WHAT IS POTENTIAL FOREST LAND? G53 



tions that are broken up by alienated lands. I think it ought to be very 

 carefully done. Bodies of timber which would be of minor importance 

 at a high elevation assume considerable importance when close to pros- 

 pective users. A pole patch or a small stand of house-log material, if 

 located where settlers can reach it readily, is going to be in great de- 

 mand. If eliminated and cut destructively, its value is gone. Is it not 

 the performance of an important service to the community to hold such 

 tracts when they are chiefly valuable as forest land, and so administer 

 them as to keep them permanently useful to all? Is not their impor- 

 tance so enhanced by their location that some extra pains ought to be 

 taken to preserve them? Their administration is not so difficult as it 

 might appear, because Forest officers will visit the settlements and 

 travel the roads in the performance of other work. Frequently a much- 

 traveled route from the ranger station to the interior of the Forest 

 goes through such places, and the ranger must pass them, whether he 

 has work there or not. Each such place constitutes an administrative 

 problem not germane to our topic, but this point may be made : If there 

 ever was a time when the National Forests were to be thought of as 

 closed to the people or administered by a bureau out of sympathy with 

 them, it is long since gone. We are making the Forests as accessible 

 and as useful to the people as we can. Increasing use means increasing 

 contact, as well between National Forest and private lands as between 

 Forest officers and Forest users. It is a bad augury for the future of 

 the Forests if we must keep backing away, higher and higher up the 

 slopes, constantly trying to keep out of the way of civilization. The 

 communities of France and other European countries, where intensive 

 farming and intensive forestry are carried on side by side, may in a 

 limited way have their counterparts in portions of our National 

 Forests. 



Within the Forests are many tracts of deeded land, not chiefly valu- 

 able for agriculture or for minerals, but similar in character to what 

 is being held for forest purposes. Often they are timber claims or 

 grazing lands in some key position, the ownership of which permits the 

 fencing of a range, the blocking of a road, or the occupancy by an 

 individual of land which ought to serve a public purpose. Good ad- 

 ministration will require that such lands be secured to the Forests 

 through exchange or purchase. Obviously, careful investigation into 

 the character and possibilities of such lands will have to be made before 

 thev are acquired. Heretofore the Service has been administering 

 lands which, in a sense, did not cost anything — Forests which have been 



