THE COST OF FOREST IMPROVEMENT SYSTEMS 



P. S. LOVEJOY^ 



The forest tract of which the forester takes charge is seldom 

 a virgin wilderness. As a rule, forestry is undertaken only after 

 the region has been more or less developed. Nearly always, 

 lumbering, at least, will have preceded forestry. So long as there 

 is any occupation or utilization of the region by men, there will 

 be found some manner of permanent improvement. For each 

 kind of use and occupancy, the improvements constructed will 

 vary. A country opened for grazing will, as a rule, have a few 

 miles of poor roads and trails, a few poor cabins and fences, 

 and a few camp sites ; for trapping, a few small cabins and a few 

 strings of blazes are enough ; the placer miner requires at least 

 pack-trails and the lode miner must have wagon roads ; the 

 lumberman requires a considerable mileage of temporary roads, 

 many of them passable only in the winter, and all of them to 

 be deserted as the cutting is completed. Where ranchers in the 

 valleys go into the timber for fuel and building supplies, a few 

 roads into the foothills satisfy their needs. Where agricultural 

 lands within the forest are developed, good roads, many trails, 

 and the varied construction necessary in home building will 

 be provided. 



The normal situation, when the forester takes charge of a large 

 tract, will have developed out of a variety of old uses and occu- 

 pancies and the development of improvements will not have been 

 wise or logical from the forester's point of view. The early 

 development of a region is nearly always predicated on the 

 assumption on the part of the newcomer, that he is there only 

 for "a stake," and that he will have no permanent interest in 

 the long future of the region. As a result, the improvements will 

 be laid out with a view to some specific utility and seldom with 

 any idea of future reticulation. 



The first "opening" of a country is usually done by the big 

 game animals, especially the deer and elk. The Indians, in time, 

 opened trails for their own purposes, usually with the sole idea 

 of getting "a way through" with a minimum of labor. Some- 



1 Professor of Forestry, University of Michigan. 

 238 



