100 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



Aside from the Weeks Law there has not been any striking legislation 

 touching national forestry during the year. There has, however, been very 

 great progress made in national forestry, especially in the administration and 

 protection of the National Forests. We have now reached a point where the 

 first work of initiating the administrative machinery has been completed. 

 The general lines of new policies have been established, and the work now 

 consists of developing the details of these policies in actual application on 

 the ground. We now have an organized administrative force and our work 

 consists of the protection of the Forests, the conduct of the local business, 

 and developing the Forests for their highest usefulness as rapidly as possible. 

 This is work about which the general public hears but little. It is, however, 

 the work which counts, and in which during the past year the Forest officers 

 on the ground have been making great forward steps. This is well demon- 

 strated by the results in protection from fire during the past season. In 

 spite of the fact that certain sections of the West, particularly in Oregon 

 and part of the Central Rockies, were as dry as in the previous year, never- 

 theless the record is the best of any since the establishment of the National 

 Forests. Over 2,000 fires were started, and all were put out. Only a few 

 single fires did any substantial damage. While these good results in fire 

 protection were due in part to a better season from the standpoint of the 

 distribution of rainfall in most parts of the West, they were also due to a 

 more complete organization of the protective force; to a better equipment of 

 the foresters for attacking fires ; to the increase in trails, lookout stations, and 

 other improvements; and to a more favorable public sentiment. 



We have, however, still our greatest task ahead of us, for it must be re- 

 membered that most of the National Forests are still great undeveloped 

 wildernesses without adequate means of transportation and communication. 

 Every year we are building, as rapidly as available funds permit, roads, 

 trails, telephone lines, lookout stations, and other improvements necessary 

 for protection and administration. It will, however, require fully 15 years 

 at the present rate of expenditures to complete the primary system of per- \ 

 manent improvements needed for protection. Every year we are going to 

 have a hard fight with the fires, so that our greatest problem is now, and , 

 will remain for a long time, that of protection. With the continued support \ 

 of Congress there will be a steady development of the Forests in a way to \ 

 meet the needs of the people dependent upon them both from the standpoint [ 

 of the present and the future. 



PROGRESS IN STATE FORESTRY I 



A very great obligation rests also on the State governments in working 

 out the problem of forestry. Only a few States in the entire Union are as I 

 yet fully meeting this obligation. The great problem of the States in forestry j 

 today is to bring about the protection and proper handling of private forests. 

 Organized fire protecti<m under State direction, establishment of a reasonable 

 system of taxation of growing timber, conservative management of State 

 forest lands, education of woodland owners in methods of forestry, and such I 



