RENTAL OF NATIONAL FOREST RANGE LANDS
The forage crop on the National Forests is for the use of the sheep and
cattle of the western stockmen and it is procured by means of grazing
permits which are issued and charged for upon a per capita basis. The
primary objects of the administration of government grazing lands are:
the protection and conservative use of all National Forest land adapted
to grazing; the permanent good of the live stock industry through the
proper care and use of grazing lands; and the protection of the settler
and home builder against unfair competition in the use of the range.
_Importance of the Live Stock Industry._ The grazing business, more than
any other feature of National Forest management, is immensely practical,
because it is immediately concerned with human interests. This industry
furnishes not only meat, but leather, wool, and many by-products.
That the National Forests play a big part in the maintenance of this
industry there can be little doubt, for it has been estimated recently
that 30 per cent. of the sheep and 20 per cent. of the cattle of the far
Western States are grazed in the National Forests. The Forests contain
by far the largest part of the summer range lands in the far Western
States and hence are of paramount importance. The winter grazing lands
in the West are so much greater in area than the summer lands, that for
this reason also National Forest range lands are in great demand.
_Permits Issued in 1917._ During the fiscal year 1917 more than 31,000
permits to graze cattle, hogs, or horses, and over 5,500 permits to
graze sheep or goats were issued. These permits provided for 2,054,384
cattle, 7,586,034 sheep, about 100,000 horses, about 50,000 goats, and
about 3,000 hogs. The total receipts for 1917 were over $1,500,000. The
gross receipts to the owners of the stock probably exceeded $50,000,000
and the capital invested in the stock no doubt amounted to over
$200,000,000.
An idea of the growth of the grazing business may be gotten from the
Forest Service statistics for the fiscal years 1908 and 1917. The
increase in the number of permits and the volume of the business is
due primarily to a better administration and better regulation of
grazing interests and more specifically to the increase in the carrying
capacity of government lands by wise and restricted use. Between these
two fiscal years there was no appreciable increase in the total area
of the Forests which would account for the increased business. In 1908
there were issued 19,845 permits for 1,382,221 cattle, horses and hogs;
in 1917 there were issued 31,136 permits for 2,054,384 animals. In 1908
there were issued 4,282 permits for 7,087,111 sheep and goats; in 1917
5,502 permits were issued for 7,586,034 sheep and goats. The number of
cattle and horses grazed has increased therefore by 50 per cent. and
the number of sheep and goats by 7 per cent. The total receipts have
increased from $962,829.40 in 1908 to $1,549,794.76 in 1917.
_Kinds of Range, Grazing Seasons, and Methods of Handling Stock._ For
the proper understanding of the grazing business on the National Forests
it is necessary to know something about the different kinds of range,
the length of grazing seasons, and the methods of handling different
classes of stock. Sheep and goat range differs materially from cattle
and horse range and the proper distribution of stock over a National
Forest cannot be effected unless this difference is recognized. Sheep
and goat range usually consists of low shrubs or brush and is known
collectively as "browse"; cattle and horses subsist mainly upon grass,
flowering plants and herbs. Sheep feel more at home on high mountain
slopes, while cattle and horses range usually on the lower slopes and
in the valleys, and especially in the broad meadows, around lakes and
along streams. Sheep are more apt to find feed in the forests, that is
under the trees; cattle prefer the open; they usually avoid the forest,
preferring to keep out on the open meadows and grassy slopes.
Naturally some ranges have feed at some seasons of the year and other
ranges at other seasons. Some of the National Forests in California
extend from an elevation of a few hundred feet in the foothills of the
great valleys to an elevation of more than 10,000 feet at the crest
of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The lower foothills afford excellent
feed soon after the beginning of the fall rains in November and, due
to the very mild winter which this region enjoys, there is excellent
feed in February and March. This is known as winter range. The medium
high slopes of the mountains have a later growing season and the sheep
and cattle reach there about June and stay until August or September.
Still higher up the forage matures later and the grazing season extends
from August until November. At these elevations the snowbanks usually
lie until July and the growing season is very short, for the new snow
usually buries the vegetation about the first of November. Thus stockmen
have what they call "winter range," "summer range," and "fall range,"
depending upon what seasons of the year the forage crop can be utilized.
The National Forests on the whole contain very little winter range,
hence stockmen must move their stock in the fall to private lands at
lower elevations either where the climate is considerably warmer or
where there is very little snowfall. A large part of the western winter
grazing lands are in regions of light snowfall, such as at the lower
elevations in Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado. Here the stock feeds
on dry grass. Stockmen who cannot get winter range lands must feed their
stock at ranches.
The characteristic habits of sheep and cattle require that they be
handled differently on the range. Sheep are herded in bands while
cattle are handled in scattered groups. The new and approved method of
handling sheep called the "burro system" calls for a burro with the
sheep to pack the herder's blankets and provisions. The herder camps
where night overtakes him. The herder and his band keep moving over the
allotted range from one camp to another until he has covered the whole
range. After leaving his last camp he is ready to begin all over again,
since the feed near the camp where he began has had two to three weeks'
time to grow a new crop. Cattle usually run loose singly or in groups
on their allotted range. Usually a range rider is camped on the range
to keep the cattle from straying to other ranges. He salts the cattle
to keep them on their own range, takes care of cattle that have gotten
sick, and takes care of the stock in other ways.
_Grazing Districts and Grazing Units._ The Secretary of Agriculture not
only has the authority to regulate grazing and prescribe the schedule of
grazing fees to be charged but he also regulates the number and class of
stock which are allowed to graze on each National Forest annually.
