SCENIC FOREST PRESER\'ED 



513 



gain tlieir contidence, get their point of 

 view, show them where they are mis-- 

 taken, if possible, and follow up their 

 suggestions as to change or improve- 

 ment in lines of work. The frank ac- 

 ceptance of your opponent's idea, where 

 it seems to be a good one, goes a long 

 way toward convincing him that there 

 may be some good in you after all. 



The Forest officer should not fail to 

 study out methods which, if adopted, 

 are going to officially elevate or improve 

 loca^ conditions. The regulations of 

 the Forest Service are so drawn as to 

 be highly elastic and therefore can gen- 

 erally be made to fit varying local needs. 

 However, new problems are constantly 

 cropping up which demand another 

 method of settlement than any specifi- 

 cally authorized in the manual, and it is 

 because of this that a Forest officer 

 should be diligent in observation and 

 painstaking in the proper kind of in- 

 quiry. 



The Forest Service has gotten close 

 to the people of the West because it 

 would not tolerate officiousness, impa- 

 tience or incompetence in its officers and 

 because its organization was free from 

 that tincture of bureaucracv which is 



unpalatable to any American citizen. 



Now that the confidence of the people 

 has been obtained, and the relation be- 

 tween officer and user worked out, and 

 understood to a satisfactory degree, the 

 men in the Service must make doubly 

 sure that there shall be no retrogression. 

 Any Forest officer has a whole lot of 

 authority, and can work it for good or 

 ill, depending on his viewpoint and his 

 appreciation of the results of a move 

 in either direction. It seems to me de- 

 cidedly essential to hold what has been 

 gained in the esteem and confidence of 

 the people. We should not take the at- 

 titude now that we have done well and 

 the people are satisfied, and if we do as- 

 sert a little undue authority, our su- 

 perior grasp of the situation and the 

 fact that we are government officials 

 and in control will down the still small 

 voice of the man we hit by such tactics. 

 Only by holding to the ideals which 

 have been steadfastly maintained dur- 

 ing the last decade can we hope to 

 continue and make stronger the ami- 

 cable and satisfactory relation now ex- 

 isting between the public and the Forest 

 Service. 



SCENIC FOREST PRESERVED 



PRESIDENT WILSON has 

 signed a bill authorizing the ex- 

 change of certain private lands 

 in the Sierra National Forest 

 and the Yosemite Park for National 

 Forest lands of approximately equal 

 value. 



This is the outcome of negotiations 

 between the Forest Service and the 

 Madera Sugar Pine Company started 

 in August, 1013. The objects to be 

 effected were, from the viewpoint of 

 the public, twofold: to preserve a strip 

 of uncut timber along the road from 

 Wawona to the summit of Signal Peak 

 and by so doing maintain this popular 

 side trip as a scenic forest drive, and 

 to secure clear title to the United 

 States of the timber in the watersheds 



of the upper Chowchilla River, Devil's 

 Gulch and the South Fork of the 

 Merced. This timber is needed to round 

 out several small logging units which 

 eventually will be utilized in connection 

 with the agricultural development of 

 the foothill region adjoining. 



In appraising the values of the tim- 

 ber, the Forest Service, after a thorough 

 cruise and study of the logging condi- 

 tions on the ground, figtired the total 

 cost per thousand feet board measure 

 of manufacturing lumber from the 

 standing timber in each tract. To this 

 cost was added an equal margin for 

 profit for each and the sum of these 

 two, subtracted from the estimated 

 mill-run lumber value, was taken to be 

 the market value of the standing tim- 



