UNITED STATES 



rOREST SERVICE 



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The Month in Government Forest Work. 



^1 . _, ^ In its investigations for 

 Cleaning Out ,i • ° ^ r 



^, c. • the improvement of 



the Springs . F , .,, . ,, 



grazing land? within the 



National Forests carried on during 



the past year, the Forest Service has 



found that the ranges on some of the 



forests can not be fully utilized by 



stock because of a lack of a proper 



water supply. Plans have been made 



for bettering these conditions. 



Work to improve the water supply 

 will be started this year in two for- 

 ests, and before the coming of another 

 grazing season a number of ranges 

 will be improved very materially. 



In the Leadville National Forest, in 

 Colorado, the men in charge will clean 

 out and protect twelve different 

 springs and pipe the water into 

 troughs. The work on the Tumacacori 

 National Forest, in Arizona, will be 

 somewhat more extensive, although 

 only half as many springs will be af- 

 fected as in the Leadville Forest. This 

 method of cleaning out and protecting 

 springs and other watering places will 

 result in much benefit to stockmen 

 grazing on the strips of ranges within 

 the forests. Improvement work along 

 the same general lines will also be be- 

 gun on other National Forests. 



Utilization 

 of Tan 

 Bark Oak 



For many years the tan 

 bark oak in California 

 {Q u e r c u s densiflora, 

 Hook.) has been exploited in a very 

 wasteful manner. The lumbermen 

 have gone into the forests, cut down 

 the trees, stripped them of their bark, 

 and after cutting up a small per cent 

 of the body of the tree for cordwood, 

 have left the remainder to rot or to 



be burned up in the redwood logging 

 operations which follow. 



The wood of tanbark oak has here- 

 tofore been regarded as unsuitable for 

 anything but fuel, but this prejudice 

 has been mainly due to the difficulty 

 of seasoning it. The Forest Service, in 

 cooperation with the Northwestern 

 Redwood Company, are studying on 

 this problem. If it is found that sea- 

 soning can be done as well with trees 

 cut in the spring as in the fall, this 

 will be preferable, because it is easier 

 to peel the bark from trees cut in the 

 spring. 



Other experiments will be made in 

 the way of flexure, end compression, 

 side compression and sheer tests on 

 small specimens. Strength determina- 

 tions will also be made on larger 

 pieces suitable for wagon stock, coop- 

 erage, etc. 



The tan bark oak grows in the Cali- 

 fornia Coast Range from the Santa 

 Cruz Mountains north into Southern 

 Oregon. The tree is tall and often 

 spreading. Its average diameter is 

 about twenty-four inches. 



Despite the inroads of the tan bark 

 industry on the stand, there is esti- 

 mated to be about 1,000,000,000 feet 

 yet uncut. To utilize the tree for lum- 

 ber would result in the annual saving 

 of many thousands of dollars. 



A City The city of Los Ange- 



c ^^ D*' u"^' ^^5 ^^ planting a forest 

 fithPark ^^.^^ g^^^^,^ ^g ggjf_ 



supporting and profitable, on a three- 

 thousand acre tract of waste land, 

 known as Griffith Park. The Forest 

 Service has. at the request of the city, 

 made planting plans. 



