20 



by two authorities, and hence, if a Chief Conservator is appointed the working 

 plan should be submitted to him for further examination. Failing the 

 creation of such an appointment, it is advisable that a second professional 

 opinion should in any case be obtained. The working plan should finally be 

 forwarded to Government for formal sanction. 



Any deviations from the provisions of a sanctioned working plan should 

 receive the sanction of Government, subject to the delegation of this power 

 to the Conservator or Chief Conservator in cases which do not involve an 

 alteration in the general scheme of management. 



It is advisable that working plans should be printed and copies supplied 

 to all forest officers in the Colony. Failing this at least three copies should 

 be prepared, one each to be deposited in the Secretariat (or Chief Con- 

 servator's office) and the offices of the Conservator and Divisional Forest 

 Officer. 



Extra copies should also be supplied to Foresters to whose districts the 

 provisions of a working plan apply. 



In order to ensure that the provisions of a working plan are being 

 correctly followed, the Divisional Forest Officer should submit each year to the 

 Conservator control forms, prepared separately for each working circle, in 

 which the results of operations for the previous year under each head of 

 work are compared with the prescriptions of the working plan, any dis- 

 crepancies being explained and sanction to deviations recorded. The control 

 forms should be checked by the Conservator, and if a Chief Conservator is 

 appointed they should then be submitted to him for final check. 



It is not proposed to encumber this report with details as to the form of 

 the working plan report and control forms : these Will be available when 

 required. 



11. SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT. 



20. DISADVANTAGES OF EXISTING SELECTION FELLINGS. The forests of 

 Kenya Colony have hitherto been worked under a rough-and-ready form of 

 selection fellings, trees often widely scattered over an area being marked for 

 felling if considered exploitable. No attempt has been made to fix the yield 

 in any way, and the consequence has been that in not a few cases the forests 

 have been heavily overworked and depleted of marketable timber without any 

 compensation in the way of regeneration. It is only fair to add that this 

 rough-and-ready method of working is often the only one applicable as a 

 temporary measure to extensiveHracts of mixed irregular forest, such as 

 those of Kenya Colony, until a more rational system of management can be 

 introduced. The time has now come, however, when this form of felling 

 should be discarded wherever possible in favour of felling of a more concen- 

 trated kind. 



Selection fellings under conditions prevailing in East Africa have certain 

 grave disadvantages. In the first place there is great danger of the forest 

 being overworked and of future supplies diminishing. In the second place 

 there is no guarantee that trees removed will be replaced by regeneration; 

 indeed, in the case of the cedar forests the gradual extermination of the cedar 

 over considerable areas will be only a matter of time, since there is, in too 

 many instances, little or no response in the way of natural regeneration as a 

 result of the selection fellings carried out hitherto. In the third place, 

 selection fellings add greatly to the difficulty and cost of working, since 

 scattered trees have to be felled and extracted over a wide area. More con- 

 centrated fellings would reduce the cost of working considerably, and would 

 in certain cases justify the construction of roads or other export lines which 



