230 Forestry Quarterly 



upon advice from the Forest Service, land cases before the 

 land courts. The Experiment Station would be the district 

 investigative center and silvical study headquarters. Supervisors 

 would secure equipment from Ogden as heretofore and would 

 correspond directly with Washington regarding routine personnel 

 matters, but would be free to consult the general inspectors, at 

 their option. They would correspond directly with Washington 

 in regard to lands, timber sales, operation routine, and grazing. 

 They should be given more authority, so that many matters of 

 detail need not be taken up with the central bureau, but could 

 be decided locally. An excellent example of needless red tape 

 is the reference of 220 acre pasture permits to the district office 

 for approval; they are often perfunctorily approved there by 

 a "chief clerk." This would necessarily mean an increase of 

 the present organization in Washington by the addition of enough 

 specialists to handle this additional routine. By this form of 

 organization a great deal of the present routine duplication would 

 be obviated. Pro^bably the present district system would be 

 somewhat more efficient than that proposed, but the modified 

 organization would be much less expensive and efficient enough 

 for all practical purposes. The main objection to the change 

 would be the necessity for a certain amount of travel between 

 Washington and the West. Possibly in the past this travel on the 

 part of administrative officers has been greater than is necessary. 

 Half the reasons for this travel in past years has been to educate 

 those inspecting and to familiarize them with the local conditions 

 in the various portions of the West. For example, an officer who 

 took an expensive auto trip to the Verde, in Arizona, said in 

 explanation of his trip : "I wanted to see what a watershed looks 

 like." This sort of thing is a luxury. 



This form of organization would certainly be more efficient 

 for District 7, which already has its "district" headquarters in 

 the same building as the central bureau. Before this District 

 7 organization was perfected, the branches were bothered a 

 great deal with routine details which came in from the various 

 forests in the district. If they had had routine specialists under 

 their supervision, the detail would be cared for as it would be 

 in the new organization, and a tremendous benefit would result 

 in that the really important decisions would be made, so to speak. 



