The Forest Assistant in the Forest Service 



Now, that many of you are about 

 through with College work, you are 

 at least wondering at the reception 

 you will be granted by the Forest 

 Service. 



Usually, the "Cub" does a lot of 

 hard thinking and worrying on that 

 interminable journey west, for most 

 of you will come west. "What am 

 I to do first, Will I be able to do 

 my work well, What is this work 

 going to be, And above all, will I 

 make it go?" As a result, he 

 reports to his Supervisor with much 

 of his confidence in himself gone, 

 and therefore has aggravated all 

 that he has been most afraid of. 

 Let me tell you one thing, If you 

 have completed the course at Ann 

 Arbor under Professors Roth, Mul- 

 ford, and Hill, and know what you 

 have studied, you need not worry 

 about the outcome. When you begin 

 your work in the Field, your foun- 

 dations have already been well laid 

 for a successful career, but your 

 preparations are of no avail, unless 

 you are, yourself, a Man. Be true 

 to yourself, forget that you have 

 a Degree, some of your associates 

 have not. Don't be afraid to ask 

 sensible questions, and do your 

 work as it should be done. Don't 

 get discouraeed because you are set 

 to work at something you don't 

 like, the be^t way is to do it, and 

 then you are through. The next 

 time, you will have better luck. 

 Enoueh of preaching. 



"What am I going to be up 

 against?'' You are going to be up 

 against a lot of intensive Forestry 

 work such as planting, sowing, 

 reconnaissance of all kinds, timber 

 sale marking, surveying, laying out 

 roads and trails, designing bridges, 

 and estimating: the cost of earth 

 work and rock work of all kinds. 

 You may have a nursery to tak- 

 care of, or you mav have to get 

 down your dusty old Botanies and 

 identify more grasses and plants 

 than you ever imagined could exist. 



Few of you, who are not already 

 in the Forest Service or in verv 

 close touch with it, can realize the 

 growth it has been making within 

 the last few years. A Forest 



Assistant in the old days was a 

 Forest Assistant as you understand 

 him. Now, he must be a Forest 

 Engineer, and you who are now in 

 school must prepare yourselves 

 accordingly. The days of rough hit 

 or miss reports on projects are over, 

 the Fo-est Service has outgrown 

 them. Are you prepared to be sent 

 into a new country with a crew of 

 men, and come back with a report 

 that includes everythhig from an 

 itemized cost of the Railroad to tne 

 location of Camp 8? The Service 

 has a right to expect this, and will 

 expect it. The Service is selling 

 timber, as well as raising it. When 

 a buyer comes along, he wants to 

 know what we have to sell, and 

 whether he can make a profit. Here- 

 tofore, we "Guessed" he could, and 

 we let him find out for himself 

 whether we guessed rightly or not. 

 Now, we want to know whether he 

 can or not, and we want our fig- 

 ures and maps in such clear, con- 

 cise and concrete forms, that he can 

 see at a glance that we know what 

 we are talking about. This means, 

 that the Forest Assistant, or rather 

 the Forest Engineer, is going to be 

 asked to have a more and more 

 thorough preparation in engineering. 

 It is a part and parcel of his pro- 

 fession. Professor Roth has told 

 you this long before. You also had 

 p few premonitions in this year's 

 Civil Service examinations. They 

 are signs of the times. It is up to 

 you to prepare yourself accordingly. 

 To me, the work of a Forest Assist- 

 ant is growing more and more 

 attractive as the years go by. We 

 are just finding ourselves ; and as 

 time goes on, we are rapidlv begin- 

 ning real Forest work; and instead 

 of a Forest Assistant being a Jack 

 of all trades, as he has freauentlv 

 been in the past, he is going to 

 become a Specialist. 



There is one important thing that 

 you who are now in school must 

 watch out for: Each year, the 

 number of Forest Schools is grow- 

 incr; each year, more and more men 

 will be graduated and apply for 

 positions. With this rapid increase 

 of output from the Forest Schools, 



