658 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



changed through grazing. The water crop on which the Salt River 

 Valley now depends promises to become an important or even the 

 sole purpose of forest and range management in some parts of this 

 rim country. Where it is the main purpose, specialized silvicultural 

 measures may become necessary. The same thing may be true of 

 range management. Where either is true it will be reflected in the 

 research required. 



The same kind of interrelationships and hence essential unity holds 

 true of practically every broad forest problem in every type or region 

 in the United States. Any plan for research units which ignores this 

 interrelationship and unity cannot be otherwise than unsound. 



It is essential to recognize as a second principle that whereas for 

 some research, such as most forest products investigations, the ma- 

 terials to be investigated can be easily and cheaply transported to a 

 central laboratory from all parts of the United States and centraliza- 

 tion may be a distinct advantage by aiding correlation, for other 

 forms of research too great distances may result in lack of contact 

 with and knowledge of field conditions which should govern the 

 character of investigative programs. In silvical or forest range or 

 erosion-streamflow investigations, much of the work can be con- 

 ducted only in the woods. In such work, in a country like the United 

 States, distance becomes a factor which cannot be ignored. 



The responsibility of the Federal Government for national and 

 regional problems requires the recognition of a third principle, the 

 establishment of units which will facilitate work on these problems 

 and tend to minimize or exclude work on local problems, for which, 

 elsewhere than on the national forests, State and other agencies are 

 responsible. 



A fourth principle calls for units which will insure the most effective 

 administration at the lowest feasible cost. This necessitates a happy 

 medium between units so large as to be unwieldy and so small as to 

 be ineffective. It requires workable units in reasonable numbers 

 instead of too few large units or a multiplicity of small units. It 

 means units which will hold costs for overhead equipment, etc., to 

 a feasible minimum. 



The application of these principles has resulted in two classes of 

 field units, and the formerly rather numerous units which did not 

 fit into either class have gradually been eliminated. One of these 

 classes is necessarily regional and the other is national. 



The first class includes the regional forest or forest and range 

 experiment stations. The plan has been to locate one such station 

 in each of the important forest regions of the United States. Since 

 for much of the work the woods or the range must constitute the 

 laboratory, distance is one controlling factor. Even under the 

 regional plan it is often great. For example, the territory of the 

 Southern Forest Experiment Station is 1,100 miles long by 400 to 700 

 broad, and by the best rail connections it is a 36 hours' journey from 

 the New Orleans headquarters to the southern tip of Florida. The 

 Central Station territory is 800 miles long by 750 broad, and it is 

 24 hours by train from the Columbus headquarters to the western 

 boundary of the region. The California territory is 815 miles long. 

 In general the regions adopted are not so large but that all parts can 

 be reached in a reasonable time and cost. 



