RATING SCALE FOR FORESTERS 

 By Carl M. Steve,ns 



An effort was made in the spring of 1919 to formulate a rating scale 

 which would be applicable for professional foresters and useable for 

 the administrative positions in the United States Forest Service, the 

 largest body of professional foresters employed in the United States. 

 The result, to date, justifies the conclusion that the start was made 

 along proper lines and that a working nucleus for an effective rating 

 scale was derived. 



After testing in a preliminary way the various methods it was possible 

 to get hold of readily, the comparative scheme used by the Army for 

 its officers was adopted as a base. Only the general principle of the 

 Army scheme could be used, however, for, obviously, foresters should 

 be different types of men and rated on different characteristics than 

 Army officers. 



The scale in its present stage of development covers only the broad 

 basic administrative positions in the Forest Service. It was compiled 

 for forest rangers and forest supervisors, and all study to the point of 

 presentation has been confined to these. It may, in fact, bear little 

 relation to the more highly specialized positions which deal with 

 technical problems of one kind or another to the more or less complete 

 exclusion of all general considerations and qualifications. 



In studying the basic positions the aim was to analyze the ])osition 

 itself and to arrive at a decision as to what would be required in men 

 to ideally fill them. There were determined to be, briefly, five essential 

 qualifications, and these have been used as the main headings in the 

 scale. These five characteristics were then defined in so far as 

 elaboration seemed necessary, bearing in mind that though clearness 

 was required, the scale must not lose its value in a mass of descriptive 

 matter. 



If the scale which follows later in this article is studied it will be 

 obvious that the five constituent parts are interdependent and each more 

 or less closely related to the other four. The sum total, as the various 

 headings are weighted, each to the other, analyzes the position, 

 while the scale in its present form calls specific attention to one 

 constituent quality to the immediate exclusion of the other related 

 parts. 



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