FOREST SERVICE. 201 



Alaska wants is not that the Union should be ousted from the Ter- 

 ritory, but that Alaska should be admitted to the Union. 



It seems to be generally accepted that the Territory as a whole is 

 not ready for statehood, but unquestionably that part lying east of 

 the one hundred and fifty-second meridian and south of the Arctic 

 Circle has the economic wealth and the stable, law-abiding popu- 

 lation which according to our historic policies and precedents have 

 always been recognized by Congress as entitling continental territory 

 and people to self-government in the Union. From the standpoint 

 of nati'jnal-forest administration and development, no happier step 

 could be taken than admittance of this part of the Territory to the 

 full rights of an American Commonwealth. 



THE PERSONNEL OF THE FOREST SERVICE. 



The national forests comprise nearly 157,000.000 acres of land in 

 the most rugged and isolated parts of 26 States. The forest ranger 

 manages an average unit of 155,000 acres, and the forest supervisor 

 an average unit of 1,060,000 acres. The. type of country in which 

 these men work varies from the flat pineries of Florida to the roughest 

 and most inaccessible mountain ranges of Idaho or the rugged coast 

 of southern Alaska. The nature of their duties varies from putti^ig 

 out fires and building trails in vast, unbroken, and undeveloped 

 stretches of virgin forest to serving the multifarious needs of urban 

 and industrial centers on national forests adjacent to them. 



The clientele of the national forests is as varied as their resources 

 and topography. In some ranger districts the principal concern is 

 the selling and cutting of timber where the demand exceeds the supply 

 and the rate and methods of cutting must be closely controlled. In 

 others present users are chiefly stockmen and the immediate prob- 

 lems are the allotment and efficient use of pasturage. On still other 

 districts the demands of the recreation-seeking public necessarily 

 claim a large share of the forest officers' time and thought. The 

 nine hundred-odd ranker districts in the national forests present 

 almost every conceivable variation in the nature of the resources and 

 the kinds of public needs. 



The field officers of the Forest Service must do much of their work 

 apart and alone. The very barriers of distance shut it off from close 

 superintendence or "checking up." The duties of forest supervisors 

 and rangers can not be standardized and directed like those of a group 

 of factory employees. Their districts can not be run by rules out 

 of a book, or through the time-worn procedure of "report and recom- 

 mendations" to some desk oflicial a hundred or a thousand miles 

 away. They must deal with a bad forest fire or supply the wants 

 of an isolated settler or act upon the request of a logging company or 

 meet anv one of a dozen unforeseen contingencies as responsible 

 agents of the Government, qualified and authorized to act on the spot. 



The administration of the national forests is one of the most 

 searching tests ever undertaken in public ownership and manage- 

 ment of natural resources. Red tape and long-range administration 

 would be fatal. Reliance must rather be placed upon the initiative 

 and self-directed efforts of loyal and capable men to whom specific 

 units are entrusted for administration in accordance with general 

 policies and who are held to responsibility for good performance 

 by competent inspection. Local responsibility in well-trained hands 