The ranges within the National Forests are used by the kind of stock for
which they are best adapted except when this would not be consistent
with the welfare of local residents or the proper protection of the
Forests. For convenience in administration Forests are divided into
grazing districts. A typical Forest is divided into from 4 to 6
districts which may be natural grazing units, natural administrative
units (coinciding with the Ranger districts), or parts of the Forest
used by different classes of stock or parts of the Forest having
different lengths of grazing seasons. Each grazing district is also
subdivided into smaller divisions, units, or allotments. These are
usually natural divisions defined by topographic boundaries, such as
ridges, mountains, streams, etc., or more or less artificial divisions
determined by the class of stock which uses them. For example, cattle
and horses ordinarily graze in the valleys along the streams, while
sheep and goats graze the crests of ridges and the slopes of mountains
and will cross none but shallow streams. Each range division or unit
is usually given a well-known local name, such as "Duck Lake Unit" or
"Clover Valley Unit." One or more stockmen may be allotted to such a
unit, depending upon the size of the unit and the number of animals
it can feed. If only one stockman uses it, it becomes an individual
allotment. Usually a sheep owner with several large bands of sheep is
allotted one large unit adapted to sheep grazing, while a large unit
adapted to cattle and horses may be allotted to one large cattle owner
or to two or more smaller owners. The manner in which sheep and goats
are handled makes individual allotments both practicable and desirable.
The boundaries of range allotments are usually well defined. In the
case of sheep they are marked with cloth posters. In most Forests range
allotments are fairly well settled. Each stockman gets with his permit
each spring a small map showing his own range and the surrounding ranges.
_Who Are Entitled to Grazing Privileges._ The Secretary of Agriculture
has the authority to permit, regulate, or prohibit grazing on the
National Forests. Under his direction the Forest Service allows the use
of the forage crop as fully as the proper care and protection of the
National Forests and the water supply permit. The grazing use of the
National Forest lands is therefore only a personal and non-transferable
privilege. This privilege is a temporary one, allowable under the law
only when it does not interfere with the purposes for which the National
Forests were created. It is non-transferable because it is based upon
the possession of certain qualifications peculiar to the permittee. To
understand these qualifications it is necessary to briefly look into the
history of the grazing of live stock on the western grazing lands.
[Illustration: Figure 73. Counting sheep as they leave the corral. Sheep
and cattle are pastured on National Forests at so many cents per head,
hence they must be counted before they enter in the spring. Wasatch
National Forest, Utah.]
[Illustration: Figure 74. Logging National Forest timber. Santa Fe
National Forest, New Mexico.]
By long use of the public lands of the United States for grazing
purposes, long before the National Forests were created, stock owners
have been allowed to graze their stock upon such lands under certain
conditions of occupancy, residence, and ownership of improved lands and
water rights. This use, continuing through a long period of years, has,
in the absence of congressional legislation, been commonly accepted
in many communities, even receiving the recognition of certain of the
courts. It was allowed under "unwritten law," as it were, only by the
passive consent of the United States, but by force of the presidential
proclamation creating National Forests, such passive consent ceased,
being superseded by definite regulations by the Secretary of Agriculture
prescribed under the authority of Congress. Therefore grazing stock on
the Forests, as it was done before the Forests were created, is trespass
against the United States. Due to the fact that local stockmen have used
certain public ranges year after year by the passive consent of the
United States, these stockmen are recognized in these localities as
having preference rights or equities in the use of range lands. These
equities form the basis upon which grazing privileges are allowed.
Grazing permits are issued only to persons entitled to share in the
use of the range within the National Forests by reason of their
fulfilling certain conditions or requirements. Prior use and occupancy
of National Forest lands for grazing purposes is the first and foremost
requirement. Local residence and ownership of improved ranch property
within or near the Forest and dependence upon government range are
also conditions that may entitle a stockman to grazing privileges. The
Forest Service also recognizes those stockmen who have acquired by
purchase or inheritance stock grazed upon National Forest lands under
permit and improved ranch property used in connection with the stock,
provided circumstances warrant the renewal of the permit issued to the
former owner. The regular use of a range during its open season for
several successive years before the creation of the National Forest
and under grazing permit thereafter is what is meant by "prior use"
or "regular occupancy." The longer the period or use the greater the
preference right. No one can acquire this right to the use of National
Forest range, nor can it be bought or sold, but stockmen may acquire a
preference in the allotment of grazing privileges. This preference right
does not entitle him to continued use of a certain part of a Forest, but
only to preference over other applicants less entitled to consideration
in the use of the ranges open to the class of stock which he wishes to
graze. Certain stockmen may be given preference in ranges secured by
prior use and occupancy supplemented by heavy investments in improved
property and water rights.
Citizens of the United States are given preference in the use of the
National Forests, but persons who are not citizens may be allowed
grazing permits provided they are bona fide residents and owners of
improved ranch property either within or adjacent to a National Forest.
Regular occupants of the range who own and reside upon improved ranch
property in or near National Forests are given first consideration, but
will be limited to a number which will not exclude regular occupants
who reside or whose stock are wintered at a greater distance from the
National Forests. With this provision applicants for grazing permits
are given preference in the following order:
Class A. Persons owning and residing upon improved ranch
property within or near a National Forest who are dependent
upon National Forests for range and who do not own more
than a limited number of stock (known as the protective
limit).
Class B. Regular users of National Forests range who do not own
improved ranch property within or near a National Forest,
and persons owning such ranch property but who own numbers
of stock in excess of the established limit.
Class C. Persons who are not regular users of the National
Forest range and who do not own improved ranch property
within or near a National Forest. Such persons are not
granted permits upon Forests which are fully occupied by
classes A and B. Classes B and C are not allowed to increase
the number of stock grazed under permit except by the
purchase of other permitted stock.
From this classification it is very evident that the small local
stockmen who own approximately from 30 to 300 head of cattle and from
500 to 2,000 head of sheep and who own and reside upon the ranches
near the Forests are given the preference in the allotment of grazing
privileges.
_Grazing Permits._ Various kinds of grazing permits are required each
year on the National Forests. These are known as ordinary grazing
permits, on-and-off permits, private land permits, and crossing permits.
All persons must secure permits before grazing any stock on a National
Forest except for the few head in actual use by prospectors, campers,
ranchers, stockmen, and travelers who use saddle, pack and work animals,
and milch cows in connection with permitted operations on the National
Forests. Under these conditions 10 head are allowed to graze without
permit.
