Free Use of Timber. 239 



that which is obtained in regular timber sales. This is exceed- 

 ingly unfortunate since bad "free use" operations are often re- 

 ferred to by regular timber purchasers as exhibits, and it is not 

 uncommon to see the bad influence such "free use" cuttings have 

 upon adjacent sale operations. The bad features of this free use 

 business cannot be remedied materially under the present liberal 

 policy without greatly increasing the administrative force on the 

 Forests, and the necessity of economic administration for a long 

 time to come will in many cases prevent the available ranger force 

 from properly handling this work. It is, therefore, apparent that 

 in order to secure the desired results in these operations some re- 

 strictive measures on free use must be adopted to enable the avail- 

 able field force to properly handle the work. There is no doubt 

 that sufficient restrictions on the cutting of green timber would 

 obviate the present bad silvicultural methods resulting from the 

 free use business. The difficulty would naturally be in formula- 

 ting and carrying out such restrictions in a manner satisfactory 

 to those concerned. The value of the past liberal "free use" policy 

 in bringing public sentiment to favor the National Forests has un- 

 doubtedly been more than commensurate with the sacrifice made 

 silviculturally, and it should therefore be clearly understood that 

 the writer has no criticism to make on whatever poor timber work 

 may have resulted. Since, however, the purpose of the policy has 

 been well served and public sentiment has become generally favor- 

 able, it might now be well to give less consideration to sentiment 

 and to find out just how much our liberal policy is actually bene- 

 fiting the people who exercise their free use privilege. 



In considering the material used under free use it is found that 

 the amount of supervision necessary varies almost directly with 

 the value of the timber. The cutting and logging of saw timber 

 is in most need of a close supervision, while on the other hand 

 operations for fuel and dead timber can be managed at a very 

 small expense to the Service. It is, therefore, apparent that the 

 most valuable materials are the ones which should be first con- 

 sidered in a restrictive free use policy whose object shall be pri- 

 marily to greatly improve the proper management of free use 

 cuttings. This object alone might be insufficient as a basis for 

 free use restriction provided the benefit derived by Forest users 

 through a liberal policy were sufficient to offset what we must 

 sacrifice in proper Forest management. There are, however, 



