NATIONAL FOREST WORK 



The Report o! the Forester for 1910 



The annual report of the Forester to the 

 Secretary of Agriculture is a valuable 

 resumg of the work of the United States 

 Forest Service for the year and becomes a 

 most important document for reference. It 

 is growing in size each year and that for 

 the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, is 

 larger by nearly fifty per cent than its 

 predecessors for two years. The total ex- 

 penditures for the work of the service for 

 the year were $4,678,427.37. This expendi- 

 ture was divided as follows: 

 Administration and protec- 

 tion of the national forests. $3,752,316.91 

 Permanent improvements, na- 

 tional forests 598,835.64 



Co-operative and investiga- 

 tive work and making 



known results 327,274.82 



The expenditure for permanent improve- 

 ments was made from the special appro- 

 priation for that purpose of $600,000. 



Changes in national forest boundaries 

 during the year involved additions of 463,- 

 517 acres and eliminations of 2,037,645 

 acres. The area of the national forests 

 July 1, 1910, was 166,103,621 acres in the 

 United States, 26,761,626 in Alaska, and 

 65,950 in Porto Rico, making a grand total 

 of 192,931,197. As has already been stated 

 in these pages, the eliminations will ulti- 

 mately amount to about 6,250,000 acres and 

 the additions to about 3,000,000 acres. 



The matter of claims and settlements is 

 discussed quite fully in the report and it 

 is very clearly shown that everything is 

 being done by the service to promote legi- 

 timate settlement and the best use of the 

 lands in and about the forests. The sum 

 expended for administration and protec- 

 tion of the forests amounted in 1910 to 

 .01894 cents as against .01510 in 1909. For 

 permanent improvements, .00310 cents in 

 1910 against .00309 in 1909. The per acre 

 expenditures are computed on the basis 

 of the gross area of all national forests 

 under administration at the close of the 

 year, since private holdings within the 

 exterior boundaries of the forests do not 

 appreciably lower the cost of administra- 

 tion and protection. An interesting pas- 

 sage in the report is that dealing with the 

 new regulations for the development of 

 hydro-electric power. The report com- 

 pares the form of the old permit and the 

 new. Under the old the government 

 charged for the occupancy of its land by a 

 power company an annual sum computed 

 on the basis of the actual output of energy 

 with a deduction for water used by the 

 company from artificial storage supplies 

 which the company may have created. De- 

 ductions were also allowed in proportion 



to the part of the total drainage basin not 

 contained within national forests, and for 

 various other specified reasons. Deter- 

 mination of the amount to be collected, 

 therefore, involved constant measurements, 

 both of the actual output of power and of 

 the water flow from storage reservoirs, 

 where these had been constructed. This 

 meant both much trouble to the govern- 

 ment to find out what to charge and fertile 

 grounds of dissatisfaction and dispute. 

 Further, the old form of agreement did not 

 seem to provide sufficient safe-guards 

 against the speculative holding of sites 

 without prompt development of the power. 

 The new rate will be based, primarily, 

 on the value of the land occupied for pow- 

 er purposes, as measured by its capacity 

 for the development of power, with a de- 

 duction for distance from market and for 

 portions of the land to be occupied which 

 do not belong to the government. A fixed 

 rate of $1 per net electrical horsepower per 

 year is the full charge. This rate is equi- 

 valent to one sixty-sixth of a cent per 

 kilowatt-hour, which is about one-thou- 

 sandth of the rate at which power is gen- 

 erally supplied for lighting purposes and 

 about one two-hundredths of the average 

 charge for all purposes. It is therefore so 

 light that it could under no circumstances 

 constitute an obstacle to development. 

 Compared with the fixed charges which 

 represent the cost of construction of a 

 power plant, the charge made by the gov- 

 ernment would not amount to more than 

 one-half of one per cent of these charges. 



In imposing this charge it is recognized, 

 on the one hand, that there will be a non- 

 productive period followed by a partially 

 productive period before the company oc- 

 cupying the land will be in position to 

 profit by the full power capacity of the 

 site, and, on the other hand, that dilatori- 

 ness in pressing forward development 

 may be encountered if collection of the 

 charge does not begin until after the plant 

 is in operation, for water rights may be 

 acquired rather with a view to preventing 

 them from falling into the hands of some 

 one else than with a view to putting them 

 to immediate use. Therefore, from the 

 time the permit is granted, the permittee 

 must pay the charge annually. But up to 

 the tenth year, when complete develop- 

 ment should have been secured, the rate 

 is a reduced one. and amounts paid during 

 the nonproductive period are credited 

 against the rentals which will be due dur- 

 ing the period of partial production. Hence 

 permittees do not eventually pay for oc- 

 cupancy of the land during the period 

 when the power must continue to run to 

 waste, but they are compelled to make an- 



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