Improvement Systems Cost 243 



not to be had from the mere occasional traveling of the forest 

 roads and trails. As a matter of fact, a good Improvement Plan 

 can hardly be completed until the complete inventory of forest 

 resources is available. A good tentative plan, however, can be 

 drawn after a dependable reconnaissance (in the proper sense of 

 the term). It will be necessary to know the topography and much 

 as to the prevailing climatic conditions, when streams flood, 

 whether they carry much driftwood, where snow drifts and where 

 it blows off, for what periods each year roads and trails will be 

 clear at given elevations, what rainfall is to be expected and the 

 time of year at which it comes, the prevalence and character of 

 windfall in timber and in old burns, etc. The accumulation of 

 such information is usually slow and only to be acquired by con- 

 tinuous first-hand effort, supplemented generously by second-hand 

 information from the regular forest officers and the local public. 

 It is a rather difficult and unhappy job to attempt the writing out 

 of such information and its formal filing in such manner as to 

 make it readily available to others, and especially to possible suc- 

 cessors. So far, it has seldom been done. As a result, the for- 

 esters who later have charge must begin all over again and 

 the accumulated data of their predecessors is permanently lost. 

 We should be able to devise a better method for recording such 

 information but probably much of it must always be left to be 

 carried in the heads of the local men. (Change in personnel must 

 always be costly.) 



By the time there is available enough information to approxi- 

 mate something in the way of a preliminary plan, the essentials 

 of the whole system will doubtless be rather evident. It will be 

 apparent, for instance, whether the road and trail system is to 

 approximate a quadrilateral reticulation or whether it will be 

 of cob-web pattern, following up the radiating streams or ridges 

 and interconnected by stretches across the valleys or divides. 

 The practicable routes are usually obvious as soon as the 

 topography is known. 



Next, will come the determination of the relative urgency 

 of the many urgent projects and the more detailed investiga- 

 tion and estimating of the costs and relative benefits of each. 

 Usually there will result a schedule assigning given construction 

 to each year for the next five or more years — the Preliminary 



