A PROPOSED METHOD OF PREPARING WORKING 

 PLANS FOR NATIONAL FORESTS. 



By Joseph C. Kircher. 



The writer has seen no recent working plans for private hold- 

 ings, so that these cannot be criticised. In the Forest Service, 

 however, there has been in the past a great deal of agitation for 

 at least preliminary plans for all of the Forests. To accomplish 

 this, an outline for a plan was prepared and submitted to Forest 

 Supervisors'. The preliminary plan was to be based on this out- 

 line. A number of these have now been written. A review shows 

 them to be failures so far as the administration of the forest is 

 concerned. On the other hand, the time spent upon them has not 

 been wasted, since they bring together data which will be useful, 

 in writing practical plans. 



The outline submitted to Supervisors called for complete infor- 

 mation in regard to timber, silviculture, etc. A brief tabulation 

 of the subjects, which is as follows, shows this. 



1. Timber. 



Estimates, Descriptions, Forest Types, Timber Operations, 

 Object of management, Silvicultural systems, Regulation 

 of yield. Sales, Free Use, Record of Timber Business, 

 Timber Reconnaissance. 



2. Forestation. 



Policy, Areas requiring forestation. Methods and Species, 

 Detailed Plan, Record of Operations, Nursery. 



3. Investigations. 



A number of subdivisions were placed under each of these sub- 

 jects. The outline for District 3, which included a number of 

 tabulations, contained 23 pages. With such a formidable array 

 of subjects before them, supervisors were naturally confused, 

 for they could not see that much would be accomplished by the 

 plans. The result was that most of the preliminary plans were 

 simply routine reports, in which the really important points were 

 lost in a mass of details. They were really long reports on past 

 accomplishment. As preliminary working plans they have failed. 



