FOREST SERVICE. 551 



Preparation of working plans as a means of systematizing and 

 placing upon a definite, clean-cut basis the management of the 

 different forests will be continued. Forests where the use of one or 

 more resources is very intensive, or promises to be in the near future, 

 will be given first attention. Preliminary plans will be prepared for 

 all forests as rapidly as possible. As a basis for the work, timber 

 reconnoissance will be extended to cover as many new forests as the 

 force and money available will permit. 



During the winter the central investigative committee will meet, 

 and, with the recommendations of the various district committees 

 before them, will pass upon plans for investigative work of the 

 entire service during the following season. 



As indicated in the body of this report, reforestation work during 

 the coming year will be confined to experimental studies and to the 

 reforestation of approximately 30,000 acres, or as near that area as 

 available funds will permit. As a result of the work carried on 

 during the past year, experiments in reforestation will be conducted 

 with a more definite idea of the lines along which the work should 

 be concentrated. In the actual reforestation it will be possible to 

 devote much attention to perfecting methods to secure better results 

 in large operations and to reduce costs. 



The establishment of local experiment stations on national forests 

 has been so fruitful of results that the system will be extended to 

 include additional forest types and regions in the Northwest. In 

 studies at the experiment stations special emphasis will be laid on 

 methods of cutting the different types of forest to secure natural 

 reproduction. The general study of forest types and the physical 

 factors which determine them will be continued. The study of the 

 relation of forest cover to streamflow now being made at the Wagon- 

 wheel Gap Station in the Eockies will, in all likelihood, be extended 

 to the Southern Appalachians. During the coming year the timber 

 on one of the two watersheds at Wagon Wheel Gap will be cut and 

 sold and the slash burned. This will give for the first time an 

 opportunity to compare the regimen of streams from protected and 

 unprotected watersheds, the difference between which was definitely 

 established before any change in their surface cover took place. In 

 cooperation Avith the University of Wisconsin, problems relating to 

 the forests of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin will be studied 

 at the experiment station at Cloquet, Wis. 



Much attention will be given during the year to problems of 

 forest mensuration. In the past, work along this line included only 

 the collection and tabulation of field measurements on growth, 

 volume, and yield of trees. A large amount of the data thus far 

 collected will be analyzed during the coming year and an attempt 

 made to establish general laws of tree growth. 



The grazing reconnoissance on the Coconino, Tusayan, Targhee, 

 Manti, Medicine Vxnv, and Minam Forests will be completed, and the 

 work extended to others. General grazing studies will include col- 

 lection, identification, and determination of the economic value of 

 approximately G,000 specimens of range plants; means of securing 

 natural revegetation of doj^leted lands by alternation in the use of 

 ranges; methods of handling stock b}' which waste and damage may 

 be minimized, fire danger reduced, new ranges utilized, and the 

 stock improved; and methods of developing water for stock upon 



