Our national forests

by Richard H. D. Boerker

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.

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.