SUPERVISORS' MEETING AT SAN FRANCISCO. 



From December 13 to 16, 1910, at San Francisco, was held a 

 Supervisors' Meeting for the consideration of National Forest 

 problems with particular reference to District 5. At this meeting 

 were present the Supervisors, Deputy Supervisors, and Forest 

 Assistants from the various National Forests in the District as 

 well as members of the District Office. 



In his opening address District Forester F. E. Olmsted empha- 

 sized the fact that the Forest Service is charged with the protec- 

 tion and management of property valued at many hundred of 

 millions of dollars. Just now the guardianship is sO' feeble that 

 occasionally it is quite impossible to prevent a considerable 

 amount of the property from going up in smoke. That, of course, 

 will be remedied. It should be considered too that utilization at 

 the present time is very small in comparison to what it should be 

 and what it will be in years to some. From the National Forests 

 in California will be sold somewhat over a billion feet of timber 

 every year and the Forest Service will be so organized and 

 equipped as to make sure that future crops of even greater volume 

 and better quality will follow the cutting. Every forest will be 

 netted with roads, trails, and telephone lines and closely settled 

 with ranger homes. Through study and scientific practice we 

 shall increase the supporting capacity of range lands to double 

 what they are at present and this no doubt in spite of the fact that 

 many of the most valuable forest areas will be closed to grazing. 

 The supervisor will be the forester and will run his forest without 

 restriction except that necessary to keep his own policy uniform 

 with that of his brother foresters throughout the west. Instead 

 of supervising the work of a million or more acres he will find his 

 hands more than full attending to the business of his forest of 

 200,000 acres. The size of the ranger districts and patrol districts 

 will be very greatly reduced and barring hurricanes and cyclones, 

 fires will only occur where there is an inefficient ranger. The 

 income from the National Forests will then undoubtedly be more 

 than double the cost of administration. 



T. D. Woodbury, Assistant District Forester, in charge of the 

 Office of Silviculture, discussed the subject of "Silviculture's 



