FOREST SERVICE. 357 



mates and accurate maps on a large scale, has been completed. Of 

 this amount 3,900,824 acres were covered during the last fiscal year. 

 In addition, reconnoissance of a less detailed character, designed to 

 determine only the broader conditions in respect to topography and 

 the amount and character of the timber, has been conducted on 

 17,174,251 acres. 



The reconnoissance of each Forest or portion of a Forest is designed 

 to furnish the basis for a working plan, or systematic scheme of man- 

 agement, for the area covered. Such working plans include, among 

 other facts necessary to place the administration of the Forest upon 

 the best practicable basis, the amount and location of stands of dead 

 or overripe timber whose immediate cutting is advisable; the annual 

 production of wood, as indicating the amount which may safely be 

 cut each year without impairing a sustained yield of equal amount 

 in future years; the stand of timber on desirable logging units, 

 together with the topographic factors afTecting their exploitation and 

 market value; and the location and extent of areas where artificial 

 reforestation is necessary. It is the aim of the Service to place each 

 Forest as rapidly as possible under a systematized plan of manage- 

 ment based upon information of this character. 



The single factor of greatest importance in such working plans is 

 the determination of the amount of timber which may safely be cut 

 from each Forest annually without exceeding the annual production 

 of wood. This is expressed in the maximum cut prescribed by the 

 Secretary of Agriculture for each Forest each fiscal year. Up to the 

 present it has been necessary to determine the annual cut in the 

 majority of cases by a rough approximation based upon the area of 

 the Forest and its stand of merchantable timber. As intensive 

 reconnoissance covers new areas, much more reliable data concern- 

 ing the rate of growth of the various species, the areas of young 

 timber where the production of wood is at its maximum, and the 

 like, are being secured and applied directly in fixing the maximum 

 cut prescribed for the Forest in question. The maximum annual 

 cut as determined by scientific data of this character represents, 

 therefore, the interest on the National Forest timber viewed as a 

 public security administered so as to maintain its present value for 

 all time; in other words, the current yield which may be safely 

 utilized without depleting the stock of material on hand. As estab- 

 lished for the past year, the total amount which could properly be 

 cut annually from all Forests is 3,273,690,000 board feet. 



In the timber-sale policy of the Service provision is first made for 

 local needs, present and future, and sales of timber which will enter 

 into the general markets are considered only when it is clear that 

 an excess over the permanent supply requu-ed by local industries 

 exists. The application of this policy is indicated in the following 

 statement showing the number of sales made of various amounts 

 during the year. 



