Our National Forests Part 6

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.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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. La.s.sen National Forest, California. Photo by the author.]

Temporary Laborers, Forest Guards, and Field a.s.sistants 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 a.s.sistants, 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 a.s.sist 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 cla.s.sification 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 Cla.s.sification, for purchasing land under the Weeks Law, for cooperative 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sistant 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.signed 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, compa.s.ses, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 cooperate with the people in the nearest village who are pet.i.tioning 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 cooperative 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 cooperate 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 cooperates 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 17. A forest fire lookout station on the top of La.s.sen Peak, elevation 10,400 feet, La.s.sen 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 La.s.sen Peak. On the last two miles of its journey it was packed piece by piece on forest officers' backs and finally rea.s.sembled on the topmost pinnacle of the mountain. Photo by the author.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 cooperation 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, pa.s.sed 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 cooperation 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 CLa.s.sIFICATION AND CONSOLIDATION OF NATIONAL FOREST LANDS

The cla.s.sification 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 cla.s.sified and permanent boundaries established for each Forest. Through this kind of work the National Forests gain in stability. The cla.s.sification and segregation of the agricultural lands is most important, for these lands are open to entry under the Forest Homestead Act.

_Land Cla.s.sification._ The land cla.s.sification 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 cla.s.sification, carefully planned ahead, is done by projects, that is, large contiguous areas are examined together. For instance, the Hat Creek Project on the La.s.sen 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 cla.s.sification 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 const.i.tute 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.