304 



not be given suitable treatment in pri- 

 vate ownership or that would otherwise 

 best promote the public interest by be- 

 ing publicly owned vital watersheds, 

 for instance, or lands needed to round 

 out timber-management units. 



EFFECTIVE PROTECTION of the forests 

 against fire, insects, and tree diseases is 

 mandatory. To that end, a highly de- 

 veloped fire-control organization in the 

 national forests utilizes many devices 

 to detect and suppress forest fires 

 airplanes, helicopters, parachutes, and 

 many more that are less spectacular. 

 We dare not sit back and feel secure 

 because of them, however. Man-caused 

 fires are the principal source of trou- 

 ble for the whole country, and every 

 citizen has a responsibility to help 

 stamp out this kind of carelessness. It 

 is the citizen's forests that burn. Tree- 

 killing insects and diseases take a heavy 

 toll of timber or young growth each 

 year. Against them, too, we must or- 

 ganize forces and campaigns ; they may 

 strike here today and there tomorrow. 



To protect and use the national 

 forests, a network of roads, trails, tele- 

 phone lines, radio channels, fire lookout 

 towers, and other physical improve- 

 ments is necessary. Much of it has been 

 installed, but more is needed particu- 

 larly the additional roads needed to 

 open up the remaining large areas of 

 inaccessible timber. When that is done, 

 the rate of cutting on the forests could 

 be increased at least 50 percent. 



Yearbook, of Agriculture 1949 



A bulwark behind the national for- 

 ests, as with other forests, is research, 

 which has pointed the way to the best 

 forestry practices in all important as- 

 pects of the undertaking. Research 

 men in the Department of Agriculture 

 and in other agencies of the Govern- 

 ment have contributed fruitfully to the 

 struggle to combat fires, insects, and 

 diseases; to the techniques of manag- 

 ing the timber as a crop and in utiliz- 

 ing it most effectively; to the conserva- 

 tive use and renewal of forest ranges; 

 to the safeguarding of watersheds ; and 

 in many other fields. 



Much remains to be done before we 

 can feel that the national forests this 

 "everyman's empire" are handled 

 most frugally and most fruitfully. To 

 say that is not an admission of failure ; 

 it is a way of saying how great is the 

 obligation to preserve, protect, and de- 

 velop these properties that all Ameri- 

 can citizens own. 



G. M. GRANGER is assistant chief of 

 the Forest Service, in charge of national 

 forest administration. He is a native of 

 Michigan and a graduate in forestry of 

 Michigan Agricultural College. He en- 

 tered the Forest Service in 1907, and 

 has served successively as forest assist- 

 ant, deputy supervisor, and forest 

 supervisor on national forests in Cali- 

 fornia, Colorado, and Wyoming, as 

 assistant regional forester in the Rocky 

 Mountain Region, and as regional for- 

 ester for the Pacific Northwest. 



APPALACHIAN COMEBACK 



M. A. MATTOON 



Like a strong backbone, the Appa- 

 lachians extend southward from New 

 England. They are America's oldest 

 mountains, the home of sturdy people, 

 the sites of some of the newer national 

 forests. How the forests and the people 

 are joined for mutual benefit is the 

 theme of this article. 



People first saw the forests in the 



early days when Britain, Holland, 

 France, and Spain were sending col- 

 onists to our eastern seaboard, and in- 

 trepid men like Spottswood, Boone, 

 and Sevier, lured by tales of opportuni- 

 ties in the great valley beyond the 

 mountains, scaled the Blue Ridge and 

 beheld range after range, hills and 

 peaks, as far as eye could see. It was 



