376 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



ware and 35 times larger than the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia. 



The protection, development, and 

 the utilization of the natural resources 

 within this area is the direct respon- 

 sibility of the local forest supervisor. 

 Decentralized and delegated to him, 

 under broad national and regional pol- 

 icies, are all the authorities needed 

 normally to meet this responsibility. 

 He has authority to enter into con- 

 tracts for the sale of the timber re- 

 source, up to certain size limits. The 

 size of this authorization depends 

 mainly on the volume of timber avail- 

 able for sale and his qualifications. 

 Some of these authorizations are for as 

 much as 10 million board feet a year 

 for any one sale, but with no limit to 

 the number of such sales authorized, 

 except as imposed by the sustained- 

 yield productive capacity of the forest 

 or other controlling factors prescribed 

 in the management plan for the work- 

 ing circle involved. 



The duties of the forest supervisor 

 are mainly coordinating and super- 

 visory in character. He must see that 

 all functions are given their share of 

 attention according to plan, and that 

 the range work, for example, is not 

 crowded out by a growing demand for 

 timber. He must determine the local 

 forest objectives, and plan and direct 

 the work of his forest. His plans must, 

 of course, lie within the framework of 

 the regional plan. As the regional for- 

 ester provides special project assistance 

 to the supervisor, so, too, does the 

 supervisor help his ranger force with 

 facilitating services in the form of spe- 

 cialized assistants on types of work that 

 do not occur in sufficient volume to 

 justify manning each ranger district 

 with such specialists. Handled in this 

 manner are such types of work as tim- 

 ber and range appraisals, major con- 

 struction projects, special recreational 

 plans, and development of special wild- 

 life-management plans in cooperation 

 with State authorities. Other facilitat- 

 ing services provided his field forces by 

 the supervisor include much of the 

 clerical work involved in procurement, 



pay rolls, as well as in personnel pro- 

 cedure. 



The average forest supervisor has 

 some 6 ranger districts under his su- 

 pervision. Because of geographical, 

 work load, and other controlling fac- 

 tors, the actual number may vary from 

 4 to 11 ranger districts. 



THE RANGER is the local manager of 

 a forest property. He is in direct con- 

 tact with the public. He meets the 

 timberman, the stockman, the hunter, 

 the camper face to face. He supervises 

 sales, measures products sold, issues 

 permits, protects the resources against 

 fire, erosion, insects, and disease, car- 

 ries on planting programs, and in many 

 other ways serves as local manager of 

 property worth from half a million to 

 several million dollars. 



The average area within the bound- 

 aries of the 765 ranger districts into 

 which the national forests are sub- 

 divided is 300,000 acres. The actual 

 size of the individual districts depends 

 mainly on the work load. Where timber 

 sales and other intensive resource- 

 management activities are heavy, the 

 ranger districts may be as small as 

 50,000 acres. The other extreme is in 

 the thinly forested and remote back 

 country, and especially in Alaska, 

 where there is as yet no active market 

 for much of the timber or other need 

 for intensive forest management. Here 

 the work is primarily custodial in char- 

 acter, and consequently the ranger dis- 

 tricts are as large as a half million to 

 a million and more acres in size. 



In order to handle the work effec- 

 tively, the district ranger in his turn 

 must set objectives and devise a plan of 

 operations. He has broad planning and 

 executive authority. The ranger does 

 the ultimate planning. Usually he is 

 the one who decides which area and 

 which trees are to be cut first. To make 

 such decisions, he must know the tim- 

 ber and the local community. He must 

 fit the timber business into the life and 

 needs of the community. He works 

 with the community and plans with it, 

 and sees that the forest is looked on as 