Persons owning stock which regularly graze on ranges partially included
within a National Forest, or upon range which includes private land may
be granted permits for such portions of their stock as the circumstances
appear to justify. This regulation provides for cases where only a
part of a natural range unit is National Forest land, and where the
economical use of the entire unit can be secured only by the utilization
of the Forest land in connection with the other land. The regulation
contemplates a movement of the stock governed by natural conditions,
between the Forest range and the adjoining outside range, or between
Forest land and intermingled private land. This is called an on-and-off
permit.
Permits on account of private lands are issued to persons who own, or
who have leased from the owners, unfenced lands within any National
Forest which are so situated and of such a character that they may
be used by other permitted stock to an extent rendering the exchange
advantageous to the Government. The permits allow the permittees to
graze upon National Forest land, free of charge, the number of stock
which the private lands will support, by waiving the right to the
exclusive use of the private land and allowing it to remain open to
other stock grazed on National Forest land under permit.
The regular grazing permit carries with it the privilege of driving the
permitted stock over National Forest lands to and from the allotted
ranges at the beginning and end of the grazing season and from the
range to the most accessible shearing, dipping, and shipping points
during the term of the permit. But crossing permits are necessary for
crossing stock over National Forest lands to points beyond the National
Forest, for crossing stock to private lands within a National Forest,
or for crossing stock to reach dipping vats or railroad shipping
points. Rangers sometimes are detailed to accompany the stock and see
that there is no delay or trespassing. No charge is made for crossing
permits, but it is absolutely necessary that persons crossing stock
comply with the regulations governing the National Forests and with the
quarantine regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture and
the state authorities.
_Grazing Fees._ The full grazing fee is charged on all animals under 6
months of age which are not the natural increase of stock upon which the
fees are paid. Animals under 6 months which are the natural increase of
permitted stock are not charged for. A reasonable fee is charged for
grazing all kinds of live stock on National Forests. The rates are based
upon the yearlong rate for cattle, which is from 60 cents to $1.50 per
head, depending upon conditions on the Forest. The yearlong rates for
horses are 25 per cent. more and the yearlong rate for swine 25 per
cent. less than the rate for cattle. The rate for sheep is 25 per cent.
of the yearlong rate for cattle. The rates for all kinds of stock for
periods shorter than yearlong are computed in proportion to the length
of the season during which the stock use National Forest lands. All
grazing fees are payable in advance.
When notice of the grazing allowance, periods, and rates for the year
has been received by the Supervisor he gives public notice of a date on
or before which all applications for grazing must be presented to him.
These public notices are posted in conspicuous places, usually in the
post offices. Applications for grazing permits are submitted on blank
forms furnished by the Supervisor. As soon as an applicant for a grazing
permit is notified by the Supervisor that his application has been
approved, he must remit the amount due for grazing fees to the District
Fiscal Agent and upon receipt of notice by the Supervisor that payment
has been made a permit is issued allowing the stock to enter the Forest
and remain during the period specified. All grazing fees are payable in
advance and the stock is not allowed to enter the National Forest unless
payment has been made.
_Stock Associations._ The thirty or more grazing regulations effective
on the National Forests are for the primary purpose of making the
National Forest range lands as useful as possible to the people
consistent with their protection and perpetuation. It is clearly
impossible to meet the wishes and needs of each individual user, but
it is often entirely possible to meet the wishes of the majority of
users if made known through an organization. The organization of stock
associations is encouraged by the Forest Service and the opinions and
wishes of their advisory boards are recognized when they represent
general rather than individual or personal interests. It is often
possible through these organizations to construct range improvements
such as corrals, drift fences, roads, trails, and sources of water
supply for the common good of the members of the organization and paid
for by them.
_Protective and Maximum Limits._ In order to secure an equitable
distribution of grazing privileges, the District Forester establishes
protective limits covering the number of stock for which the permits of
Class A owners will be exempt from reduction in the renewal of their
permits. Permits for numbers in excess of the protective limits will be
subject to necessary reductions and will not be subject to increase in
number except through purchase of stock or ranches of other permittees.
[Illustration: Figure 75. Sheep grazing on the Montezuma National Forest
at the foot of Mt. Wilson, Colorado. Over 7,500,000 sheep and goats
grazed on the National Forests during the fiscal year 1917.]
[Illustration: Figure 76. Grazing cattle on a National Forest in
Colorado. Permits were issued during 1917 to graze over 2,000,000
cattle, horses, and swine on the National Forests.]
Protective limits are established to protect permittees from reduction
in the number of stock which they are allowed to graze under permit
below a point where the business becomes too small to be handled at
a profit or to contribute its proper share toward the maintenance of a
home. The average number of stock which a settler must graze in order
to utilize the products of his farm and derive a reasonable profit is
determined upon each Forest or, if necessary, upon each grazing district
thereof, and serves as the basis for the protective limit. Protective
limits have been established for various Forests running from 25 to 300
head of cattle and from 500 to 2,000 head of sheep and goats.
Increases above the protective limit are allowed only to purchasers
of stock and ranches of permit holders and any such increase must not
exceed the maximum limit. Class A permittees owning a less number of
stock than the protective limit are allowed to increase their number
gradually. Whenever it is found necessary to reduce the number of stock
allowed in any National Forest, Class C stock is excluded before the
other classes are reduced. The reduction on a sliding scale is then
applied to Class B owners. Class A owners are exempt from reduction.
When new stock owners are allowed the use of National Forest range upon
a Forest already fully stocked, reductions in the number of permitted
stock of Class B and C owners is made in order to make room for the new
man. Thus it is seen that the matter of protective limits is actually a
protection to the small stock owner; he is protected from the monopoly
of the range by big corporations.
When necessary to prevent monopoly of the range by large stock owners,
the District Forester establishes maximum limits in the number of stock
for which a permit may be issued to any one person, firm or corporation.
_Prohibition of Grazing._ It often becomes necessary to prohibit all
grazing on an area within a National Forest or at least to materially
reduce the amount of stock which is allowed to graze on a given area.
