The Administration of National Forests 



379 



course of each study, seeks the points 

 of view of the local ranger, of his su- 

 pervisor, and of the functional experts 

 in each field of work. Such joint con- 

 sideration establishes, clarifies, and de- 

 fines in specific form both the major 

 and minor duties of the employee. It re- 

 sults in widespread education and 

 training on the part of all the partici- 

 pants. It promotes a common under- 

 standing of the work between subordi- 

 nate and supervisor. It disentangles 

 misunderstandings which, otherwise, 

 are almost certain to develop from the 

 long-distance supervision inherent in 

 national forest work. This result has 

 become recognized as one of the main 

 benefits of a job-load analysis program. 

 Nevertheless, the analyst recognizes 

 that he must not substitute a discussion 

 for an investigation; that five or six 

 opinions are not necessarily better than 

 one. All may be quite worthless. In- 

 stead, facts based on investigation and 

 experiment, including analysis, meas- 

 urement, and comparison, provide the 

 only sound basis on which the job-load 

 determinations can be made. 



With the job-load weight and num- 

 ber of man-hours of work required 

 thus arrived at, the number of em- 

 ployees needed is readily determined. 

 Also, because number of hours may be 

 readily converted to the number of 

 dollars, the job-load analysis provides 

 the primary base for two essentials of 

 budget and financial management. 

 First, it furnishes the soundest founda- 

 tion possible for estimates submitted to 

 Congress as to the amount of appro- 

 priations needed for ranger salaries, 

 special timber-sale projects, and each 

 of the other activities on the national 

 forests. And, after the appropriations 

 are made, it is the fairest basis for 

 allocation of funds, by activities, to the 

 regions, the national forests, ranger 

 districts, and special projects. 



An adequate cost-accounting system 

 correlated with a primary allotment 

 base of that type, together with system- 

 atic audits and field inspections, are 

 key components of the financial and 

 administrative controls, which assure 



expenditures of time and money as 

 contemplated by Congress. 



WORK PLANNING is done in several 

 ways. The National Forest Manual 

 contains a section devoted to each of 

 the main functions of national forest 

 work. Included in each section are the 

 related regulations by the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, based on legislative au- 

 thority and supplemented by over-all 

 instructions as approved by the Chief 

 of the Forest Service. 



Handbooks, issued by each region, 

 localize the service-wide manual in- 

 structions. They include many local 

 standards and some specific objectives. 



Another working and planning tool 

 is the Program of Work issued an- 

 nually by the Chief. It includes a state- 

 ment as to the activities he wishes given 

 special emphasis in the coming year. 

 It also contains specific objectives and 

 programs to which each division is to 

 give special attention. With that as a 

 basis, each regional forester prepares 

 a localized annual program of work. 

 And that, in turn, is supplemented by 

 each supervisor with a highly localized 

 and more specific annual program of 

 work a real working and planning 

 tool for the national forest of which 

 he is in charge. Plans are also made for 

 the management of each of the main 

 resources within the national forests. 

 The need for such plans is evident 

 when one considers that a century or 

 more of time may be required to grow 

 a crop of timber or build up a depleted 

 range or watershed. Resource-manage- 

 ment plans are also needed, because the 

 manner in which one resource is han- 

 dled may have an important effect on 

 other resources within the same forest. 



There must also be transportation 

 plans, communication plans, fire-con- 

 trol plans, and other similar working 

 tools. They all provide indispensable 

 background material and are other- 

 wise helpful in the job-load analysis. 



The five steps in work-load analysis 

 that I outlined determine the total time 

 that is required to handle each job, 

 as needed to attain the specified objec- 



