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.