Sheep may be excluded from a timber-sale area for a certain number
of years after cutting or until the reproduction has become well
established. Where planting operations are being carried on it is
usually necessary to exclude all classes of stock. If investigations
show that grazing is responsible for the lack of reproduction over
a considerable area, the area or a portion of it may be withdrawn
from range use until young growth has become established again. The
watersheds of streams supplying water for irrigation, municipal
or domestic purposes may be closed to grazing of any or all kinds
of domestic stock when necessary to prevent erosion and floods
or diminution in water supply. Camping grounds required for the
accommodation of the public may be closed to the grazing of permitted
stock. Limited areas which are the natural breeding or feeding grounds
of game animals or birds may be closed to grazing. Areas within National
Forests infested seriously by poisonous plants may be closed to grazing.
_Protection of Grazing Interests._ The protection of National Forest
grazing interests is secured by the prevention of overgrazing, by the
prevention of damage to roads, trails, or water sources, by the proper
bedding of sheep and goats, by the proper disposition of carcasses, by
salting the stock and by the proper observation of the national and
state live stock and quarantine laws.
When an owner, who has a permit, is ready to drive in his stock upon the
National Forest he must notify the nearest Forest officer concerning
the number to be driven in. If called upon to do so he must provide
for having his stock counted before entering a National Forest. Each
permittee must repair all damage to roads or trails caused by the
presence of his stock. Sheep and goats are not allowed to be bedded
more than three nights in succession in the same place (except during
the lambing season) and must not be bedded within 300 yards of any
running or living spring. The carcasses of all animals which die on the
National Forests from contagious or infectious diseases must be burned
and are not permitted to lie in the close vicinity of water. In order to
facilitate the handling of stock and prevent their straying off their
range, they must be salted at regular intervals and at regular places.
In order to facilitate the moving of stock by stockmen from their home
ranches to their grazing allotments and to minimize the damage of
grazing animals to the Forests, stock driveways are established over
regular routes of travel.
SPECIAL USES
All uses of National Forest lands and resources permitted by the
Secretary of Agriculture, except those specifically provided for in
the regulations covering water power, timber sales, timber settlement,
the free use of timber, and grazing, are designated "special uses."
Among these are the use or occupancy of lands for residences, farms,
apiaries, dairies, schools, churches, stores, mills, factories, hotels,
sanitariums, summer resorts, telephone and telegraph lines, roads and
railways; the occupancy of lands for dams, reservoirs and conduits not
used for power purposes; and the use of stone, sand, and gravel. No
charge is made for a large number of these permits, some of which are
the following: (1) agricultural use by applicants having preference
rights under the Act of June 11, 1906; (2) schools, churches, and
cemeteries; (3) cabins for the use of miners, prospectors, trappers,
and stockmen in connection with grazing permits; (4) saw mills sawing
principally National Forest timber; (5) conduits, and reservoirs for
irrigation or mining or for municipal water supply; (6) roads and trails
(which must be free public highways); (7) telephone lines and telegraph
lines with free use of poles and connections for the Forest Service.
The occupancy and use of National Forest land or resources under a
special use permit (except those given free of charge) are conditioned
upon the payment of a charge and are based upon certain rates.
Agricultural use of land is given to permittees at a charge of from
25 cents to $1.00 an acre. Not over 160 acres are allowed to any one
permittee. Cabins cost from $3.00 to $5.00; hay cutting from 20 to 50
cents an acre; hotels and roadhouses from $10.00 to $50.00; pastures
from 4 to 25 cents per acre; residences covering from one to three acres
cost from $5.00 to $25.00; resorts from $10.00 to $50.00; stores from
$5.00 to $50.00 for two acres or less; and other uses in proportion.
Perhaps the use that is purchased most of all on the National Forests is
that for residences and summer homes. On many of the Forests they are
already in great demand. A large proportion of the population of the
far Western States seek the cool and invigorating air of the mountains
in the early summer because the heat of the valleys, especially in
California, is almost unbearable.
There are many desirable pieces of land on the National Forests
that are being reserved by the Forest Service especially for this
purpose for the people of the neighboring towns. For example, on
the Angeles National Forest in California the Supervisor had about
250 suitable sites surveyed in one picturesque canyon and in six
months 226 of them were under special use permits as summer homes.
A large reservoir--Huntington Lake--was constructed on the Sierra
National Forest in California as the result of a dam constructed by a
hydro-electric power company. Immediately there was a keen demand among
the residents of San Joaquin Valley for summer homes on the shores of
the lake. In a few years it is expected there will be a permanent summer
colony of from 2,000 to 3,000 people. The Forest Service has already
authorized an expenditure of $1,500 in order to furnish an adequate
supply of domestic water for the colony.
CLAIMS AND SETTLEMENT
Claims can be initiated upon National Forest lands under (1) the Act
of June 11, 1906, (2) under the mining laws, and (3) under the coal
land laws. In connection with these claims it is the duty of the Forest
Service to examine them, but the determination of questions involving
title is within the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior.
It is the purpose of the Forest Service to protect the lands of the
United States within the National Forests from acquisition by those
who do not seek them for purposes recognized by law. When it is
apparent that an entry or a claim is not initiated in good faith and
in compliance with the spirit of the law under which it was asserted,
but is believed from the facts to be a subterfuge to acquire title to
timber land, or to control range privileges, water, a water-power site,
or rights of way; or if it otherwise interferes with the interests
of the National Forests in any way, the Forest Service recommends a
contest, even if the technical requirements of the law appear to have
been fulfilled. It is bad faith, for instance, to hold a mining or
agricultural claim primarily for the timber thereon or to acquire a site
valuable for water power development.
_The National Forest Homestead Act._ At the present time there is very
little, if any, fraud connected with the Forest Homestead Act because
the land is classified before it is opened to entry. The greater part of
the work dealing with fraudulent claims is a relic of the old régime.
Before the Forests were established many Homestead and Timber and
Stone entries were made for the purpose of securing valuable timber.
