POEEST SEE VICE. 487 



vision for their business needs call for the reserving of such areas 

 as will be needed for public purposes. These include not only head- 

 quarters for rarigers, but also sites for lookout stations, forest nur- 

 series, storehouses for tools and other fire-fighting equipment, corrals 

 and summer pastures, logging landings, sawmill and dam sites, and 

 many other requirements. As development of the forests progresses 

 and their use by the public becomes intensive the number of ad- 

 ministrative sites needed will grow greater. It was early seen that 

 if proper facilities were to be available for the transaction of busi- 

 ness and the stationing of forest officers where they would be re- 

 quired, future needs must be anticipated. Instructions were therefore 

 issued for the selection of advantageous sites wherever it might 

 appear that they would be wanted later. 



The Department of tlie Interior has withdrawn, at the request of 

 the Secretary of Agriculture, 4,208 national forest administrative 

 sites; of this number, however, 651 were subsequently released as not 

 needed for public purposes. Many sites have also been reserved 

 through the posting of notices by forest officers and approval of their 

 reservation by the district forester, but without withdrawal by the 

 Department of the Interior. A large number of these sites have upon 

 them improvements in the form of ranger cabins, barns, corrals, 

 fences, lookout towers, signal stations, nursery and planting stations, 

 etc. Many of these sites cover less than 25 acres each. A large part 

 of them are located where agriculture is impossible. 



During the year 31 sites were withdrawn from unreserved public 

 lands by Executive order. There were 167 recommended for release. 

 The total number held either through such reservation or through 

 withdrawals was, at the close of the year, 6,027 administrative sites 

 of all classes. 



The ranger stations now provided for by site reservations will 

 furnish in the neighborhood of one station to every 60,000 acres. In 

 the heavily timbered districts there should be during the dry sea- 

 son, if the forests are to be well protected, at least one patrolman 

 to every 10,000 acres. Far from being excessive, the number of sta- 

 tions now reserved makes but indiii'eront provision for the needs of 

 more than the next few years. Successful protection of the forests 

 requires not only an adequate force but a well-placed force. 

 Many forest fires are promptly extinguished each year which would 

 do great damage if ranger stations were not fairly near at hand. 

 The matter is of importance in the same way that properly dis- 

 tributed engine houses are of importance in the control of city fires. 



Since ranger stations must bo placed where forest officers can either 

 actually live with their families throughout the greater part of the 

 year or make headquarters during the summer months, with sufficient 

 feed for their saddle and pack horses, it is necessary to select for this 

 class of sites areas which furnish a fair amount of arable land or 

 pasture. That this has been felt as a hardship is strong evidence of 

 the nonagricultural character of the forest lands as a whole. The 

 Government must obviously provide for its own needs; but it does not 

 displace settlers already in possession or reject applications for the 

 listing of land in order to take the land for public purposes. Instruc- 

 tions which have been in force since A])ril 10, 1000. forbid the reser- 

 vation as administrative sites of any tract application for which as a 

 forest homestead is pending. 



