Supervisors' Meetings. 26$ 



Lopping and scattering is generally considered to favor reproduc- 

 tion in open stands, particularly of yellow pine. 



A discussion of direct seeding and planting brought out the 

 fact that on the Cache Forest direct seeding thus far has not been 

 successful, owing principally to drouth and destruction of the seed 

 by rodents and birds. This applies directly to broadcasting of 

 seed on the ground and on the snow as well as to seeding in pre- 

 pared seed spots under cover. Planting operations have been 

 more successful and plants set out in the spring have made better 

 progress than those planted in the fall. 



In connection with the discussion on methods of fighting forest 

 fires, the plan in use on the Clearwater Forest in Idaho during the 

 summer of 1910 is of particular interest. This Forest is very 

 heavily timbered and has an area of about 3^ million acres. 

 There is one telephone line into the Forest to a Ranger Station 

 about 20 miles from the Supervisor's office. There it branches, 

 one line going east 65 miles, and one north 50 miles. There are 

 no roads and only a few trails. Probably 15 to 20 per cent, of 

 the Forest was burned over and one-third of the timber on the 

 burned area was destroyed. In handling the fire fighting crews 

 the first thing sent out was supplies and equipment. The Super- 

 visor had carefully prepared a standard list of supplies designed 

 to last a lo-man crew for two weeks, and another list designed to 

 last a 20-man crew for the same length of time. This list of 

 supplies was left with the local storekeeper who forwarded the 

 necessary articles upon request from the Supervisor, thus avoiding 

 delay and making sure that all necessary articles should be in- 

 cluded. The supplies were forwarded by a pack train which was 

 owned and operated by the Forest Service, thus insuring prompt 

 and certain delivery. On the Forest were employed 90 Forest 

 officers and the existence of the pack train rendered it practi- 

 cable for them to remain continuously on duty in their districts, 

 the most of them not needing to come to town for any purpose. 

 The packer who was with the fire fighting crew acted as messen- 

 ger and every day made a trip to the telephone to report to the 

 Supervisor regarding the progress of the work in the field. This 

 procedure kept the Supervisor in touch with the situation and en- 

 abled him to issue promptly whatever orders were necessary. 

 The construction of trails and telephones is of primary importance 

 in connection with fire fighting work on most of the National 

 Forests at the present time. 