A large number of persons resorted to settlement in order to secure
the preference right. It was the common custom in those days for land
cruisers to locate men on heavily timbered land either before or
immediately after survey and before the filing of the plats and the
opening of the land to entry. A cabin would be built upon the land and
some unsubstantial improvements made. When the National Forests were
created they contained great numbers of these squatters' cabins. Many
were abandoned but others attempted to secure title. Under the old
Timber and Stone Act timber could be secured for $2.50 per acre, but the
National Forests are not subject to entry under this act. So as a last
resort the squatters tried to prove up on the land under the Homestead
law. When the Forests were created the Service found a great many of
these fraudulent claims on their books, many of which were being brought
up annually for patent. Between December, 1908, and June 30, 1913, a
total of 498 entries for National Forest land were canceled in a single
administrative district. These entries represented fraudulent efforts
to secure title to 85,906 acres of National Forest land for speculative
purposes, involving nearly a billion feet of merchantable timber. During
the fiscal year 1913 alone 300,000,000 board feet of merchantable timber
in one district was retained in public ownership primarily because the
Forest officers brought out the facts. The lands in all cases were
covered with heavy stands of timber, very small portions of the land had
been cleared, the claimant's residence on the land was not in compliance
with the law, seldom was any crop raised on the land, and the claimant
in other ways did not carry out the intent of the law.
The Act of June 11, 1906, known as the National Forest Homestead Act,
provides for the acquisition by qualified entrymen of agricultural
lands within National Forests. The Act is in effect an extension of
the general provisions of the Homestead laws to the agricultural lands
within the National Forests, with the essential difference that the land
must be classified by the Secretary of Agriculture as chiefly valuable
for agriculture.
This Act authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture in his discretion to
examine and ascertain, upon application or otherwise, the location and
extent of lands both surveyed and unsurveyed in the National Forests,
chiefly valuable for agriculture, which may be occupied for agricultural
purposes without injury to the National Forests or public interests. He
is authorized to list and describe such lands by metes and bounds or
otherwise and to file such lists and descriptions with the Secretary of
the Interior for opening to entry in accordance with the provisions of
the Act. Agricultural lands listed by the Secretary of Agriculture are
opened by the Secretary of the Interior to homestead entry in tracts
not exceeding 160 acres at the expiration of 60 days from the filing of
the lists in the local Land Office. Notice of the filing of the list
is posted in the local Land Office and is published for a period of
not less than four weeks in a local newspaper. The Act provides that
the person upon whose application the land is examined and listed, if
a qualified entryman, shall have the preference right of entry. To
exercise this preference right, application to enter must be filed in
the local Land Office within 60 days after the filing of the list in
that office. The entryman can perfect his title to the land within a
certain period of years by fulfilling certain conditions of residence
and cultivation.
By the Act of June 6, 1912, known as the "Three Year Homestead Act," the
period of residence necessary to be shown in order to entitle a person
to patent under the Homestead laws is reduced from 5 to 3 years and
the period within which a homestead entry may be completed is reduced
from 7 to 5 years. The new law requires the claimant to cultivate not
less than 1/16 of the area of his entry beginning with the second year
of entry and not less than 1/8 beginning with the third year and until
final proof, except that in the case of the enlarged Homestead laws,
double the areas given are required. On a 160-acre claim, therefore, it
is required that 1/8 or 20 acres be under cultivation. A mere breaking
of the soil does not meet the requirements of the statute, but such
breaking of the soil must be accompanied by planting and sowing of seed
and tillage for a crop other than native grasses. The period within
which the cultivation should be made is reckoned from the date of the
entry. The Secretary of the Interior, however, is authorized upon a
satisfactory showing therefor to reduce the required area of cultivation
on account of financial disabilities or misfortunes of the entryman
or on account of special physical and climatic conditions of the land
which make cultivation difficult. The entryman must establish an actual
residence upon the land entered, 6 months after the date of the entry.
After the establishment of residence the entryman is permitted to be
absent from the land for one continuous period of not more than 5 months
in each year following. He must also file at the local Land Office
notice of the beginning of such intended absence.
_The Mining Laws._ Mineral deposits within National Forests are open to
development exactly as on unreserved public land. A prospector can go
anywhere he chooses and stake a claim wherever he finds any evidences of
valuable minerals. The only restriction is that mining claims must be
bona fide ones and not taken up for the purpose of acquiring valuable
timber or a town or a water power site, or to monopolize the water
supply of a stock range. Prospectors may obtain a certain amount of
National Forest timber free of charge to be used in developing their
claims. More than 500 mining claims are patented within the National
Forests every fiscal year.
A good example of mining claims located for fraudulent purposes were
those located on the rim and sides of the Grand Canyon in Arizona to
prevent the people from gaining free access to the canyon and make them
pay to enter it. These claims were shown to be fraudulent since no
deposits of any kind were ever found on them. They were canceled by the
higher courts and the land reverted to the people.
_Coal-Land Laws._ Coal lands are mineral lands and as such are subject
to entry the same as other mineral lands in the National Forests.
ADMINISTRATIVE USE OF NATIONAL FOREST LANDS
Lands within National Forests may be selected for administrative
uses such as Supervisor's and Ranger's headquarters, gardens,
pastures, corrals, planting or nursery sites or rights-of-way. These
administrative sites are necessary for the present and probable
future requirements of the Forest Service for fire protection and the
transaction of business on the National Forests.
WATER POWER, TELEPHONE, TELEGRAPH, AND POWER TRANSMISSION LINES
Along the streams within the National Forests are many sites suitable
for power development. These are open to occupancy for such purposes and
have the advantage of being on streams whose headwaters are protected.
The aggregate capacity of the water power sites on the National Forests
is estimated at 12,000,000 horsepower.
[Illustration: Figure 77. North Clear Creek Falls, Rio Grande National
Forest, Colorado. The National Forests contain about one-third of all
the potential water-power resources of the United States.]
[Illustration: Figure 78. The power plant of the Colorado Power Company,
on the Grand River, Holy Cross National Forest, Colorado. Every fiscal
year there is a substantial increase in water power development on the
National Forests.]
The Government does not permit the monopolization of power in any region
or allow sites to be held for speculative purposes. The objects of
the regulations are to secure prompt and full development and to obtain
a reasonable compensation for the use of the land occupied and the
beneficial protection given the watershed.
Permits for power development on the National Forests usually run for a
term of 50 years and may be renewed at their expiration upon compliance
with the regulations then existing. Such permits, while granting liberal
terms to applicants, contain ample provision for the protection of the
public interests.
