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NATIONAL FOREST PERSONNEL 



H. DEAN COCHRAN 



The Forest Service, in employing 

 new personnel, seeks to hire men and 

 women who are properly trained for 

 the work and have high ideals and a 

 strong desire to serve the public. 



All permanent positions are in the 

 classified Civil Service. Examinations, 

 through which the force is largely re- 

 cruited, are given for junior foresters 

 and junior range conservationists, 

 whose work is professional and highly 

 technical. Academic training, equiva- 

 lent to graduation from a recognized 

 college or university, is required. Cler- 

 ical and fiscal employees also must pass 

 competitive civil-service examinations 

 before appointment. 



Most junior professional recruits are 

 men who pass the junior professional 

 examinations; they are first assigned 

 to positions as assistants to district 

 rangers in the national forests or to 

 subordinate lines of technical work. 

 The beginner thus supplements his 

 academic training by field experience 

 that should qualify him for advance- 

 ment to positions such as that of dis- 

 trict ranger, or to comparable positions 

 in research or cooperative work. 



In the early days, the forest ranger 

 seldom had a background of technical 

 training, nor did he carry the respon- 

 sibilities that a district ranger now does. 

 Such positions were often filled by men 

 who passed examinations based almost 

 solely on practical experience in woods- 

 manship and handling livestock. The 

 practice has been changed with the 

 times. 



The district forest ranger today is an 

 administrator of a quarter million 

 acres or more and is responsible for the 

 management of all the timber, range, 

 wildlife, water, and recreation re- 

 sources within his district. He needs 

 both technical training and practical 

 experience. 



One line of advancement may lead 

 the young forester or range conserva- 



tionist from the post of assistant ranger 

 to that of district ranger, then assistant 

 forest supervisor, from which he may 

 advance to a supervisor's position. Ad- 

 ditional promotions may eventually 

 take him to the regional forester's of- 

 fice, or even higher. 



Another line of progress in national 

 forest administration may be from 

 technical assistant in a forest ranger's 

 district to technician on the super- 

 visor's staff, followed by assignment as 

 technician for an entire region. Other 

 lines of promotion may be in the field 

 of research or in State and private co- 

 operation. Varying combinations of 

 these lines of promotion may be applied 

 in individual cases. 



Thorough technical education in ad- 

 vance of employment and wide train- 

 ing through work experience are now 

 considered prerequisite to success in 

 handling current activities and for ad- 

 vancement to the higher positions. 



Training through work experience 

 is provided in several ways. One calls 

 for assignments at various periods dur- 

 ing the career of the employee (espe- 

 cially the junior professional man) to 

 the many kinds of work in which he 

 needs to obtain additional technical 

 skills and acquire broader viewpoints. 

 The work is carried on as a part of 

 the man's day-to-day duties under the 

 supervision of technicians who are 

 aware of their responsibility for train- 

 ing their assistants. While all super- 

 visory officers receive instruction in the 

 correct methods of training others, 

 some of the district rangers are espe- 

 cially qualified in this respect; to them 

 are assigned the young men who show 

 promise of becoming rangers. 



Another method is group training at 

 special training camps and at other 

 central points, where groups of em- 

 ployees, younger men, or those new in 

 their jobs are given short periods of 

 special training in lines of work they 



