Preparing Working Plmts. 147 



information is known to every man who has been on the Forest 

 for some time. The more technical part of it is not necessary 

 for every day administration. For this reason local men get the 

 idea that the plan contains mainly data which they cannot use. 

 The result is that it is filed and seldom referred to. 



Plans to be of use must discard all useless data. The remainder 

 must be a clear cut and concise statement of policy and facts 

 which are essential in administration. It is not the object of the 

 writer to belittle silvical data, because these are of importance. 

 They, however, have no place in the plan proper, but should be 

 separately filed or placed in the appendix for reference. 



2. They go into detail and emphasize unimportant details and 

 slight the important consideration. 



Plans to be practical should go into details on timber sale and 

 free use policy and silviculture. Yet in the plans submitted, 

 these points are often dismissed after being merely mentioned, 

 while much space is given to silvical data, etc. Such data should 

 be relegated to an appendix. In many of the plans policy and 

 silviculture are disposed of in a page or two, while many pages 

 are written on silvics, etc. This is undoubtedly a mistake, for 

 it makes the plans useless. The difficulty seems to be in the out- 

 lines which must be followed. 



Fortunately good silviculture has not actually been slighted in 

 the field. 



3. They fail to take local and American conditions into con- 

 sideration. 



It must be remembered that the National Forests usually con- 

 tain the most inaccessible stands in their respective regions. They 

 consist of the timberlands which no one considered desirable 

 before the forests were created, or else they would have passed 

 into private ownership many years ago. This point seems to 

 have been overlooked in many instances. For example, there are 

 plans outhning cuttings, which because of the inaccessibility of 

 timber cannot be made for many years. The consideration of 

 markets has been largely overlooked also. It is a foregone con- 

 clusion that without a study of markets an intelligent timber sale 

 policy cannot be established. 



There is a further consideration. It is needless to talk of prac- 

 tising forestry until cutting can be done. Until sales can be made, 

 therefore, it is useless to dream of future receipts. 