Applications for power permits are filed with the District Forester
of the Forest Service District in which the desired site is located.
Preliminary permits are issued to protect an applicant's priority
against subsequent applicants until he has had an opportunity to study
the proper location and design of the project and to obtain the data
necessary for the final application. Operation is allowed under the
final permit only. The permittee is required to pay an annual rental
charge under the preliminary and final power permits and definite
periods are specified for the filing of the final application, beginning
of construction and of operation. The rental charges are nominal in
amount, the maximum being about 1/16 of a cent per kilowatt hour. The
amount of annual payment for transmission lines is $5.00 for each mile
or fraction thereof if National Forest land is crossed by the line. No
rental charges are made for small power projects (under 100 horsepower
capacity), or for transmission lines used in connection therewith, or
for transmission lines which are part of a power project under permit
or for any power project in which power is to be used by a municipal
corporation for municipal purposes.
The Secretary of Agriculture has authority to permit the use of
rights-of-way through the National Forests for conduits, reservoirs,
power plants, telephone and telegraph lines to be used for irrigation,
mining, and domestic purposes and for the production and transmission
of electric power. No rental charges are made for the telephone and
telegraph rights-of-way, but the applicant must agree to furnish such
facilities to Forest officers and to permit such reasonable use of its
poles or lines as may be determined or agreed upon between the applicant
and the District Forester.
[Illustration: Figure 79. This is only one of the thousands of streams
in the National Forests of the West capable of generating electric
power. It has been estimated that over 40 per cent. of the water power
resources of the western states are included in the National Forests.
Photo by the author.]
[Illustration: Figure 80. View in the famous orange belt of San
Bernardino County, California. These orchards depend absolutely upon
irrigation. The watersheds from which the necessary water comes are in
the National Forests and are protected by the Forest Service. Some of
the smaller watersheds in these mountains are said to irrigate orchards
valued at $10,000,000.]
APPENDIX
TABLE OF LAND AREAS WITHIN THE NATIONAL FOREST BOUNDARIES
June 30, 1917
Key: DN=District Number
-------------------+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------
| Headquarters | National | Patented | Total
State and | of | Forest | and other | area
Forest | Forest | Land | lands | (acres)
DN | Supervisor | (acres) | (acres) |
-------------------+--------------+-----------+-----------+-----------
ALASKA | | | |
Chugach 6 |Ketchikan | 5,418,753 | 113,682 | 5,532,435
Tongass 6 |Ketchikan |15,451,716 | 29,284 | 15,481,000
ARIZONA | | | |
Apache 3 |Springerville | 1,182,782 | 93,618 | 1,276,400
Chiricahua[1] 3 |Tucson | 348,157 | 10,691 | 358,848
Coconino 3 |Flagstaff | 1,601,598 | 161,799 | 1,763,397
Coronado 3 |Tucson | 959,304 | 39,676 | 998,980
Crook 3 |Safford | 870,130 | 14,870 | 885,000
Dixie[1] 4 |St. George, | | |
| Utah | 17,680 | | 17,680
Kaibab 4 |Kanab, Utah | 1,072,375 | 525 | 1,072,900
Manzano[1] 3 |Albuquerque, | | |
| N. M. | 27,708 | 29,724 | 57,432
Prescott 3 |Prescott | 1,433,366 | 186,589 | 1,619,955
Sitgreaves 3 |Snowflake | 659,337 | 234,883 | 893,720
Tonto 3 |Roosevelt | 1,994,239 | 39,521 | 2,033,760
Tusayan 3 |Williams | 1,602,750 | 186,068 | 1,788,818
ARKANSAS | | | |
Arkansas 7 |Hot Springs | 626,746 | 331,544 | 958,290
Ozark 7 |Harrison | 291,840 | 237,338 | 529,178
CALIFORNIA | | | |
Angeles 5 |Los Angeles | 820,980 | 240,723 | 1,061,703
California 5 |Oriental | 807,444 | 255,178 | 1,062,622
Cleveland 5 |Escondido | 547,981 | 265,635 | 813,616
Crater[1] 6 |Medford, Ore. | 46,977 | 10,045 | 57,022
Eldorado[1] 5 |Placerville | 549,392 | 286,408 | 835,800
Inyo[1] 5 |Bishop | 1,269,980 | 67,800 | 1,337,780
Klamath[1] 5 |Yreka | 1,470,841 | 263,824 | 1,734,665
Lassen 5 |Red Bluff | 936,877 | 384,466 | 1,321,343
Modoc 5 |Alturas | 1,182,986 | 399,873 | 1,532,859
Mono[1] 5 |Gardnerville, | | |
| Nev. | 784,620 | 90,241 | 874,861
Monterey 5 |King City | 316,058 | 44,436 | 360,494
