654 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



One of the most important gains has actually been in supervision, 

 although in some cases temporary dependence has been necessary 

 upon much younger men or men with less supervisory experience. 

 Forest research even in a preliminary or extensive form is specialized, 

 and as the work increases in intensity becomes more and more highly 

 specialized and over a widely diversified field. Supervision to be 

 effective must be equally specialized. It must be highly sympathetic 

 in order to insure the right atmosphere and the best conditions for 

 work, and to obtain the most and best results. To give supervision 

 of this character calls for men with research training and experience 

 and background. It must have the major call upon their time and 

 interest. It must be the main job of men who are responsible for 

 research alone. Such supervision cannot be obtained as a side issue 

 or an incidental interest. In fact, thoroughly competent and fully 

 sympathetic supervision is one of the main essentials for effective 

 research. The Forest Service learned through experience that, 

 regardless of their ability, it could not and should not be expected 

 from men whose main job was the administration of the national 

 forests and whose experience, interest, and outlook were primarily or 

 exclusively that of national forest administration. 



One of the incidental gains to research from segregation has been 

 to relieve investigative personnel of a large volume, in the aggregate, 

 of miscellaneous incidental jobs which formerly detracted materially 

 from their main effort, or research. They have been relieved from the 

 necessity of being " handy men." 



The segregation of research has meant freedom from pressure to 

 jiistify the administrative practice, technical or otherwise, in use on 

 the national forests. In many instances it has already led to the 

 recognition of the investigative staff by the general public, and by 

 financially interested sections of the public, as a wholly impartial 

 organization. The importance of freedom in research to reach con- 

 clusions based on facts cannot be overestimated. 



Probably the most important gain has been in the freedom to 

 formulate objectives and to develop the research organization and 

 policies to meet the specialized requirements of investigative work. 

 These necessarily differ from national forest administration in such 

 important respects as recruiting, financing, and many phases of 

 supervision. This may sometimes have led to the feeling in the larger 

 administrative group that such changes in policy or procedure, 

 which had been developed in the Forest Service purely and simply 

 from the administrative standpoint and regardless of how poorly 

 they applied in investigative work, were unjustified and wrong in 

 theory and practice. It has been at bottom, however, a recognition 

 of different fundamental requirements for the most efficient conduct 

 of two distinct classes of work having a single and very broad ulti- 

 mate objective. 



Experience has also shown that the gains to administration from 

 segration have far more than offset possible losses. The greatest of 

 these gains has been from the far more rapid development of research 

 and from a far greater volume of information as a basis for a sounder 

 national forest administration. The existence of a strong research 

 group, critical by the very nature of its work and free and independent 

 of the administrative force, has been and cannot help but be a whole- 

 some influence on national forest administration. It is one of the 