Plumas 5 |Quincy | 1,144,835 | 288,025 | 1,432,860
Santa Barbara 5 |Santa Barbara | 1,688,571 | 239,723 | 1,928,294
Sequoia 5 |Bakersfield | 2,194,926 | 274,344 | 2,469,270
Shasta 5 |Sisson | 803,448 | 783,432 | 1,586,880
Sierra 5 |Northfork | 1,489,934 | 172,626 | 1,662,560
Siskiyou[1] 6 |Grants Pass, | | |
| Ore. | 349,069 | 52,726 | 401,795
Stanislaus 5 |Sonora | 810,399 | 294,013 | 1,104,412
Tahoe 5 |Nevada City | 542,226 | 666,851 | 1,209,077
Trinity 5 |Weaverville | 1,430,547 | 315,600 | 1,746,147
COLORADO | | | |
Arapaho 2 |Hot Sulphur | | |
| Springs | 634,903 | 46,371 | 681,274
Battlement 2 |Collbran | 651,227 | 26,113 | 677,340
Cochetopa 2 |Saguache | 905,723 | 24,497 | 930,220
Colorado 2 |Fort Collins | 847,328 | 302,266 | 1,149,594
Durango 2 |Durango | 614,129 | 89,871 | 704,000
Gunnison 2 |Gunnison | 908,055 | 43,255 | 951,310
Hayden[1] 2 |Encampment, | | |
| Wyo. | 65,598 | 6,402 | 72,000
Holy Cross 2 |Glenwood | | |
| Springs | 576,905 | 28,795 | 605,700
La Sal[1] 4 |Moab, Utah | 27,444 | 176 | 27,620
Leadville 2 |Leadville | 934,017 | 122,503 | 1,056,520
Montezuma 2 |Mancos | 700,082 | 112,018 | 812,100
Pike 2 |Denver | 1,080,381 | 175,731 | 1,256,112
Rio Grande 2 |Monte Vista | 1,136,884 | 84,256 | 1,221,140
Routt 2 |Steamboat | | |
| Springs | 833,459 | 86,487 | 919,946
San Isabel 2 |Westcliffe | 598,912 | 52,288 | 651,200
San Juan 2 |Pagosa Spgs. | 617,995 | 127,005 | 745,000
Sopris 2 |Aspen | 596,986 | 59,014 | 656,000
Uncampahgre 2 |Delta | 790,349 | 77,511 | 867,860
White River 2 |Meeker | 848,018 | 23,012 | 871,030
FLORIDA | | | |
Florida 7 |Pensacola | 308,268 | 367,152 | 675,420
IDAHO | | | |
Boise 4 |Boise | 1,058,941 | 59,173 | 1,118,114
Cache[1] 4 |Logan, Utah | 513,617 | 31,447 | 545,064
Caribou[1] 4 |Montpelier | 681,540 | 30,090 | 711,630
Challis 4 |Challis | 1,259,237 | 10,753 | 1,269,990
Clearwater 1 |Orofino | 785,103 | 122,743 | 907,846
Coeur d'Alene | | | |
d'Alene 1 |Coeur d'Alene | 662,611 | 127,623 | 790,234
Idaho 4 |McCall | 1,193,439 | 15,841 | 1,209,280
Kaniksu[1] 1 |Newport, | | |
| Wash. | 198,757 | 260,220 | 458,977
Lemhi 4 |Mackay | 1,095,924 | 4,638 | 1,100,562
Minidoka[1] 4 |Oakley | 509,536 | 21,584 | 531,120
Nezperce 1 |Grangeville | 1,624,582 | 41,497 | 1,666,079
Palisade[1] 4 |St. Anthony | 283,495 | 9,820 | 293,315
Payette 4 |Emmett | 831,926 | 31,748 | 863,674
Pend Oreille 1 |Sandpoint | 676,014 | 198,724 | 874,738
St. Joe 1 |St. Maries | 493,925 | 481,743 | 975,668
Salmon 4 |Salmon | 1,621,707 | 21,653 | 1,643,360
Sawtooth 4 |Hailey | 1,203,387 | 16,743 | 1,220,130
Selway 1 |Kooskia | 1,693,711 | 108,289 | 1,802,000
Targhee[1] 4 |St. Anthony | 283,495 | 9,820 | 293,315
Weiser 4 |Weiser | 562,609 | 98,291 | 660,900
MICHIGAN | | | |
Michigan 2 |East Tawas | 89,466 | 74,412 | 163,878
MINNESOTA | | | |
Minnesota 2 |Cass Lake | 190,602 | 121,874 | 312,476
Superior 2 |Ely | 857,255 | 411,283 | 1,268,538
MONTANA | | | |
Absaroka 1 |Livingston | 842,467 | 145,243 | 987,710
Beartooth 1 |Billings | 662,537 | 19,393 | 681,930
Beaverhead 1 |Dillon | 1,337,223 | 27,777 | 1,365,000
Bitterroot 1 |Missoula | 1,047,012 | 108,856 | 1,155,868
Blackfeet 1 |Kalispell | 865,077 | 202,013 | 1,067,090
Cabinet 1 |Thompson | | |
| Falls | 830,676 | 195,874 | 1,026,550
Custer 1 |Miles City | 428,922 | 83,888 | 512,810
Deerlodge 1 |Anaconda | 833,178 | 130,822 | 964,000
Flathead 1 |Kalispell | 1,802,905 | 285,815 | 2,088,720
Gallatin 1 |Bozeman | 564,855 | 344,575 | 909,430
Helena 1 |Helena | 687,983 | 232,497 | 920,480
Jefferson 1 |Great Falls | 1,039,766 | 135,919 | 1,175,685
Kootenai 1 |Libby | 1,336,061 | 287,279 | 1,623,340
Lewis and | | | |
Clark 1 |Chouteau | 811,161 | 15,199 | 826,360
Lolo 1 |Missoula | 850,677 | 330,341 | 1,181,018
Madison 1 |Sheridan | 958,691 | 77,169 | 1,035,860
Missoula 1 |Missoula | 1,031,529 | 336,662 | 1,368,191
Sioux[1] 1 |Camp Crook, | | |
| S. D. | 96,743 | 17,798 | 114,541
NEBRASKA | | | |
Nebraska 2 |Halsey | 206,074 | 11,744 | 217,818
NEVADA | | | |
Dixie[1] 4 |St. George, | | |
| Utah | 282,543 | 7,807 | 290,350
Eldorado[1] 5 |Placerville, | | |
| Cal. | 400 | | 400
Humboldt 4 |Elko | 690,562 | 35,978 | 726,546
Inyo[1] 5 |Bishop, Cal. | 72,817 | 2,513 | 75,330
Mono[1] 5 |Gardnerville | 464,315 | 19,204 | 483,519
Nevada 4 |Ely | 1,220,929 | 39,871 | 1,260,800
Ruby 4 |Elko | 342,405 | 91,165 | 433,570
Santa Rosa 4 |Elko | 269,658 | 30,302 | 299,960
Tahoe[1] 5 |Nevada City, | | |
| Cal. | 14,853 | 47,274 | 62,127
Toiyabe 4 |Austin | 1,907,286 | 17,514 | 1,924,800
NEW MEXICO | | | |
Alamo 3 |Alamogordo | 603,779 | 269,877 | 866,656
Carson 3 |Taos | 856,647 | 68,654 | 925,301
Chiricahua[1] 3 |Tucson, Ariz. | 126,478 | 2,674 | 129,152
Datil 3 |Magdalena | 2,670,412 | 270,790 | 2,941,202
Gila 3 |Silver City | 1,463,708 | 136,292 | 1,600,000
Lincoln 3 |Alamogordo | 551,427 | 81,540 | 632,967
Manzano[1] 3 |Albuquerque | 754,772 | 488,007 | 1,242,779
Santa Fé 3 |Santa Fe | 1,354,545 | 122,148 | 1,476,693
NORTH DAKOTA | | | |
Dakota 1 |Camp Crook, | | |
| S. D. | 6,054 | 7,866 | 13,920
OKLAHOMA | | | |
Wichita 7 |Cache | 61,480 | 160 | 61,640
OREGON | | | |
Cascade 6 |Eugene | 1,021,461 | 73,024 | 1,094,485
Crater[1] 6 |Medford | 793,044 | 286,281 | 1,079,325
Deschutes 6 |Bend | 1,292,423 | 217,437 | 1,509,860
Fremont 6 |Lakeview | 884,494 | 86,782 | 971,366
Klamath[1] 5 |Yreka, Cal. | 4,401 | 4,492 | 8,893
Malheur 6 |John Day | 1,057,682 | 205,158 | 1,262,840
Minam 6 |Baker | 430,757 | 49,056 | 479,813
Ochoco 6 |Prineville | 716,564 | 102,466 | 819,030
Oregon 6 |Portland | 1,031,926 | 108,994 | 1,140,920
Santiam 6 |Albany | 607,099 | 112,884 | 719,983
Siskiyou[1] 6 |Grants Pass | 998,044 | 257,206 | 1,255,250
Siuslaw 6 |Eugene | 544,178 | 289,263 | 833,441
Umatilla 6 |Pendleton | 485,786 | 79,199 | 564,985
Umpqua 6 |Roseburg | 1,011,097 | 210,294 | 1,221,391
Wallowa 6 |Wallowa | 964,601 | 104,810 | 1,069,411
Wenaha 6 |Walla Walla, | | |
| Wash. | 425,504 | 36,540 | 461,954
Whitman 6 |Sumpter | 884,485 | 115,008 | 999,493
PORTO RICO | | | |
Luquillo 7 |None | 12,443 | 53,507 | 65,950
SOUTH DAKOTA | | | |
Black Hills[1] 2 |Deadwood | 483,403 | 118,608 | 602,011
Harney 2 |Custer | 548,854 | 79,093 | 627,947
Sioux[1] 1 |Camp Crook | 75,524 | 7,744 | 83,268
UTAH | | | |
Ashley[1] 4 |Vernal | 982,493 | 9,607 | 992,100
Cache[1] 4 |Logan | 265,594 | 53,987 | 319,581
Dixie[1] 4 |St. George | 432,784 | 26,106 | 458,890
Fillmore 4 |Ritchfield | 699,579 | 79,711 | 779,290
Fishlake 4 |Salina | 661,245 | 62,145 | 723,390
La Sal[1] 4 |Moab | 519,384 | 16,286 | 535,670
Manti 4 |Ephraim | 781,800 | 65,070 | 846,870
Minidoka[1] 4 |Oakley, Idaho | 72,123 | 20,157 | 92,280
Powell 4 |Escalante | 689,927 | 14,773 | 704,700
Sevier 4 |Panguitch | 729,061 | 73,599 | 802,660
Uinta 4 |Provo | 988,602 | 54,533 | 1,043,135
Wasatch 4 |Salt Lake City| 607,492 | 56,913 | 664,405
WASHINGTON | | | |
Chelan 6 |Chelan | 677,429 | 46,681 | 724,110
Columbia 6 |Portland, Ore.| 784,498 | 157,702 | 942,200
Colville 6 |Republic | 754,886 | 61,114 | 816,000
Kaniksu[1] 1 |Newport | 257,859 | 118,904 | 376,763
Okanogan 6 |Okanogan | 1,486,325 | 54,675 | 1,541,000
Olympic 1 |Olympia | 1,534,689 | 117,311 | 1,652,000
Rainier 6 |Tacoma | 1,315,891 | 245,579 | 1,561,470
Snoqualmie 6 |Seattle | 698,043 | 343,957 | 1,042,000
Washington 6 |Bellingham | 1,454,214 | 35,786 | 1,490,000
Wenaha[1] 6 |Walla Walla | 313,434 | 8,397 | 321,831
Wenatchee 6 |Leavenworth | 665,276 | 491,724 | 1,157,000
WYOMING | | | |
Ashley[1] 4|Vernal, Utah | 5,987 | 73 | 6,060
Bighorn 2|Sheridan | 1,119,725 | 16,475 | 1,136,200
Black Hills[1] 2|Deadwood, S.D.| 144,759 | 34,362 | 179,121
Bridger 2|Pinedale | 710,570 | 7,407 | 717,977
Caribou[1] 4|Montpelier, | | |
| Idaho | 6,547 | 813 | 7,360
Hayden[1] 2|Encampment | 322,175 | 43,445 | 365,620
Medicine Bow 2|Laramie | 469,786 | 41,596 | 511,382
Palisade[1] 4|St. Anthony, | | |
| Idaho | 250,501 | 3,119 | 253,620
Shoshone 2|Cody | 1,576,043 | 32,957 | 1,609,000
Targhee[1] 4|St. Anthony, | | |
| Idaho | 84,970 | 480 | 85,450
Teton 4|Jackson | 1,922,947 | 48,245 | 1,971,192
Washakie 2|Lander | 852,653 | 12,220 | 864,873
Wyoming 4|Afton | 899,980 | 12,020 | 912,000
| | |
Aggregate for the 147 National | | |
Forests |155,166,619|21,085,541 |176,252,160
----------------------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------
[1] Area of National Forest in more than one State.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Simple typographical errors were corrected.
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
This text uses both 'Uncampahgre' and 'Uncompahgre'; the latter
currently is the preferred spelling.
Page 55 "sunlight; without it is useless." Probably should be "sunlight;
without it, it is useless."
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